Nerves of Steel

When Native American ironworkers from the Mohawk tribe climbed to the top of the pile of World Trade Center rubble and cut through webs of mangled steel, allowing rescue and debris removal teams to do their jobs, they were dismantling the very towers that members of their tribe had helped construct.

Mohawk men helped build much of the New York City skyline, including the Empire State and United Nations buildings, Rockefeller Center and the George Washington Bridge. For more than 100 years, Mohawks have plied their skill and bravery in the "high-steel" trade, traversing steel beams hundreds of feet above the ground and often spending months far from their homes and families. Many did not survive. "Booming Out: Mohawk Ironworkers Build New York," a new photography exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, pays tribute to the Mohawks who risked their lives to erect New York landmarks. The exhibition focuses on Mohawk workers from two Native communities: Akwesasne, which straddles Ontario, Quebec and New York State, and Kahnawake, near Montreal. The 67 photographs show the range of projects on which Mohawks have worked. In one shot from around 1960 (below, left), Joe Regis (Mohawk, Kahnawake) and an unidentified ironworker hang onto a beam as they erect the Chase Manhattan Bank Building; a 1971 photo (left) shows Alex Mayo (Mohawk, Kahnawake) balancing on a column at a site on Second Avenue between 47th and 48th streets. And below, Ken McComber (Mohawk, Kahnawake) and Marvin Davis (Six Nations) "topping out" the Bear Stearns Building in New York City in 2000. "Booming Out" continues at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, One Bowling Green, through Oct. 15., 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Thursday to 8 p.m. Admission free.