Chief Joseph Brant
Thayendanega
Mohawk,
Loyalist, and Freemason
Perhaps
no Freemason who ever lived in America has been so condemned by some authors
and praised by others as Joseph Brant, the powerful and influential Mohawk chief
who sided with the British during the American Revolutionary War. On several
occasions, he put into practice the Masonic virtues of brotherly love, forgiveness,
and charity. On others, he exhibited cold-blooded ruthlessness, savagery and
disregard for human life.
The parents of Joseph Brant were Mohawks whose home was at Canajoharie on the Mohawk River in New York. Brant, however, was born on the banks of the Ohio River in 1742 while his parents were on a hunting excursion to that region, and was given the Indian name of Thayendanega, meaning "he places two bets". His father was Nickus (or "Nicholas") of the Wolfe family, who, although not a chief, was a Mohawk of some standing in the tribe.
While
still in his early youth, Brant became a favorite of Sir William Johnson, the
British superintendent of the northern Indians of America, who was extremely
popular with the tribes under his supervision. During his time with the Iroquois,
Johnson became particularly close to the Mohawk tribes. He was also a Mason
and a former Provincial Grand Master of the New York colony. After Johnson’s
European wife Catherine died in 1759, he married his former Indian mistress,
Molly, who was Brant’s sister, in an Indian ceremony later that year. It was
due largely to Johnson’s relationship with Molly that Brant received the favor
and protection of Sir William and through him the British government, which
set Brant on the road to promotion.
Brant and a number of young Mohawks were selected by Johnson to attend Moor’s Charity School for Indians at Lebanon, Connecticut--the school which in future years was to become Dartmouth College. Here he learned to speak and write English and studied Western history and literature. He is the only one of those chosen known to have derived any benefit from the educational process. He left school to serve under Sir William from 1755-1759 during the French and Indian War (1754-1763).
After this, he became Sir William’s close companion and helped him run the Indian Department, administered by the British out of Quebec. He also became an interpreter for an Anglican missionary and helped translate the prayer book and Gospel of Mark into the Mohawk language.
About
1768 he married Christine, the daughter of an Oneida chief, whom he had met
in school. Together, they settled on a farm near Canajoharie which Joseph had
inherited. While here, Brant assisted in revising the Mohawk prayer book and
translating the Acts of the Apostles into the Mohawk language. He also joined
the Anglican Church, was a regular communicant, and evinced a great desire to
bring Christianity to his people. His wife died of tuberculosis about 1771,
leaving him with a son and a daughter. In 1773, he married his wife’s sister,
Susannah, who died a few months afterward, also of tuberculosis.
In 1774, Sir William Johnson died and was succeeded in his territories by his son Sir John Johnson, and as Superintendent of the Indian Department by his son-in-law, Col. Guy Johnson, both of whom were Masons. The Johnsons, together with Brant and the Tory leaders Col. John Butler and Col. Walter Butler (also both Masons) were to become leaders of the Loyalist resistance and terrorism in Northwest New York.
Those
who remained loyal to England, known as "Loyalists" or
"Tories",
were not all colonists. Other allies of the British were numerous Indian tribes,
more especially the Iroquois tribes who occupied the lands from upstate New
York south to northern Pennsylvania with scatterings further south and north
and extending west to the Great Lakes. The Iroquois League, also known as the
Six Nations, was a confederation of upper New York state Indian tribes composed
of the Mohawks, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, Oneidas, and Tuscaroras. They lived
in comfortable homes, often better than those of the colonists, raised crops,
and sent hunters to Ohio to supply meat for those living back in New York.
In August, 1775, the Six Nations staged a big council fire near Albany , after news of Bunker Hill had made war seem imminent.
After
much debate, they decided that such a war was a private affair between the British
and the colonists, and that they should stay out of it. Brant feared that the
Indians would lose their lands if the colonists achieved independence. The Johnsons
and Brant used all their influence to engage the Indians to fight for the British
cause, and ultimately succeeded in bringing four of these tribes, the Mohawks,
Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas into an alliance with England -- the Oneidas
and Tuscaroras ultimately sided with the Colonists.
About the year 1776, Brant became the principal war chief of the confederacy of the Six Nations, due perhaps to the patronage of the Johnsons and the unusual circumstances in which he was placed. With this high office of leadership, he also received a Captain’s commission in the British army in charge of the Indian forces loyal to the Crown. Immediately after receiving this appointment, Brant made his first voyage to England. By making this trip, he gained time, and was enabled to observe for himself the power and resources of the King and British government. He also went to protest the policy of Guy Carleton, commander of the British forces in Canada, who refused to invite the Six Nations to join the war against the Americans, except to use 40 to 50 men as scouts.
More Information
Birth: c.
1741 Death: Nov. 24, 1807
Brantford
Ontario, Canada
American Indian, Mohawk. Principal Chief and Warrior of the Six Nations Indians. Joseph Brant was born in 1742 on the banks of the Ohio River, near the present day city of Akron. He died Nov. 24, 1807, at Wellington Square, Burlington Bay, Upper Canada. His remains were removed to a tomb at the Chapel of the Mohawks in 1851, and a monument was erected in the City of Brantford in 1886.
"Our
wise men are called Fathers, and they truly sustain that character. Do you call
yourselves Christians? Does the religion of Him who you call your Savior inspire
your spirit, and guide your practices? Surely not.
It
is recorded of him that a bruised reed he never broke. Cease then to call yourselves
Christians, lest you declare to the world your hypocrisy. Cease too to call
other nations savage, when you are tenfold more the children of cruelty than
they.
No
person among us desires any other reward for performing a brave and worthwhile
action, but the consciousness of having served his nation.
I
bow to no man for I am considered a prince among my own people. But I will gladly
shake your hand."
Joseph Brant to King George III
Brant
returned from England in time to see some action in the Battle of Long Island
in August 1776. He then departed for his homeland, traveling by night to elude
the Americans guarding the Hudson highlands and the area around Albany. He told
the young Iroquois braves of his trip to England and of the strength and friendship
of the British. He denounced the Iroquois’ 1775 decision to remain neutral and
called the Americans the enemy of all Indians. A tradition says that he promised
each of his warriors an opportunity "to feast on a Bostonian and to drink
his blood". The speech was received with wild enthusiasm and Brant departed
on a tour of regional Iroquois villages to similarly stir up support for the
British cause.
The
United States government sought his aid in securing an end to the wars with
the Indians in the North- west Territories newly ceded to the United States
by the Treaty of Paris, and he went alone to Philadelphia in 1792 for a meeting
with President Washington and his cabinet; and he claimed to have received 1000
guineas down payment, plus the offer of an ultimate reward of 20,000 pounds
for arranging " a peace with the Ohio Indians". He assured the United
States he would help, but upon his return home he changed his mind and actually
worked to foment unrest and rebellion among the Ohio valley Indians against
the Americans, traveling in the American West to promote an all-Indian confederacy
to resist land cessions. Following this, he devoted the remainder of his life
to the interests and moral improvement of his tribe, continuing his missionary
work and translations of Bible passages into the Mohawk language.
Brant
constructed for himself a spacious dwelling in Canada, where he lived in handsome
style with a host of slaves, as many as the aristocratic Virginians who would
later rule the United States. His clothes were of the finest material, and in
his luxurious home elaborate meals were served on crisp Irish linen. At home,
he was a hospitable and convivial man, treating those who visited him kindly
and courteously. His children were all well educated and his sons Joseph and
Jacob were sent to Dartmouth. Unhappily, in 1795, his oldest son, Isaac, made
a drunken assault on his father, who drew his dagger and inflicted a mortal
wound. The case came before the Council of Sachems and Warriors, which exonerated
Brant on the grounds of self-defense. Also, throughout his life, Brant maintained
friendly relations with the English, and favored the introduction of agriculture
and the useful arts among his tribe.
What
more, then, can be said about this remarkable individual, who was at ease drinking
tea from fragile china cups, but could also hurl a tomahawk with deadly accuracy?
We know that he was well educated; his compositions are highly respectable in
point of thought and style, far beyond many of the farmers he had fought against.
Perhaps it would have been impossible for Brant to have supported the American
cause; he being too vain and too closely allied with the British Lords of the
Mohawk valley to consider casting his lot with the humble farmers who spoke
of freedom. For Brant, they had the stink of manure and earth about them; he
was more familiar with buckled shoes and cologne. It is hard to imagine any
other native American, though, who profited so greatly from the Revolutionary
War.
Brant died on November 24, 1807, at the age of nearly sixty-five years, at his own house on Grand River, Ontario, and was buried by the side of the Episcopal church he had built there. In 1850 Freemasons restored his tomb and placed an inscription on it, and a bronze statue of him was unveiled at Brantford in 1886. His last words, uttered to his adopted nephew, were: " Have pity on the poor Indians; if you can get any influence with the great, endeavor to do them all the good you can."