Image: Brant was visiting England with Guy Johnson at age 33 or 34 when George Romney painted him in his London studio in 1776. Brant is shown wearing a white ruffled shirt, an Indian blanket, a silver gorget, a plumed headdress and carrying a tomahawk. (Public Domain)
On this day in history, November 24, 1807, Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant, also known by his Indigenous name, Thayendanegea, died at his home in what is now Burlington, Ontario. Before dying, he allegedly stated, “Have pity on the poor Indians. If you have any influence with the great, endeavor to use it for their good.”
Thayendanegea ranked among Britain’s best commanders during the American Revolutionary War. He was an educated Christian and Freemason who studied with Eleazer Wheelock at Moor’s Indian Charity School, the parent institution of Dartmouth College.
Joseph Brant, one of the most provocative personalities of the American Revolution, was born along the Cuyahoga River in 1742. His parents were members of the Mohawk Tribe from New York but had moved to the Ohio Territory to hunt for game. His family went back to the Mohawk and Iroquois lands where Brant grew up; and where he became a linguist, a war chief, and a diplomat.
In his early life, Brant became favored by the British. He was notably supported by the head of the Northern Indians of America, Sir William Johnson. In 1759, Johnson married Brant’s sister Molly. The marriage was highly beneficial to the ambitious leader. Through Johnson, Brant gained relationships with the British government and education. Johnson selected Brant and several other Natives to attend Moor’s Charity School for Indians, a school that would later develop into Dartmouth College. Brant converted to the Anglican faith at school and learned to read and write English. While Brant’s education at Moor’s benefitted him with the skills which made him affluent, most students at Moor’s were not as prosperous as Brant.
After receiving his education, he returned to working with Johnson during the AAFrench and Indian War. After the war ended, Brant stayed with his brother-in-law and supported in administering the British “Indian Department.” During this period, he moved throughout the Iroquois territory, predominantly as a missionary. Throughout his travels, Brant learned to master multiple Iroquois languages and most likely spoke all six tribal languages. These early missionary years made Brant a trustworthy and well-regarded adviser to settlers and natives.
In 1775, after the battles at Concord and Lexington, the Six Nations met to discuss their role in the growing Revolutionary War. While many promoted neutralities, almost prophetically, Brant felt that independence for the colonists meant that the natives across North America would lose their land. Brant’s argument and Johnson’s influence convinced four nations to ally themselves with the British, the Cayugas, Mohawks, Senecas, and the Onondagas.
In July 1776, Brant participated in the British campaign to recapture New York. The record of Brant’s service is a mystery; he probably served with General Hugh Percy during the British push through Jamaica Pass, a vital phase of the Battle of Long Island. The young Mohawk and Percy quickly created a lifelong friendship. Percy would be the only white man Brant would remain friends with after the Revolutionary War. After the New York action, Brant returned to the Six Nations, where he assembled the tribes for war against the American colonists.
Throughout 1777 and 1778, Brant’s forces became entirely engaged in the Mohawk Valley. Brant’s army participated in attacks on Cobleskill and raids on German Flatts at the Battle of Oriskany. While Brant’s forces were on a raid, American troops attacked Brant’s Onoquaga base. The continentals destroyed the city, leaving buildings burned, cattle dead, and crops devastated. Brant, in reply, led the assault, which became known as the Cherry Valley Massacre. During the attack, Seneca forces killed at least thirty civilians. This action gave Brant a status for barbarity and the moniker “Monster Brant;” however, this reputation was unjustified. Although involved in the valley, Brant was absent at the Cherry Valley Massacre. Additional primary sources from British leaders and Brant show he struggled to suppress the Seneca’s violence.
By 1779, the British had come to admire Brant’s authority. They awarded him the rank of “Captain of the Northern Confederated Indians” and guaranteed supplies for his men but no remuneration for the native soldiers. Because of his new salary and wartime looting, Brant became reasonably wealthy. This prosperity caused resentment among competing chiefs and even his unpaid volunteers. When a commission to make Brant a colonel arrived, British colonial officers did not tell Brant to uphold his bargaining position with other tribes. In 1779, the Sullivan Campaign forced Brant and the native resistance out of New York, driving them back to Fort Niagara.
In 1781, the British reassigned Brant west to the Ohio Country. During this campaign, Brant was seriously injured in the leg and recovered at Fort Detroit. During this time, he repeatedly attempted to maintain Western tribes’ loyalty to the British, even after the crown’s disastrous defeat at Yorktown. Late in 1782, Brant’s troops continued with their guerilla attacks but achieved little success.
When the Revolutionary War concluded in 1783, the Treaty of Paris did not recognize the Six Tribes or any indigenous groups’ autonomy. The British had been unsuccessful in accomplishing the promise which drew many native tribes to join the British cause, the protection of indigenous land. Brant would spend the remainder of his life struggling for the land rights of his people and other disaffected indigenous tribes in America.
His first effort at defending the land was creating the Western Confederacy, a group of thirty native nations that chose to fight for the Fort Stanwix Treaty line. Brant asked for British support in 1785, and while the British compensated Mohawk losses in the war and gave Brant a pension, they would not support the thirty tribes. Brant and Washington both made attempts at peace. Brant sought a peace treaty but filed. Washington tried to create a reservation system for the Mohawks and give Brant a large pension, but Brant declined. The American army routed the Western Confederacy resulting in the thirty tribes’ alliance collapsing.
The rest of his life was spent confronting American, French, Canadian, and British bureaucracies to create a place for his people to live. Brant passed away at his home in Ontario on November 24, 1807.
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