Joseph Brandt to the Front!
Labradors,
It’s another month and you know what that means! We get to learn about one more faction and one more officer. For this month, we shall broach the history of one of our Native American war chieftains. I hope you find it interesting!
Even though he was not born into a hereditary position of leadership, this fellow, Mohawk Indigenous war chieftain Thayendanegea, or Joseph Brandt, rose to prominence in a number of ways nonetheless. Firstly, as a bright and prominent student at Eleazar Wheelock’s mission school (what later became Dartmouth College), he was a star academic, gaining the attention of many of his contemporaries. He also was a first-rate warrior, having at first proven himself time and time again on the front lines in the Seven Years War, before doing so as a cunning and charismatic commander of many multi-factional causes, leading forces from many different Native Nations in the American War of Independence. Such battles included engagements at Wyoming Valley, Cherry Valley, Oriskany and and many other frontier skirmishes. Beyond this, he worked hard using his aforementioned education to translate the bible into many indigenous languages and then as a lawyer, defending traditional indigenous rights, playing both sides of the culture coin. He was finally known for his many connections to British dignitaries and royalty, namely William and Guy Johnson, heads of the British Indian department, the former of whom married his sister, and King George the Third of England, who also became an ally of his during the American War of Independence. Not only did they fight a common enemy, but they found common interest in the wellbeing of the Natives and the King additionally inducted Thayendanegea into the Masons and personally presented to him his apron.
For all these reasons and more, Thayendanegea was a considerable celebrity of his time, and though somewhat recent historians have debated his culpability in a number of war crimes, more recent, thorough reviews of the battles in which he was involved have, to my mind, more than absolved him.
- D Lessin
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