Brant, Joseph or Thayendanegea

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Barbara Graymont, “THAYENDANEGEA (Thayendanegen, Thayeadanegea) (Joseph Thayendanegea, Joseph Brant),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 5, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/thayendanegea_5E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Mohawk interpreter, translator, war chief, and statesman; Indian Department officer; member of the wolf clan; his Mohawk name means he sets or places together two bets; probably b. c. March 1742/43 in Cayahoga (near Akron, Ohio), son of Tehowaghwengaraghkwin; d. 24 Nov. 1807 in what is now Burlington, Ont.
    • Brant’s first military service with the British came when he was about 15, during the Seven Years’ War. He took part in James Abercromby’s campaign to invade Canada by way of Lake George (Lac Saint-Sacrement) in 1758 and he was with the warriors who accompanied Sir William Johnson, superintendent of northern Indians, in the 1759 expedition against Fort Niagara (near Youngstown, N.Y.). The next year he was a member of the force led by Jeffery Amherst that descended the St Lawrence to besiege Montreal.
    • After the outbreak of hostilities in the Thirteen Colonies in 1775, Brant remained loyal to the king. He went to Montreal with Guy Johnson in the summer and in November embarked for England with Johnson, Christian Daniel Claus, and a few associates to present their position on Indian affairs to the British government. Brant was generally lionized, introduced to some of the leading men in the arts, letters, and government, inducted into the Falcon Lodge of freemasons, and had his portrait painted.
    • Brant and his companions returned to North America in time to participate in the battle of Long Island in the summer of 1776. Then he and his loyalist friend Gilbert Tice went in disguise through the American-held countryside to Iroquois territory, where Brant urged the Indians to abandon their treaty of neutrality with the Continental Congress and actively support British arms. After persistent effort he eventually raised a force of about 300 Indian warriors and 100 white loyalists. For nearly a year he remained in the Susquehanna River region.
    • Brant was a noble figure who dedicated his whole life to the advancement of his people and who struggled to maintain their freedom and sovereignty. His major failure was his inability to understand the nature of British imperialism and to comprehend the fact that the British would not permit two sovereignties to exist in Upper Canada. The Indians were manipulated and exploited by the British government to serve the purposes of the empire; they were encouraged to cede their land in time of peace, pressured to become military allies in time of war, ignored in the treaty of peace, urged to form an enlarged confederacy as a barrier between the British and the Americans, and coerced to abandon the confederacy when the British had composed their differences with their enemy and growing Indian power threatened to rival their own.
  • Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=835
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10474/joseph-brant