Mohawk teacher Ray Fadden-Tehanetorens opposed hunting & trapping

Ray Fadden circa 1958 with his pet porcupine Needles. “Dad had the knack of picking up Needles,” recalled John Fadden. “One evening when the light wasn’t good, Dad picked up a wild porcupine by mistake. Dad wondered why he put up such a fuss. Dad even put him in his huge chicken wire-covered teepee cage. Later, the real Needles roamed home, and Dad realized his mistake. Needless to say, Dad let the other porcupine free, and he hurried away as fast as he could, which wasn’t too fast, as you know. When he was young, Dad had an un-descented skunk too,” John Fadden added. “The skunk lived in his camp/shack in back of the house, he told me.”

Though ANIMALS 24-7 friend Ray Fadden died nearly 15 years ago, we often remember him.

This is his story.

Ray Fadden-Tehanetorens, 98, died on November 14, 2008 at the Iakhihsotha nursing home in Akwesasne, the Mohawk nation located on either side of the U.S. and Canadian border near Massena, New York, and St. Regis, Ontario.

Born in a farmhouse five miles east of Onchiota, New York, Fadden met his wife Christine Chubb while teaching elementary school at the Tuscarora Reservation, near Niagara Falls. Married in 1935, they remained together for 73 years.

Christine Chubb died at the Iakhihsotha nursing home on April 16, 2014,

Around the same time that Fadden met her, he also met and began helping Clinton Rickard, founder of the Indian Defense League of America.

Moving to the St. Regis Mohawk School in Hogansburg, New York, Fadden taught science to generations of young Mohawks by emphasizing outdoor nature study.

Christine Chubb, left, and Ray Fadden, right, at wedding in 1935 and at 70th anniversary in 2005.

“Only feeding the birds at 200 places instead of 300”

Not harming or disturbing animals was central to his teaching.

“He loved animals and passed that tradition on to my sons, myself, and many, many others. He also was a strong advocate for First Nations People, and we continue to carry on his work at the museum he created,” emailed his son, artist John Fadden-Kahiones.

At 90, recalled songwriter Roy Hurd, Fadden admitted, “I’m slowing down. I’m only feeding the birds at 200 places in the woods instead of 300.”

Recalled Plattsburgh Press Republican staff writer Robin Caudell, “In the early 1940s, Fadden created the Akwesasne Mohawk Counselor Organization, designed to educate Mohawk children about Native history, woodcraft, and Mohawk tradition, and to develop a positive self-image. As appropriate educational materials were not available, Fadden published 27 relevant pamphlets and 40 charts himself, many of them still in print in editions produced by other publishers.”

Ray Fadden is at top right.

“Without Tehanetorens…”

Fadden founded the Six Nations Indian Museum near Onchiota in 1954.

Fadden taught seventh grade science at Saranac Central School from 1957 to 1967, operating the museum each summer, then retired to focus on teaching museum visitors.

Wrote Doug George-Kanentiio, “Without Tehanetorens there would not have been a White Roots of Peace, an Akwesasne Notes, CKON Radio, Indian Time, Freedom School, or Mohawk Nation Council of Chiefs. There would be no land claims. The Mohawk Council of Akwesasne would still be the St. Regis Band Council.

“Akwesasne as a place of power would not be. We would still be calling ourselves the St. Regis Indians. The new scholarship which is finally seeing us as we were, and are, would not have taken root. He inspired students from everywhere. ”

But a fiercely expressed central part of his message was less amplified.

Ray Fadden & friend.

“Folks out there didn’t really hear the animal part”

“Folks out there always heard his message about First Nations people,” affirmed John Fadden, “but didn’t really hear the animal part. He undeniably was an advocate for animals, trees, waters, sky, clouds, rocks––all of it. Animals and birds were his first love since he was a child.

“He learned that traditionally among most Native Nations there was a respect for nature, i.e., birds, plants, four-leggeds, etc., and that’s what directed him toward that history and culture.”

Fadden taught that harming animals in any way for fun or profit is profane. Mohawk participation in commercial fur trapping was the sin that destroyed the Six Nations, along with their wildlife family, Fadden believed.

Beth & Merritt Clifton.

A lifelong opponent of sport hunting and trapping, who for decades fed bears at remote locations to keep them from being shot for seeking food in proximity to humans, Fadden emphasized that it is today moral opposition to sport and commercial hunting, trapping, whaling, and sealing––often rationalized by association with traditional Native American practice––that most honors Native American religious belief.

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Merritt Clifton says

October 26, 2023 at 10:49 pm

Neither Ray Fadden-Tehanetorens, his late son John Kahiones Fadden, nor anyone else familiar with the realities of hunting, fishing, trapping, and other animal use and abuse on First Nations/Native American reservations would argue that “most First Nations people have a respect for nature, which includes animals.” What Ray and John did argue was that First Nations/Native American people cognizant of their own cultural and spiritual teachings should have “a respect for nature, which includes animals.”

It would also be a mistake to equate the cultural and spiritual teachings of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy, of which Ray and John were elders and respected teachers, with those of all First Nations/Native Americans, whose historical linguistic, religious, and linguistic diversity was at least as great as that of Europe.

This was another point that Ray often forcefully made: he did not pretend to speak for the many First Nations/Native American cultures in other parts of the Americas of which he had relatively little first-hand knowledge. Ray spoke for Mohawk teachings, and the teachings of the neighboring Abenaki to some extent, and would then say, “This is what I understand of the teachings of” whomever else might come up in conversation.

The conundrum of First Nations/Native American people not observing their own teachings about animals, which frustrated Ray and John throughout their lives, is the same that continually frustrates Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, and Buddhist animal advocates: most people, most of the time, tend to mostly ignore the strongly pro-animal teachings of St. Francis of Assisi, the Seventh Day Adventist prophet Ellen White, Moses, Mohammed, Mohandas Gandhi, and the Buddha, et al.

Comments

Jamaka Petzak says
October 26, 2023 at 3:33 pm
RIP Tehanetorens, a wise and great teacher. We need MANY more like him as these central teachings of Indigenous history and culture have been forgotten by so many, or never learned at all. Though many facts and aspects of family history have been lost, the respect for and protection of our fellow living beings was Life Lesson No. 1 for me.
Sharing with gratitude.
Lindsay says
October 26, 2023 at 7:01 pm
Thank you for highlighting the role of Native American voices in speaking up for animals. I suppose it’s the influence of pop culture and entertainment that the first thing many people picture when they think of Native American life is a man on a horse chasing down a bison. Never mind that this imagery never would have been a part of many indigenous communities, or that crop farming and gathering was also a major part of life for many Native American nations.
Sadly, Native history is often invoked to justify sport/recreational hunting and trapping, and even consuming the products of factory farmed animals. This is frequently done by individuals who have zero interest in learning about or supporting Native American causes or history in any other fashion. I know I’m not the only person reading this who has witnessed a very white individual haughtily defending their choice to eat industrially-farmed meat by proclaiming that they “give thanks to the animal, like the Native Americans did!”
- Merritt Clifton says
  October 26, 2023 at 7:29 pm
  Ray Fadden-Tehanetores was very personally proud of the Mohawk contribution to agriculture, in which his family had personally participated for many generations, and could (and did) lecture by the hour about how the Haudenosaunee had developed many agricultural techniques that were quickly adopted by European settlers, but had been unknown where they came from. He pointed out that while the Haudenosaunee had hunted for about 10% of their diet, especially in winter, they were primarily farmers, who stored corn and various other crops for winter use.
Annoula Wylderich says
October 26, 2023 at 9:36 pm
It is interesting to read that most First Nations people have a respect for nature, which includes animals, as that is what I have always understood about their cultures. So, it was a shock to learn about the rampant abuse, cruelty and neglect of the pack animals on the Havasupai Reservation. They are used to carry packs and overweight tourists up and down a treacherous trail to the Falls below. This issue has been ongoing for years, yet never addressed by their tribal council or the BIA branch that oversees their area. It has gotten so bad, that eye witnesses (tourists) and previous animal control officers trying to do their jobs have all been threatened and intimidated. One has to wonder just how much this particular tribe reveres their culture and history in light of the egregious cruelty. The local activists trying to bring about a resolution is the SAVE Havasupai Horses group. We’ve all tried getting the story out among the national mainstream media outlets, to no avail. It’s the horror behind the “Paradise.”
- Merritt Clifton says
  October 26, 2023 at 10:49 pm
  Neither Ray Fadden-Tehanetorens, his late son John Kahiones Fadden, nor anyone else familiar with the realities of hunting, fishing, trapping, and other animal use and abuse on First Nations/Native American reservations would argue that “most First Nations people have a respect for nature, which includes animals.” What Ray and John did argue was that First Nations/Native American people cognizant of their own cultural and spiritual teachings should have “a respect for nature, which includes animals.”
  It would also be a mistake to equate the cultural and spiritual teachings of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy, of which Ray and John were elders and respected teachers, with those of all First Nations/Native Americans, whose historical linguistic, religious, and linguistic diversity was at least as great as that of Europe.
  This was another point that Ray often forcefully made: he did not pretend to speak for the many First Nations/Native American cultures in other parts of the Americas of which he had relatively little first-hand knowledge. Ray spoke for Mohawk teachings, and the teachings of the neighboring Abenaki to some extent, and would then say, “This is what I understand of the teachings of” whomever else might come up in conversation.
  The conundrum of First Nations/Native American people not observing their own teachings about animals, which frustrated Ray and John throughout their lives, is the same that continually frustrates Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, and Buddhist animal advocates: most people, most of the time, tend to mostly ignore the strongly pro-animal teachings of St. Francis of Assisi, the Seventh Day Adventist prophet Ellen White, Moses, Mohammed, Mohandas Gandhi, and the Buddha, et al.