Hannah DeerShe Melts the Snow
I meet so many wonderful people, people with stories that are as unique and beautiful as they are. Here’s the deal, folks: stop and talk with others, say hello, engage in conversation, offer a friendly, encouraging smile. Stop what you’re doing and take the time to get to know others. “Too busy” is not a valid reason; you could be missing out on one of the many treasures life has to offer.
Take a good look at her pictures. Her name is Hannah Deer. She was perched on the seat of her purple wagon, reticent yet unafraid, svelte and posh in her designer clothes, a slight smile parting her lips as she spoke. She held the lines of her horses; a pair of one-ton Percheron geldings, steadying them with one hand in a calming tug of the lines that was imperceptible to the casual observer, but a move her horses drew reassuring command from. “Yes,” she smiled, nodding, when I asked if she was full native. Indeed, she’s full-blooded Mohawk, and suddenly I’m able to connect the dots when reading her wagon’s lettering: HD Rapids Percherons, Kahnawake Mohawk Territory. It dawns on me that Rapids is drawn from the Kahnawake which, in Iroquois means “on the rapids.” Clever girl.
Between competitions, we snap some pictures of Hannah with her favorite horse, George; a monstrous black gelding with a big heart and a sweet nature. And there against the live oak draped with curtains of moss, I lens her beautiful face, appreciating that I have been blessed with an incredible portal to the past. I see more than the young indigenous woman poised gracefully before me; I see a piece of history, like a snapshot from a time forgotten, a time many have never known of. Her obvious native features murmur of her heritage; in her dark eyes I see a memoir that whispers of strength, of familial bonds, of a complex people we know so little about and whose past intrigues me with a persistence that demands that I observe and learn. She shares the tattoo on her left thigh; an amalgam of a deer and wolf. “The deer is for my last name, and the wolf is my clan.”
Hannah Deer shares with me something incredibly special: her Mohawk name is Kanietanawéntha. It means, She Melts the Snow. Indeed, some stories are too wonderful not to share. Enjoy.
Hannah DeerReady for the show ring
