Mohawk lunch pail

From: Québec, Canada
Date: around AD 1983

When skyscrapers started to be built in the early 20th century, many Mohawk Native North Americans took jobs in the building industry. Their skills made them specially good at high steel work for skyscrapers. Early European explorers had noticed how easily Mohawks could walk on high places such as roof tops.

This artwork has been made by a modern Mohawk builder called Rick Glaser Danay. It is a lunch-box of the type used by earlier Mohawk skyscraper workers. In it is a bottle of beer of the kind they would drink, and a model of the Statue of Liberty to show how modern North America believes in freedom. It was made to show how much life for the Mohawk people has changed since European people arrived in North America 400 years ago.