Regan Tarbell grew up in Mohawk territory.

I knew that I was Mohawk and that we lived on a reserve.

I kind of felt like everybody did because I really didn't understand how we were unique, you know, because that was my world.

She grew up on a reserve called Gunawage.

It's on the south shore of Montreal, about 15 minutes away from the busy French-speaking city.

And as a kid, the reserve was really all Regan knew.

We'd go off the reserve shore to go get groceries.

So I knew there was a whole big city out there, but I didn't really kind of understand the difference or, you know, kind of like us and them.

Gunawage is one of eight territories of the Mohawk Nation, and the 8,000 residents on the reserve are all Mohawk.

It's a pretty tight-knit community, but walking around, you'll notice something that seems a little out of place.

You'll see it sometimes on Facebook. Some people will bring back pizza, you know, New York, Brooklyn pizza.

I mean, when you come into Gunawage, you're not going to hear French whatsoever.

And you're going to hear New York accents.

We're talking those deep bagel with smear kind of Brooklyn accents.

And there's a reason for those accents.

Gunawage has a long connection to New York. Mohawk ironworkers helped build the skyline of New York City.

They did the dangerous work of raising the steel beams hundreds of feet into there to make the

iconic buildings and bridges of the city. They made New York what it is today.

I'm Alexa Lim and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible,

and wondrous places.

Today, we'll hear about those ironworkers and how while they were building out the famous skyscrapers

of Manhattan, they were also building a lesser-known neighborhood of their own in downtown Brooklyn

...