I am interested in finding information about the Native American Ironworkers who helped build the NYC skyscrapers. HOw did they get invovled in this trade? Why are they so good at working at high altitudes? Is there one particular tribe that does the ironwork? Are there any books about these ironworkers? Any help with this would be appreciated

• ID# 83.2 (reply to #83.1) - 26 Nov 1998
  I unfortunately have personally quite little info on that.
  The sources state the Indians at the skyscraper construction sites as Mohawk or Iroquis, depending on source -- probably individuals from both tribes were involved. They were used due to their natural lack of fear of heights, thus making them perfect for the hair-rising work of frame construction high above the ground.
  What comes to their involvement in the first place, I guess one factor, along with their abilities, may have been (in the light of the "tradition" of corporate exploitation) the "need" to pay less to such ethnic minorities for such a high-risk work... ED
  • ID# 83.3 (reply to #83.2)
    - 11 Sept 2002

    The Mohawk Nation is a member of the Iroquois League.

• ID# 83.4 (reply to #83.1)
  From: Donald Friedman - 5 October 2002

  Public knowledge of Native American ironworkers got a huge boost from Joseph Mitchell's article "Mohawks in High Steel", published in The New Yorker in the 1940s. If you trace conversations on this topic, you'll be amazed how many start with quotes from Mitchell.
  The fact is that there has never been any evidence that one group of people is inherently better at one form of work than any other group. The Mohawks, for example, have been (monetarily) poor for a long time and look at the high-paying steel jobs as desirable. I remember seeing a documentary about life on the large Mohawk reservation in Quebec and the kids, instead of playing on swings or a jungle-gym, were climbing large pieces of structural steel set into the ground. In other words, regardless of how the Mohawk/steel connection got started, it has continued on the strength of family tradition and economics. Many construction jobs are "passed on" father to son within each trade, not just these particular families and steel.