Brant, John

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Isabel T. Kelsay, “TEKARIHOGEN (Dekarihokenh, Ahyonwaeghs, Ahyouwaeghs) (John Brant) (1794-1832),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/tekarihogen_1794_1832_6E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Mohawk chief and Indian Department official; b. 27 Sept. 1794 near present-day Brantford, Ont., a member of the turtle clan and youngest son of Joseph Brant and his wife Catharine; d. there 27 Aug. 1832 and was buried the same day.
    • As the War of 1812 approached, many Mohawks, influenced by Red Jacket and others as well as by unhappy memories of the American revolution, hesitated to commit themselves to a fray. John Brant betrayed no such hesitation and with John Norton and a party of like-minded Indians helped stop an invading American force at Queenston Heights on 13 Oct. 1812. In April 1813 he was made a lieutenant in the Indian Department and he took part in the defeat of the Americans at Beaver Dams on 24 June, a victory that British officer James FitzGibbon later credited entirely to the Indian contingent.
    • Brant must still have been quite young when it became clear that he had the qualities that would fit him for the position of Tekarihogen, the primary chieftainship of the Six Nations Confederacy, which was hereditary in his mother’s family. He could look forward to considerable influence, since to the prestige of that office he would add the knowledge of white ways that had been a major source of his father’s power. As early as 1819 he was assisting Henry Tekarihogen, who was growing old and blind, in the Six Nations’ dispute with white authorities over the nature and extent of their land grant on the Grand River.
    • On 25 June 1828 Brant was officially appointed resident superintendent of the Six Nations of the Grand River, a position which involved close supervision of their affairs and which he held until his death. In practice, he looked after not only the Six Nations but also other Indian groups who had settled alongside them. One of his first challenges was to fight the damming of the river by the Welland Canal Company.
    • Either with the death of Henry Tekarihogen in 1830 or perhaps shortly before, Brant officially assumed the ancient office and title. Moreover, he ran for the Upper Canadian House of Assembly in the riding of Haldimand in 1830. He took his seat in January 1831 but his election was challenged on the grounds that some of those who voted for him were leaseholders rather than the freeholders required by law, and in February his opponent John Warren was declared elected. Both men died in the cholera epidemic of 1832. In Brant’s case it is not clear whether he succumbed to the disease itself or to the ministrations of the white doctors who were called in to treat him. He was not yet 38.
  • Son of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=834
  • Find A Grave : https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/72221062/john-brant