The Open Register Standard for Mohawk Communities (ORS-MK/1.0) is how the Mohawk Nation of Grand River keeps its Register, issues its instruments and credentials, and recognises other Kanien'kehá:ka communities that do the same. It is offered to the Mohawk communities — Akwesasne, Kahnawà:ke, Kanehsatà:ke, Tyendinaga, Wahta, Ganienkeh, Kanatsiohareke and others — so that each can keep its own records and keys under its own law and verify the others without any intermediary. The engine is offered under the Open Register Licence — use, adapt and redistribute the engine and this standard; each nation's own records, seal and instruments remain its own.
Principles
- Each community on its own footing. Every Mohawk community stands on its own history and instruments and speaks for itself. The standard assumes no community's footing for another — the Haldimand footing is the Mohawk Nation of Grand River's, not anyone else's — and it is not the Confederacy's, nor does it speak for the Confederacy.
- Each community's own. Its name, footing, instruments, territory, people, records, seal and keys are its own. The standard governs form, not substance.
- Kanien'kéha first. The shared language is the language of the standard; each community's terminology register is its own, and the English is the translation.
- One identifier. Every record and credential carries one Record Code — FAMILY-YYMMDD-NNNNNN — issued once, never reissued. No second numbering.
- The record confers effect; silence is a record. Instruments take effect by entry in the community's Register and publication in its Gazette, each resting on a named instrument; an instrument served and unanswered is declared and relied upon.
- Proof without trust in the middle. Records and credentials are hashed and signed; every community publishes its keys at
/.well-known/nation.json; communities pin each other's keys after confirming fingerprints in person or by letter. - International form, honest status. Travel documents are built to ICAO Doc 9303 and state plainly where an issuer code is the community's own rather than assigned.
- Hold the least; record recognition. No biometric templates, no outside government numbers, no particulars of anyone who has not applied. Each community records by instrument which of the others' credentials it recognises, and where its own have been accepted or refused.
What an adopting community publishes
/.well-known/nation.json— profile and footing, keys, verify endpoint, credential kinds, signed./verify/{code}— the standing of any code, nothing more.- Its Gazette as data; its passport standard and CSCA certificate if it issues passports.
Keeping the standard
The standard is kept by the communities that adopt it, not by one of them: changes are proposed in writing, circulated to every adopting community, and take effect as a new version when they agree. Schemas: JSON. This community's document: nation.json. Mohawk communities wishing to adopt the standard may write to the Secretariat, Ohsweken, Grand River Territory.
