Native Americans aren’t often associated with New York City and its dense, vertical, iron landscape. With so many indigenous nations pushed to America’s frontier in the 19th century, they usually appear in popular culture as populates of the rural West, occupying wide open spaces brimming with tipis, buffalo and pow wows. Yet the Mohawk Nation has deep roots in metropolitan New York City—where, beginning in the early 20th century, Mohawk, ironworkers contributed to building many of the iconic skyscrapers that dominate the Manhattan skyline today.

These “Skywalkers” have for generations traveled far and wide to work on the “high steel,” bringing back good wages to support their homes and building reputations as fearless laborers in the process. Today’s episode takes us from Upstate NY to downtown Manhattan as we tight rope walk the iron beams of what are now some of the tallest buildings in the United States.

Pour your coffee, settle in… it’s The Missing Chapter Podcast.