Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet, was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Ireland known for his military and governance work in British colonial America.
Thayendanegea or Joseph Brant was a Mohawk military and political leader, based in present-day New York and, later, Brantford, in what is today Ontario, who was closely associated with Great Britain during and after the American Revolution. Perhaps the best known Native American of his generation, he met many of the most significant American and British people of the age, including both United States President George Washington and King George III of Great Britain.
The Kanien'kehá:ka are in the easternmost section of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy. They are an Iroquoian-speaking Indigenous people of North America, with communities in southeastern Canada and northern New York State, primarily around Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. As one of the five original members of the Iroquois League, the Mohawk are known as the Keepers of the Eastern Door – the traditional guardians of the Iroquois Confederation against invasions from the east. The Mohawk are federally recognized in the United States as the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe.
The Onondaga people are one of the five original nations of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy in the Northeastern Woodlands. Their historical homelands are in and around present-day Onondaga County, New York, south of Lake Ontario.
Six Nations is demographically the largest First Nations reserve in Canada. As of the end of 2017, it has a total of 27,276 members, 12,848 of whom live on the reserve. These nations are the Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca and Tuscarora. Some Lenape live in the territory as well.
The Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte (MBQ) are a Mohawk community within Hastings County, Ontario. They control the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, which is a 7,362.5 ha (18,193-acre) Mohawk Indian reserve on the Bay of Quinte in southeastern Ontario, Canada, east of Belleville and immediately to the west of Deseronto. They also share Glebe Farm 40B and the Six Nations of the Grand River reserves with other First Nations.
The Covenant Chain was a series of alliances and treaties developed during the seventeenth century, primarily between the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) and the British colonies of North America, with other Native American tribes added. First met in the New York area at a time of violence and social instability for the colonies and Native Americans, the English and Iroquois councils and subsequent treaties were based on supporting peace and stability to preserve trade. They addressed issues of colonial settlement, and tried to suppress violence between the colonists and Indian tribes, as well as among the tribes, from New England to the Colony of Virginia.
Molly Brant, also known as Mary Brant, Konwatsi'tsiaienni, and Degonwadonti, was a Mohawk leader in British New York and Upper Canada in the era of the American Revolution. Living in the Province of New York, she was the consort of Sir William Johnson, the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, with whom she had eight children. Joseph Brant, who became a Mohawk leader and war chief, was her younger brother.
The Four Indian Kings or Four Kings of the New World were three Mohawk chiefs from one of the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy and a Mohican of the Algonquian peoples, whose portraits were painted by John Verelst in London to commemorate their travel from New York in 1710 to meet Queen Anne of Great Britain. The three Mohawk were: Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pieth Tow of the Bear Clan, called King of Maquas, with the Christian name Peter Brant ; Ho Nee Yeath Taw No Row of the Wolf Clan, called King of Canajoharie, or John of Canajoharie; and Tee Yee Ho Ga Row, meaning "Double Life", of the Wolf Clan, also called Hendrick Tejonihokarawa or King Hendrick. The Mohican chief was Etow Oh Koam of the Turtle Clan, mistakenly identified in his portrait as Emperor of the Six Nations. The Algonquian-speaking Mohican people were not part of the Iroquois Confederacy. Five chiefs set out on the journey, but one died in mid-Atlantic.
John Norton (Teyoninhokarawen) was a Mohawk chief, Indian Department interpreter and a school master. He was adopted by the Mohawk at about age 30 at their major reserve in Canada. After deserting the British military in the late 18th century, he became a military leader of Iroquois warriors in the War of 1812 on behalf of Great Britain against the United States. Commissioned as a major, he led warriors from the Six Nations of the Grand River into battle against American invaders at Queenston Heights, Stoney Creek, and Chippawa.
John Brant or Ahyonwaeghs was a Mohawk chief and government official in Upper Canada.
The 1764 Treaty of Fort Niagara is one of the first treaty agreements made between First Nations and The Crown. It is a notable example of The Crown's recognition of Indigenous sovereignty in the years preceding the American Revolution. However, the agreement was recorded in wampum and no paper document was signed; Canadian law does not recognize the legality of the agreement.
Mohawk Upper Castle Historic District is a historic district in Herkimer County, New York that was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1993. Located south of the Mohawk River, it includes the Indian Castle Church, built in 1769 by Sir William Johnson, British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, as a missionary church for the Mohawk in the western part of their territory; the Brant Family Barn, a rare surviving example of Dutch colonial barns in the Mohawk Valley; as well as important archaeological site areas revealing life in Nowadaga, as the western part of the Mohawk village of Canajoharie was known. The fortified village was called the Upper Castle by European colonists.
The Iroquois, also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the endonym Haudenosaunee are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of Native Americans and First Nations peoples in northeast North America. They were known by the French during the colonial years as the Iroquois League, and later as the Iroquois Confederacy, while the English simply called them the "Five Nations". The peoples of the Iroquois included the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. After 1722, the Iroquoian-speaking Tuscarora people from the southeast were accepted into the confederacy, from which point it was known as the "Six Nations".
Indian Castle Church is a historic mission church at Indian Castle in Herkimer County, New York. The church is located on NYS Route 5S near present-day Danube. It is a one-story, rectangular wood-frame structure, clad in clapboard with a gable roof and steeple. To the rear of the church is a burial ground containing the remains of both Mohawks and Europeans.
A Dish With One Spoon, also known as One Dish One Spoon, is a law used by Indigenous peoples of the Americas since at least 1142 CE to describe an agreement for sharing hunting territory among two or more nations. People are all eating out of the single dish, that is, all hunting in the shared territory. One spoon signifies that all Peoples sharing the territory are expected to limit the game they take to leave enough for others, and for the continued abundance and viability of the hunting grounds into the future. Sometimes the Indigenous language word is rendered in English as bowl or kettle rather than dish.
Ann Claus (1745-1801), commonly called Nancy, was the daughter of Sir William Johnson and Catherine Weisenberg. Like her father, she played an important part in the early British Indian Department. She was the wife of Deputy Agent Daniel Claus, the mother of Deputy Superintendent General William Claus, and an influential figure among the Six Nations.
Catharine Brant (c.1759–1837), also known as Ahdohwahgeseon, was a clan mother of the Mohawk nation. She was the third wife of Joseph Brant and an important leader among the Six Nations of the Grand River.
The Royaner are the hereditary male clan leaders within the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. They are chosen by their respective Yakoyaner to represent their clan at the confederacy level. The specific name-titles held by the royaner belong to the matrilineal lineages headed by the clan mothers. These male leaders are expected to serve their community for life, although there are ways of removing a royaner if he does not live up to his lineage's expectations. With the clan mothers, the royaner form the hereditary leadership that distinguishes itself from the elected Band Council imposed by the Canadian state.
The Yakoyaner (also spelt iakoiane) is a Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) term for the Haudenosaunee clan mother. The Yakoyaner are typically senior women responsible for overseeing the clan's political, economic, and social stability. The Yakoyaner, also known as a clan mother, holds weight over their community and family and aids in guiding the clan's chief in matters of governance, diplomacy, and community affairs.
