AKWESASNE -- A settlement between the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe and Alcoa, Reynolds and New York state for industrial pollution will fund three Akwesasne cultural projects through the end of next year.

The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe is using Natural Resource Damage Assessment Settlement monies to help fund the Akwesasne Freedom School’s Language Nest, Akwesasne Cultural Center and the Akwesasne Task Force on the Environment.

The three community groups will promote Mohawk language and traditional cultural teachings.

The Akwesasne Task Force on the Environment will implement community workshops for maple teachings, sap collection, seed sharing, Haudenosaunee seed collection, starter plants, black ash tree workshops, basketmaking, fruit trees, orchard maintenance, apple workshops and Mohawk language curriculum development.

The Akwesasne Freedom School Language Nest will continue providing immersion daycare services that provide “a safe, healthy, family-oriented place” that fosters Mohawk language and cultural education, the tribe said. They will provide children with Mohawk culture and values through activities, healthy eating, consistent routines, storytelling, singing, and interaction with other AFS students and elders.

The Akwesasne Cultural Center will implement a project to support Mohawk language and transmission of language to future generations through signage, brochures, and technology throughout Akwesasne. Signage will be used to educate the community and increase shared Mohawk vocabulary about businesses, rivers, medicinal plants, trails, traditional foods, and many other local places of interest.

“I’m excited to see the results of this signage project! Niawenko:wa to ACR for the funding to put Kanien’kéha Owenna’shón:ah across the community!” Akwesasne Cultural Center – Museum Program Coordinator Sue Herne said in a news release from the tribe.

The funds come from a $19.4 million settlement New York state and the tribe reached in 2013 with Alcoa and Reynolds for damages to natural resources and culture practices due to the release of industrial pollutants into the environment. Combined with $1.8 million in restoration funds from a 2011 General Motors bankruptcy settlement, the two settlements provided $20.3 million toward environmental and cultural restoration, with $8.4 million to strengthen cultural practices through the ACR Program.

The three community groups will join three institutions previously awarded four years of NRDA funding in 2013, which includes Thompson Island Youth Camp, Healthy Heart Raised Bed Garden Project, and Kana’stiohareke Mohawk Community. All six projects are funded through the end of 2018.

“The overall goal of the ACR Program has been seeking opportunities to promote the restoration of cultural practices within the Akwesasne community, including the preservation of the Mohawk language and basketmaking,” ACR Program Manager Barbara Tarbell said in a prepared statement from the tribe. “The incorporation of Mohawk language is an overarching priority identified by the community and is applied to everything we do. I am pleased the three community groups awarded funding make language and cultural education a vital part of their work.”

“I am pleased that deserving groups within our community have been awarded funding to help their efforts to restore and strengthen the Mohawk language and our cultural connection with the environment,” Tribal Chief Eric Thompson said in a prepared statement. “Our language is intrinsically linked to the traditional teachings associated with many of our natural resources.”