Written Interview with Mohawk Science Fiction Writer Cathy Smith

An author in Canada gives a unique perspective

Talking Non-American Science Fiction

Science fiction has long been a tool for cultures to envision how they would evolve and examine and comment upon contemporary issues. As I consumed more science fiction in various forms of media and met other authors, I began to appreciate the differences and similarities of foreign science fiction.

Motivated to learn more, I am contacting non-American scifi creators to get their comparisons of science fiction from around the world. If you are interested in being interviewed or know someone who would be, please comment below!

See previous interviews with creators from Canada, England, Nigeria, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa, and Ukraine.

Cathy Smith

Cathy Smith is a Mohawk writer who lives on a Status Reservation on the Canadian Side of the Border on Turtle Island (North America).

She is a Mohawk writer which is why she’s chosen “Khiatons” as her motto. It means “I am a writer” or “I write” in Mohawk. She writes soft scifi, fantasy and the occasional non-fiction piece.

She writes soft scifi and reads classic scifi. So far “first contact” is the theme that resonates the most with her. Either there is an arrogance in the name of science that is triggering to her given her heritage. Or else there is a ridiculous amount of timidity about reaching out to the “other.”

Her love of myths and legends makes her a fan of modern fantastic literature that acts as modern myth. Though she thinks it’s best for today’s writers to be aware of pop culture not a slave to it. She hates to see the richness of myths reduced to an over-simplified soundbite.

She has seen people give opinions when they’re less informed than she is. Sometimes in a display of ignorance or of inspiring confidence. This has encouraged her to reach out with opinion writing. Though she makes sure she gives a list of the sources she cites.

Her goal is to contribute to the discussion in whatever genre she writes in.

Her Substack is below and her Wordpress sites links to many of the books she has written.

So, before we start, you have a unique identity compared to the standard nationalities that I have interviewed before. How do you identify in terms of First Nations, First Peoples, Native American, American Indian, or some other term?

I don’t mind First Nations. We prefer to call ourselves Haudenosaunee, settlers called us Iroquois. My people were a group of First Nations that formed a Confederacy in the Eastern Woodlands. My particular First Nation is Mohawk, we call ourself Kayen’kaha.

Tell us about your science fiction works.
I am interested in the niche genre of Indigenous Futurism, if only because I don’t want to be told I can only write historical fiction if I write about my people. So far I concentrate on genre fiction with some indigenous characters in the narrative and perform the indigenous futurism experiments as short stories.

What makes your science fiction works unique?

I like writing Indigenous characters in mainstream genre fiction to prove we do have something to contribute to a futuristic story and aren’t just throwbacks. We are capable of adapting and my people have an ideal of thinking 7 generations ahead and not just of the immediate situation which is something mainstream society can learn from us.

Science fiction creators have had difficulty thinking about First Nations cultures in the future. Star Trek the Motion Picture depicted a Starfleet officer in a combination of traditional garb and uniform, and the Star Trek The Next Generation’s episode Journey’s End had First Nations settlers living primitively, while the story was a rehash of the exiling of First Nations in the 1800s. Why do you think First Nations depictions in science fiction are limited? What’s the difficulty of showing the culture changing like science fiction does with other cultures?

I don’t mind when mainstream writers write of indigenous people in scifi rather than assuming we’ll go extinct like the Victorians did. However, it may be best to look for examples of published Indigenous futurism from Indigenous authors for an example of how it would work as well as research our historical and modern cultures.”

As things once thought of as science fiction become reality, how do you see First Nations culture adapting, and what can everyone learn from First Nations as we move forward together?

First Nations traditional knowledge may be good for ecological best practices. We’d settled Turtle Island for millennia yet it was in such good condition that the Settlers thought it was ‘virgin territory.’ They also thought we weren’t putting the land to full use unless it was ploughed and farmed but my people were farmers so that argument was weak for the Haudenosaunee. Plus the hunting and gathering practices of the other First Nations was often a sophisticated resource management system that satisfied their needs and kept the land in better shape than the European systems.

I believe that First Nations will develop their own fashions with the materials they have on hand. My people would all be wearing leather at their traditional ceremonies if they wore pre-Contact garb. Instead we wear special fashions create with woven cloths we didn’t have access to until the Settlers came with their trade goods though we use it in ways they don’t expect. Sometimes we’ll copy popular Settler fashions in ways they don’t anticipate. For example lace was popular in Victorian times and this gave rise to Iroquoian beading techniques on fabric with white beads that mimic lace designs.

We have no qualms about using technology that is useful. For example when Settlers came with their iron pots clay pots were no longer used for cooking. Now craftspeople make the traditional pottery designs to be pieces of artwork instead of cookware.

In the modern era we are using the internet and mobile apps to teach our culture and languages. I have done historical research and my people are quicker at pivoting than they used to be. In the old days a consensus had to be made in Council and the speakers would give long leisurely speeches regarding their POV on issues. Now we prefer decisive action be made quicker. We talk faster than we used to. In some ways we are better at adapting and pivoting than mainstream culture is because we had to adapt to so much.

Living in an ecological manner doesn’t mean living like primitives and First Nations are finding ways to adapt that are true to their values and culture. I haven’t got some grand vision of what this will look like yet and my writing performs the function of thought experiments to me to see how a situation will logically develop or if someone can make things work in an ethical manner even if I know there will be bad actors when I hear of new technology coming down the pike.

What bit of science fiction do you think will be a reality soon?
Basically we’re living in science fiction now though we’re not as advanced as the early scifi writers thought we’d be. The change from the Victorian age to the 20th century was jarring and they assumed we’d advance at the same pace. I’m getting a laugh at how robots and AI is panning out. Asimov envisioned a Law of Robotics but a fair subset of people using AI are cybercriminals so a ‘lawless robot’ won’t be an anomaly despite what he liked to think on the issue.

What’s next for you?

So far my plans are to write my space opera as my long form work and serials of Robert E Howard inspired fiction on Substack as an experiment to see if I can write male characters right even if I’m not as action oriented as male writers. The Haudenosaunee were a matrilineal culture where genealogy went down the maternal line but our men were still feared warriors. The fallout for me is I prefer, and have more freedom, than women in traditional Settler culture do but I don’t want to see males reduced to brow beaten simps. We had our gender roles but woman’s voices and opinions were respected and their voices were embedded in our political structure.

---

Buy My Books

Looking for psychological military science fiction? Read about the adventure of veteran Brendan Murphy as he tries to keep peace between Earth and a mysterious alien race known as the Sabia. Read the Fallen series today! Please remember to leave a review once you are done. Reviews are the lifeblood of independent creators, and using these links helps me too via the affiliate program!

And I am drafting the fourth book presently.

Or check out my humorous Savannah Paranormal Detective Agency short stories.

---

Other Independent Book Promotions

Mookie Spitz’s Substack and Podcast

School Trip to the End of the World by BA Gillies - Free Book

Jelun thought life was boring—until alien invasion changed everything.

The Ranid, seven-foot-tall arachnid warriors feared across the galaxy, had mutinied. His homeworld was next to be invaded. Jelun was booked on the first ship out. Instead, a petty fight got his family reassigned to the last fleet—one that would never leave. Now, they were stranded.

Desperate, he pulled off a daring heist—stealing a luxury space yacht with the help of an old Anodroid, a snarky maintenance bot, and a dumb security droid. But fleeing, they intercepted a distress signal: a school ship plummeting to its doom, its treacherous crew long gone, and hundreds of terrified children falling to their deaths.

Saving them would be suicide. Leaving them would be murder.

Helping means losing his family’s only chance at escape. Worse, the ruthless headmistress will sacrifice anyone to save herself.

The clock is ticking. Missiles are flying. With an enemy fleet raining destruction on every side, Jelun and his unlikely crew must outthink everyone and outfly death itself.

The Crucible Directive by K.R. Vance - Free Book

Commander Elias Thorne just saved twelve thousand lives. His reward? A corporate death sentence.

Stripped of his rank by a corrupt Syndicate executive, Thorne is exiled to the UNS Aegis—the oldest, most decrepit rust-bucket in the Vanguard fleet. He is meant to quietly fade into obscurity on a ship held together by duct tape, failing hydraulics, and a foul-mouthed chief engineer named Jax Holden.

But the Solarian Syndicate doesn’t leave loose ends.

When a cutting-edge stealth cruiser ambushes the Aegis, Thorne and his outcast crew find themselves outgunned, outmaneuvered, and completely invisible to the rest of the galaxy.

To survive, they will have to throw out the algorithmic playbook and fight a billion-credit war machine with analog iron, kinetic violence, and ruthless mathematics.

The Crucible Directive is a high-octane prequel novella to The Vanguard Calculus series. If you love gritty military space opera, hard sci-fi physics, and heroes who rely on grit instead of plot armor, lock your mag-boots and brace for impact.

Attrition: Initiation by Bronwyn Leroux - Free Book

Chiara Baschet was only six when her home was invaded by the dreaded monitors of the Cirrian Conglomerate. Chiara thought her world had ended. Then the terrifying man in the suit appeared…

But she soon realized the man, Director Cygnus, was her benefactor, the one with her best interests at heart. The only person pleading with the all-powerful Board for her right to see her family after being separated from them and sent to the awful academy where she could finally use her prodigious intellect.

As her knowledge grew, Director Cygnus began giving her assignments. Projects all grounded in science. An intriguing world without frontiers. A realm where Chiara could forget her worries and cares and indulge in the blissful ignorance of just inventing.

Under this spell, is she even aware of her family’s true plight? Can she recognize danger coming before it arrives? Or will she fall, another victim of attrition?

Wreck of the Dauntless Book One: Mutiny and Murder: A Survival Sci-Fi Thriller Inspired by True Events by Nicholas Hurzeler - Book for Sale for $2.99

Two thousand light-years from Earth, the ultimate survival game has begun.

The Dauntless was supposed to be a beacon of hope—a state-of-the-art colony ship carrying four hundred souls to a lush new world. But beneath the starched uniforms and corporate protocols of the Westmoreland Corporation, a rot is spreading.

First Mate Adrian Jacobs is drowning in resentment. Chief Engineer Jeronimus Cornelis is a charismatic sociopath, with a silver tongue and a taste for power. Together, they whisper of a secret cargo—a fortune in Cortium-7—and a mutiny that will turn the ship into their private kingdom.

But space has no mercy for the greedy. When a desperate gamble to seize the ship ends in a catastrophic collision, Dauntless is left a mangled wreck on a desolate, twin-asteroid system. Abandoned by their Captain in a search for rescue, the survivors are left in "The Graveyard"—a world of oppressive heat, bone-chilling shadows, and a rapidly vanishing water supply. And as the thin line between order and anarchy vanishes, Jeronimus rises not as a savior, but as a tyrant.

In the cold vacuum of P-48, water is life, power is absolute, and the greatest threat may not be the environment after all—but the person standing next to you.

This tale is loosely based on the true saga of the Batavia, a Dutch ship that wrecked off the coast of Australia in 1629.

Laura and the Shadow King (Volume 1): A Zombie-Apocalypse Military Action Thriller by Bruno Martins Soares - Book for Sale for $3.99

In a devastated world, Spec Ops Lieutenant JJ Berger is out of faith. Until he finds a little girl that can change it all.

Since the spread of the pandemic and the retreat of organized society to isolated locations, JJ has seen it all. The leader of the Special Ops Shadow Team, he’s been in charge of connecting with the desperate pockets of healthy population in Spain and Portugal. And he no longer believes in a happy ending.

But when little Laura escapes her cruel captors, JJ becomes the only one between the girl and certain captivity. This unlikely pair becomes dependent on each other, and in the process he learns something new: that he who controls hope, controls the world.

With zombie-like sick people and dangerous gangs on one side and ruthless Russian invaders on the other, are JJ and his team strong and skillful enough to face the overwhelming odds? And why is everyone so keen on capturing this six-year-old girl?

If you like gritty zombie post-apocalyptic military action, you’ll like this roller-coaster thriller by award-winning author Bruno Martins Soares, set in fascinating distinct settings from the Portuguese Atlantic Islands, to devastated Lisbon, to the medieval-like plains of western Spain. Get it now!

---

Unit Next Time

Next time, I will discuss the ancient view of the planets being evil that still exists in fringe sections of society. This started off as a Aliens and Religion: Mandeanism post but it evolved past the Aliens and Religion series.

As always, please leave a comment with any questions, reviews, thoughts, whatever about Fallen, Risen, Dormition, An Odd Pilgrimage, The Savannah Paranormal Detective Agency or whatever else I have discussed. I promise to reply!