Complete at last: the Mohawk Bible

The Bible can now be read in the Mohawk language, thanks to 24 years of hard of work that realised a lifelong dream for Harvey Satewas Gabriel. ‘When I do something, I don’t give up easy,’ said Harvey, who is now 83. 

A Mohawk Gospel of John was the first Scripture translation Bible Society published, in its founding year of 1804. Two hundred and nineteen years later, the complete Mohawk Bible has been published by the Bible Society of Canada. Three of our Bible Society staff had the privilege of attending a launch event in Caledonia, Ontario, sharing an amazing moment for the Mohawk people.

‘When I went to church when I was a boy with my mother,’ said Harvey, ‘I’d listen to a white man at the pulpit speaking a foreign language. I said to my mother, “How come we don’t have our own Bible?” She said, “That would be a big project. And who’s going to translate it?”’

As an indigenous Canadian language, Mohawk has been marginalised. Harvey’s mother, Gladys, attended a residential school that forbade the use of Mohawk. But she refused to forget it, and Mohawk was the language she raised her children with.

Harvey first heard Mohawk spoken in church at the age of 17, when a minister would translate passages as he preached. Harvey went on to do the same. Eventually he joined a translation team that set out to complete the Mohawk Bible. Following Bible Society’s Mohawk John’s Gospel of 1804, more scriptures had been published – including the Gospels, which were translated by Harvey’s great-grandfather – but there was lots more to do.

The team were supported by Canadian Bible Society and various churches, and they translated 2 Corinthians, Esther, Ruth and Proverbs. Then they disbanded. But Harvey kept going. In 2005 he retired and was able to work full time on the project. To the team’s four books, and to his grandfather’s four gospels, he added the remaining 58 books of the Bible.

So it was Harvey who unveiled the first Mohawk Bible at a dedication service in Kanesatake United Church. He said: ‘It’s not my word. It’s not about me. It’s about him.’

You can support a hard-working translator like Harvey today. With your help, people belonging to one of China’s indigenous communities will soon, like the Mohawk, have a Bible of their own.