THEYEBDABEGEA

a.k.a "Joseph Brant"

Theyebdabegea, called Joseph Brant by the whites, was a Mohawk leader who sided with the British during the Revolutionary War. Joseph Brant took his first scalp at thirteen. He was educated in white schools. He was a protégé of Sir William Johnson, and learned Latin and Greek. He translated the new Testament into his native language. Sir William Johnson, the Indian commissioner, married Joseph's sister Molly. Joseph visited England in 1776, and was received at the Kings court. His grandfather was one of the Mohawk Chiefs sent to England by the British to meet Queen Anne.

The Indians found themselves in the middle of the tensions mounted between the Americans and the British. The six nations of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, including the Delawares and Shawnees in the west, wanted no part of the fight. Chief Cornstalk of the Shawnee, carried a message of peace to the Americans in 1775. President Washington authorized Indians in the American Army, a breach of the promise given the Haudenosaunee tribes at Pittsburgh. The Iroquois tribe was neutral.

Joseph or Theyebdabegea, the Mohawk chief, returned from England to travel among the six Indian nations with his message not to stay neutral. He thought the colonies would overrun the Indians and their only hope was to side with the British before the colonists dominated the continent. He told the Iroquois their only hope was to fight with England. The Oneidas and Tuscaroras wanted to ally with the Americans. They later helped George Washington at valley forge. The other Iroquois and the Senacas met the British in 1777 to decide if they should join their forces. Joseph Brant argued for the British. The Shawnee leader Cornstalk tried to prevent his people from joining the fighting by going to Fort Pleasant. The colonists captured him and his son and later shot them and murdered the other Shawnee who were with them. This resulted in the Shawnee joining the British.

Joseph Brant led the Iroquois warriors who fought with the British troops against the Oneida and the American militiamen in August 6, 1777. The Onondagas, the one Iroquois nation still neutral, was attacked by Washington's troops and their women captured. Many of their warriors then joined the British. Washington sent Major General John Sullivan against the pro British Iroquois to destroy their homes. In retaliation Joseph destroyed the Oneidas and Tuscaroras villages. When winter arrived many Indians on both sides starved for lack of crops that were destroyed. In 1783 the British recognized the new United States and as Chief Cornstalk had warned the Indians gained nothing from thier fighting. Joseph Brant, his Mohawk followers, and other pro British Iroquois, were forced from their lands after being deserted by the British and moved to Canada.

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Last modified: December 15, 2004

THEYEBDABEGEA a.k.a "Joseph Brant"

THEYEBDABEGEA

a.k.a "Joseph Brant"