Canassatego (c. 1684–1750) was a leader of the

Onondaga Onondaga may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Onondaga people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois League * Onondaga (village), Onondaga settlement and traditional Iroquois capita ...

nation who became a prominent diplomat and spokesman of the

Iroquois Confederacy The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

in the 1740s. He was involved in several controversial land sales to colonial British officials. He is now best known for a speech he gave at the 1744

Treaty of Lancaster The Six Nations land cessions were a series of land cessions by the Haudenosaunee and Lenape which ceded large amounts of land, including both recently conquered territories acquired from other indigenous peoples in the Beaver Wars and ancestral ...

, where he recommended that the British colonies emulate the Iroquois by forming a confederacy. He was reportedly assassinated, perhaps by sympathizers or agents of

New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spai ...

Early career

Canassatego appears in British historical documents only during the last eight years of his life, and so little is known of his early life.Starna, 145. His earliest documented appearance is at a treaty conference in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in 1742, where he was a spokesman for the

people, one of the six nations of the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

(Haudenosaunee) League. According to most modern scholars, Canassatego did not appear to be one of the fourteen Onondaga hereditary

sachem Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Al ...

s who sat on the

Iroquois Grand Council The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...

. But Johansen disagrees, saying that Canassatego held the League title of Tadadaho.Johansen, 91. Pennsylvania land purchases

In the 1730s, a faction of Iroquois leaders opened a diplomatic relationship with the British

Province of Pennsylvania The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn after receiving a land grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania ("Penn's Woods") refers to W ...

, facilitated by

Conrad Weiser Conrad Weiser (November 2, 1696 – July 13, 1760), born Johann Conrad Weiser, Jr., was a Pennsylvania Dutch (German) pioneer who served as an interpreter and diplomat between the Pennsylvania Colony and Native American nations. Primarily a fa ...

, Pennsylvania's interpreter and agent. Pennsylvania agreed to recognize the Iroquois as the owner of all Indian lands in Pennsylvania; the Iroquois, in turn, agreed to sell lands only to Pennsylvania representatives.Starna, 148. Canassatego probably attended a 1736 treaty where some Iroquois chiefs sold land along the

Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...

to Pennsylvania, although the territory had traditionally been occupied by the

Lenape people The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...

. Canassatego served as the speaker for the Onondaga at another conference in 1742, where the Iroquois chiefs collected the final payment for the 1736 land sale. At this meeting, Canassatego managed to convince Governor

Thomas Penn Thomas Penn (8 March 1702 – 21 March 1775) was an English landowner and mercer who was the chief proprietor of Pennsylvania from 1746 to 1775. Penn is best known for his involvement in negotiating the Walking Purchase, a contested land cessi ...

to pay more than the original purchase price. Penn, for his part, urged Canassatego to remove the

Delaware Indians The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...

from what was known as the

Walking Purchase The Walking Purchase (or Walking Treaty) was a 1737 agreement between the Penn family, the original proprietors of the Province of Pennsylvania, later the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Lenape native Indians (also known as the Delaware Ind ...

of 1737, which was quite controversial. Canassatego complied, berating the Delawares as "women" who had no right to sell land, and ordering them to leave. "You are women; take the Advice of a Wise Man and remove immediately", he told the Delaware. The Iroquois denigration of the Delaware as "women" has been the subject of much scholarly writing.

Lancaster treaty

In 1744, Canassatego served as a speaker at meetings to negotiate the

Witham Marshe Witham Marshe was the representative of the colony of Maryland at the negotiation of the Treaty of Lancaster in 1744. He noted that the Iroquois were heavy drinkers, however they were careful to remain sober while negotiating important treaties. ...

, a Marylander in attendance, recorded the only written description of Canassatego: At the treaty conference were representatives of five of the Iroquois nations (except the Mohawk, the easternmost tribe), and the provinces of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. With

King George's War King George's War (1744–1748) is the name given to the military operations in North America that formed part of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748). It was the third of the four French and Indian Wars. It took place primarily in t ...

underway, the British colonies needed to cultivate a good relationship with their Iroquois neighbors, who might otherwise become French allies. After a speech by Canassatego, officials from Maryland and Virginia agreed to pay the Iroquois for land in their colonies, although they believed that the Iroquois had no legitimate claim to those lands. Virginia got the better part of the deal, however: although Canassatego and other Iroquois leaders believed that they had sold only the

Shenandoah Valley The Shenandoah Valley () is a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge- ...

to Virginia, the official deed gave Virginia much more land than that. Near the end of the conference, Canassatego gave the colonists some advice: Canassatego was concerned that the British colonies lacked a coordinated policy to deal with the military threat coming from

. He made similar recommendations about colonial unity at another conference in 1745. His words became a central part of the Iroquois Influence Thesis, the controversial proposal that the Iroquois League was a model for the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...

. Canassatego was replaced by

Hendrick Theyanoguin Hendrick Theyanoguin (c. 1691 – September 8, 1755), whose name had several spelling variations, was a Mohawk leader and member of the Bear Clan. He resided at Canajoharie or the Upper Mohawk Castle in colonial New York.Sivertsen, Barbara J. ' ...

as a 6, not 5, Nation diplomat who continued building alliances with Britain's Northern Colonies with his friend William Johnson in 1754.

was killed fighting the French a year later. This work, begun by Canassatego and continued by

progressed towards Benjamin Franklin's introducing Short Hints towards a Scheme for a General Union of the British Colonies on the Continent, which became the prototype for the US Federal system declared in 1776.

Final years

Canassatego's final appearance at a treaty conference was in August 1749, one year after the end of King George's War. In Philadelphia, he complained that colonists were settling on Native land along the Susquehanna River. He agreed to sell this land to Pennsylvania, but once again, the written document ceded much more land than what had been agreed upon in negotiations. Canassatego was reportedly assassinated with poison in September 1750. Contemporary accounts that were recorded said that he was killed for taking bribes in exchange for selling tribal communal lands. Another said that he had been poisoned by agents of New France. Historian William Starna argued that Canassatego was probably assassinated by pro-French Iroquois who wanted to repudiate Canassatego's diplomatic ties with Pennsylvania.

Legacy

A fictional version of Canasatego was featured in the 1755 novel ''Lydia: or Filial Piety'', by English writer John Shebbeare. Following a literary convention by which Native American characters were used to satirize Europeans, Canassatego was portrayed as wise and honest, in stark contrast to the scheming Englishmen he encounters. The US Navy named the USS ''Canassatego'' (YN-38/YNT-6/YTM-732), a harbor tug, for Canasatego.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography *Boyd, Julian P., ed
''Indian treaties printed by Benjamin Franklin, 1736-1762''
Philadelphia, 1938. * Fenton, William N. ''The Great Law and the Longhouse: a political history of the Iroquois Confederacy.'' Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998. . *Johansen, Bruce E. "By Your Observing the Methods Our Wise Forefathers Have Taken...." In Barbara Alice Mann, ed
''Native American speakers of the Eastern woodlands: selected speeches and critical analyses''
83–105. Greenwood Publishing, 2001. . *Kalter, Susan, ed
''Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania, and the first nations: the treaties of 1736-62''
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006. *Shannon, Timothy J
''Iroquois Diplomacy on the Early American Frontier''
New York: Viking, 2008. {{ISBN, 978-0-670-01897-0. *Starna, William A. "The Diplomatic Career of Canasatego". In William A. Pencak and Daniel K. Richter, eds.
''Friends and Enemies in Penn's Woods: Indians, Colonists, and the Racial Construction of Pennsylvania''
144–63. University Park, Pa., 2004. *Bowen, Catherine Drinker, "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Scenes from the life of Benjamin Franklin," Little, Brown and Company, 1974. 1680s births 1750 deaths 18th-century Native Americans Deaths by poisoning Native American leaders Onondaga people