About us

Tewatohnhi’saktha

“Collectively finding ways to support ourselves by maintaining a continuity of life for our families”

“The place we go to provide for ourselves”

(The Kanien’kéha language is a very descriptive one.  There are various ways in which to interpret the meaning of a word.  For Tewatohnhi’saktha we provide two variations of the translation both providing the same meaning of the mission of the organization.)

Tewatohnhi’saktha (Kahnawà:ke Economic Development Commission or KEDC) was established in 1999 by legislation of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke. It has been established to create jobs, wealth, and self-sufficiency for the Mohawks of Kahnawà:ke. 

The Tewatohnhi’saktha team work to help our community  reach its economic potential by concentrating on existing and new resources, both human and financial. 

Autonomous Entity

Tewatohnhi’saktha operates as an autonomous entity from the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke, operating as a cooperative legal structure with seven voting members acting as the Board of Directors. Kahnawà:ke Economic Development Commission, however, remains accountable to the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke and the community for its actions and results.

Our Vision

Our vision is a self sufficient community that fosters  quality of life for Kanien’kehaka ne Kahnawa’kehro:non (Mohawks of Kahnawà:ke) and creates collective prosperity for future generations consistent with our cultural values

Our Mission

Tewatohnhi’saktha exists to stimulate and enhance Kahnawà:ke’s Economic Growth by investing in people and businesses, as well as other economic opportunities.

The following divisions of Tewatohnhi’saktha support our mission:

• Revenue Generation
• Tewatohnhi’saktha Consulting
• Business Services
• Employment and Training
• Organizational Services

Core Values

Values reflect who we are and what we continuously strive to become. At Tewatohnhi’saktha, we strive to be:

1. Results Oriented

Being results oriented is a core element of the Tewatohnhi’saktha culture that supports our reason for being and provides credible, recognizable, and significant evidence to all our stakeholders and ourselves.

Results Oriented means:

• Ensuring our daily, weekly, and monthly actions are planned towards meeting pre-determined goals and objectives, and which are flexible to changing demands and new priorities.
• Setting key measures of success for short, medium and long term goals and objectives while ensuring alignment with the vision and mission.
• Creating strategies that are well thought out, supportive and effective to achieving the desired ends.
• Investing and deploying the required resources to ensure success.
• Continuously striving to produce excellent results.
• Regularly evaluating progress, acknowledging our mistakes, and learning from them so we can do better next time.

2. Accountable, Open and Honest

Accountability is taking responsibility for doing what we said we would do in order to progress towards our goals while holding ourselves responsible for our progress. Being accountable is vital to establish credibility, gain support, and build trust for future projects and initiatives. Being open and honest involves sharing key information with our community and stakeholders regarding our projects, initiatives, and activities. Being open and honest is the foundation for building trust in all our relationships..

Accountability means:

• Taking responsibility for achieving results – doing what we said we would do.
• Living up to our responsibilities, meeting our obligations, fulfilling our agreements.
• Tracking, measuring and reporting our results to our stakeholders.

Open and honest means:

• Communicating with our stakeholders in an accurate and timely manner.
• Confirming that receiver understands our message.
• Admitting when you don’t know or don’t understand and taking the time to seek out information when necessary.

3. Progressive and Innovative

We strive to meet the needs of our community in an ever increasing and complex business environment by being innovative and progressive in our thinking in designing and delivering services/products to our external and internal customers.

Progressive and innovative means:

• Developing products, services and processes that go beyond the accepted standards in our community and our organization.
• Encouraging a climate that is open and supportive of suggestions and trying out new approaches and ideas.
• Challenging ourselves to achieve higher levels of productivity by being innovative.
• Encouraging all Tewatohnhi’saktha team members to take an active role in being progressive and innovative.
• A team that is admired for being innovative and progressive.

4. Professional and Customer Focused

We strive to provide to a high standard of professionalism by delivering products and services in a way that is courteous, respectful, competent, and sensitive to our clients. Tewatohnhi’saktha exists to build a prosperous and self-sufficient community. On a daily basis we strive to develop the economic base of our community by providing excellent customer services/products. Customers are community members who rely on us for service delivery, while our Board members and fellow employees rely on us for services to achieve our mission and strategic priorities.

Professionalism and Customer Service means:

• Providing every customer with high quality, efficient service that is delivered respectfully.
• Creating positive customer experiences in all our interactions.
• Meeting and exceeding customer expectations.
• Seeking continual feedback by listening and learning from our customers in order to improve our services.
• Encouraging a culture of excellence in serving customers.
• Being role models in customer service excellence.
• Doing our best every time.
• Taking pride in what we do.
• Treating others as we would want to be treated, and as they want to be treated.
• Being aware of the image that we project.
• Conducting ourselves with integrity and honour.
• Being competent and knowledgeable.

5. Employee Focused and Team Oriented

We value our employees by ensuring they are satisfied in their work, well trained to do their job, and properly equipped to work at their very best. Satisfied, positive employees encourage others of the same caliber to join our team. Teamwork is the realization that success depends on the whole team working together—not just one person. Teamwork requires working both formally and informally with coworkers. This is done in a supportive and collaborative environment that contributes to and reinforces a positive work environment.

 Employee Satisfaction means:

• Providing a work environment that encourages all employees to perform at their highest ability.
• Being responsive to the needs of and caring for employees.
• Sharing responsibility for creating a positive, productive work environment.
• Being supportive (of each other) and working together as a team.
• Having and utilizing opportunities for growth and development.
• Providing timely appreciation and fair compensation and benefits for employee contributions.

Team focused means:

• Being aware of and supportive of co-workers’ work activities.
• Working outside one’s individual work plan and objectives.
• Respecting the ideas and input of others.
• Supporting the decisions of other co-workers.
• Participating in cross-functional planning.
• Working in cross-functional teams to achieve results.
• Giving appreciation to team members for accomplishments and efforts.