Joseph Brant (1743-1807) was born in what is now Ohio, near the Cuyahoga River, while his parents were on a hunting trip. Though they later gave up their range in the Ohio Valley, the Iroquois did use it frequently for hunting for the first few years of Joseph's life and he would have been familiar with the country. His family had assimilated European ways. He was baptized Anglican with the given name of Joseph, but acquired the Mohawk name of Theyandenagea, meaning "one who places two bets". He used both throughout his life, as his signature showed. It was a fitting name for one who kept a foot in both the Native and White worlds. He was born into his mother's wolf clan, but she was not from one of the elite families with the right to choose a Sachem. She later married a Sachem, named Peter Brant, and Joseph took his stepfather's last name. The Brant family lived on a prosperous farm near Canajoharie, one of the main Mohawk towns. Sir William Johnson, the Superintendent of the British Indian Department was a frequent guest and, by 1758, he and Joseph's older sister Molly formed a relationship. Molly would later live at Johnson's estate, Johnson Hall, and Joseph would visit here there, seeing how a prosperous gentleman lived and behaved. Though Joseph would have received his warrior's training from his mother's brothers, he received his training about living and functioning in the White man's world from Johnson. No doubt, Peter Brant was also doing some teaching of his own, about how to rise to greatness in Native society when one did not come from a Sachem family, and about the need to assimilate to coexist with the Settlers.
Joseph's first taste of war would have been during the Seven Years War (1755-1758), taking part in Abercrombie's failed expedition to take Fort Carillon/Fort Ticonderoga in 1758, Johnson's Battle of Fort Niagara in 1759, and Amherst's expedition to Montreal in 1760. He was one of 182 warriors awarded a silver medal from the British for his services during the War. Afterward, in 1761, Johnson sponsored Joseph and two other young Mohawk men to be educated at an Indian Charity School in Connecticut. This school later became the forerunner of Dartmouth College, meaning that Joseph got as close to a university education as it was possible at the time. Joseph also met Samuel Kirkland, a missionary who would later do a great deal of work among the various Iroquois tribes. Johnson wanted to send Joseph to King's College in New Jersey, now Princeton, but the outbreak of Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763 put an end to that idea. Joseph participated in putting down the rebellion in 1764 with attacks on Lenape/Delaware villages. The Lenape and various Iroquois tribes were enemies and rivals for the same hunting ranges.In 1765, Joseph married a woman named Maggie. She was a White women who had been captured from her Virginia family as a young girl and assimilated into the Mohawk tribe. He inherited his stepfather's farm and began to acquire property of his own. He also kept a small store and was known for dressing in White clothing. Joseph and Maggie had two children, Isaac and Christine, before she died of tuberculosis. He later married Susanna, an Oneida woman said to be the daughter of John Shenandoah, whom we met in an early post. The marriage produced no children and Susanna died in 1777 while the couple were staying at Fort Niagara. In 1780, Joseph married Catherine Adonwetishon Croghan, the daughter of trader George Croghan and a Mohawk woman from a Sachem family. This marriage meant that one of their sons, most likely her oldest son John, would become Tekarihoga, the principal Sachem of the Mohawk tribe. Through Catherine, Joseph also forged another link with the extended Johnson family and descendants of Chief Hendrick, whom we also met earlier. In addition to John, they had other children, Margaret, Mary, Catherine, Elizabeth, Jacob and Joseph, Jr.. Elizabeth would form another link with the Johnsons, marrying a grandson of William Johnson and Molly Brant. Through his own marriage and later his children's unions, Joseph was positioning himself and his children with a view to status in both the frontier and Mohawk worlds.
At the outbreak of the Revolution, he was appointed Captain of the Mohawk warriors attached to the British Indian Department. He and his family moved around a lot during this time, living first in Quebec and later Fort Niagara. He also went with Guy Johnson, Sir William's son to London to elicit more support for Mohawk land grievances in return for their greater support of British troops in the field. While there, he refused to bow to King George, but did shake his hand and kissed the hand of Queen Charlotte. George apparently took no offense, as he later gave Brant his 3rd Degree apron as a Mason. Brant's portrait was painted by several leading painters of the day, and as he was there to advance Mohawk interests, he chose to wear Native dress for these portraits and while at Court or making public appearances.
He returned to New York and led the warriors attached to General Howe's forces as they tried to retake New York. He participated in the Battle of Long Island in 1776 and gained the friendship of Henry, Lord Percy, later Duke of Northumberland, one of his few lasting relationships with a White man. This contact in London would help his people later. As Joseph traveled from village to village, sometimes in disguise or at night to avoid capture, he urged the Iroquois peoples to join the British. This made him many enemies among Iroquois leaders who wished to remain neutral, or men such as his father-in-law, John Shenandoah or Col. Louis Cook, who believed the Natives should support the Americans. The Iroquois Council had initially determined on neutrality and many of its members worked to undermine Brant wherever they could. He was able to raise parties of Loyalists and some Natives, but not very much. When the Council finally decided to cast in their lot with the British, it broke the unity of the Iroquois people and some believed that Brant had committed the cardinal sin of violating the Great Law of Peace by promoting division within the tribes. As a final slap to Brant's pride, the Council named Cornplanter and Sayenquaraghta of the Seneca as the war chiefs representing the Council. Brant remained only as Mohawk war chief, along with a leader named John Deseranto.Not to be outdown, Brant took the men willing to fight under him and joined General Barry St. Leger's army. He was present at the Battle of Oriskany, which we've already covered. General John Burgoyne had a low opinion of Native fighters and it wasn't until his surrender and capture that Joseph had much to do in the way of war. In 1778, he led parties of Mohawk raiders throughout the Mohawk Valley, raiding American farms and towns. It's from these raids that the "Monster Brant" idea came. Popular imagination and propaganda had him slaughtering men, women and children indiscriminately, scalping, torturing at will and hinting at worse when women captives were concerned. Comparing accounts on both sides of the conflict, the picture emerges of someone who did not kill non-combatants, and often took over women and children as his prisoners, not to torture them but to spare them further mistreatment. Most of these people he either let go at the first opportunity or ransomed off. Where there was killing or torture of prisoners or non-combatants, it was while Joseph was elsewhere and unable to put a stop to it, which he invariably did when he could.
In retaliation for Brant's supposed cruelties, American soldiers in 1778 raided his then base at Onaquaga, burning buildings, ruining crops and chopping down trees. One soldier described the place as the finest Indian farm he ever saw. In retaliation, Joseph joined his forces with those of Walter Butler, brother of Major John, in the Cherry Valley Massacre, more on this later. His men, angry at the destruction of their homes, did kill non-combatants, which Joseph was not able to restrain as much as he usually did, further adding to his nefarious image among Americans. He was also blamed for the Wyoming Valley Massacre, though he was not even there, but several miles away. It would take many decades before his reputation as a monster began to abate somewhat. In 1779, Brant met with Frederick Haldimand, the Governor of Quebec. He was appointed captain of the Northern Confederated Indians, but received no pay. He promised instead that the Natives would be compensated at War's end with the return of their lands. Brant acquired a farm on the Niagara River. He also bought a slave to attend to the house. Since the Mohawk often took slaves in raids, he probably saw nothing adverse in doing so. His favor with the British caused jealousy among other Iroquois leaders, who blamed Brant for the widespread destruction of their lands and lives by getting them involved in the War in the first place. Joseph was active in the field, as well, attacking the Continental Army at Minisink on July 22, 1779, with little effect. He was defeated again at the Battle of Newton on August 29, 1779. General Sullivan's forces swept aside the Native defense and laid waste the Mohawk Valley, destroying all Native villages and towns they came across.
Joseph turned to the British and, with Haldimand's help, selected land along the Grand River as a new Reserve for the Iroquois Six Nations. He settled down and began to farm, though he went to England to request English help for the Western Confederacy in the Northwest Indian War. Later, the United States offered Brant money and land in New York if he would lead the Iroquois back to their traditional lands. He refused. He traveled to New York and Philadelphia many times to meet with American leaders and British diplomats to seek help for his people, but without much success. He also bought land near Burlington, Ontario from the Mississauga, and settled in a home intended to replicate Johnson Hall and the life he had known as a young man.
Then tragedy struck in several forms. Though British leaders tried to talk him out of it, Brant entered into several plans to lease portions of the Natives land in an effort to generate money. Most of the funds never materialized. Seeing Brant's prosperous lifestyle, some of his people began questioning where the money went. His son Isaac, by some accounts his favorite, turned on his father in a drunken rage. Joseph struck back to defend himself and killed Isaac. He was heartbroken and began drinking heavily, becoming more reclusive as he got older. He died at his home in Burlington on November 24, 1807, with his adopted nephew John Norton beside him. He told Norton, whom we've run across in a previous post, "Have pity on the poor Indians. If you have any influence with the great, endeavor to use it for their good."
He was buried in Burlington, though fifty years later his remains would be transferred to the Mohawk Chapel in Brantford, Ontario. His efforts to create a pan-tribal movement would inspire Tecumseh, who in turn would inspire later generations of Native leaders. Many portraits of him by several prominent artists of the day survive. The City of Brantford and County of Brant are named in his honor, as is the reserve at Tyendinega. He's received other honors throughout Canada which are too numerous to mention here.
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