A photo exhibit in New York City celebrates the role of Mohawk ironworks in the aftermath of 9/11 – some of them Montrealers.

Mohawks from Kahnawake have a long history as ironworkers, helping to build many of Montreal’s bridges and working on landmark projects in the United States.

When the Twin Towers were attacked on September 11, 2001, Lindsay Le Borgne – a band council member in Kahnawake – knew he had to go and help. 

“I felt I had to do something, I couldn’t just sit at home and watch,” he said. 

For years, Le Borgne worked as an ironworker, like his father and grandfather before him. 

For days after 9/11, he was one of more than 100 ironworkers from Akwesasne and Kahnawake who went to Ground Zero to dismantle the wrecked buildings. 

“We were there cutting the steel that was sticking out –because you know when it fell it was like javelins going into the earth, into the street,” Le Borgne explained. “We could cut it so that the wrecking trucks could pick it up and put it on and dispose of it, you know? That’s what we did.”

Their work is now the subject of a major exhibit at the 9/11 memorial centre in New York City – on display, thirty portraits of thirty Mohawk ironworkers, including Le Borgne.

Photographer Melissa Cacciola specializes in tintype photography, a medium she felt was particularly appropriate. 

“The Mohawk ironworkers work directly with metal, and tintype is a process on metal,” she said. 

Cacciola wanted to celebrate the Mohawks’ long history at the World Trade Centre site. 

“They’ve been such a positive part of the story of hope and light, of bringing that strength to New York,” Cacciola added. 

Le Borgne and his colleagues saw many disturbing scenes at Ground Zero, including a man’s corpse. 

As they cut up the steel ruins, the heat was still rising.

“It was still burning, like underneath, because you could see, you know, when you see the waves of heat coming up,” Leborgne said. “I’m telling you, it was like a disassociation. Like, this can’t be real.”

They stayed for five days at the start of an epic clean-up that took nearly a year.

Le Borgne came back to Kahnawake and, like many rescuers, he got sick from breathing the air at Ground Zero, and to this day, he still requires regular checkups – a vivid reminder of his role cleaning up one of history’s worst attacks.

“I never smelled anything like it before, and I never smelled anything like that after,” he added.