Hendrick Tejonihokarawa (Tay yon’ a ho ga rau’ a), also known as ''Tee Yee Neen Ho Ga Row'' and Hendrick Peters (1660 – ) was a pro-English leader of the

Mohawk Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans * Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) *Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people * Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been ...

in the Province of New York in the early eighteenth century. He was one of the "

Four Mohawk Kings 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 Mahican of the Algonquian peoples, whose portraits were painted by Jan Verelst in London to commemorat ...

" who went to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1710 to meet with Queen Anne and her court to mark a treaty with her. The chiefs requested the Queen's help in controlling French influence in New York and asked for English missionaries to help their people offset French Catholic influence. The Mohawk diplomacy helped the Iroquois preserve their power through the colonial years.

Early life and education

Tejonihokarawa was born into the Wolf

Clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, meaning ...

of his mother; the Mohawk and all Iroquoian nations had a

matrilineal Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's Lineage (anthropology), lineage – and which can in ...

kinship In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...

system, in which descent and social status were passed through the maternal line.Barbara J. Sivertsen, ''Turtles, Wolves, and Bears: A Mohawk Family History'' (1996), genealogy, reprint Heritage Books, 2007 The English translation of his name is "open the door", suggesting he may have had the responsibility for opening the

longhouse A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America. Many were built from timber and often rep ...

door to receive visitors. He was given the name Hendrick Peters in July 1690 when he was baptized by

Godfridius Dellius Godefridus Dellius (baptized 28 October 1654 – 1738) was a clergyman of the Dutch Reformed Church active in and around Albany, New York during the late 17th century and up to 1699. He also served as a missionary to the Mohawk people in what the ...

as a Christian and member of the

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...

. According to the anthropologist

Dean Snow Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

, Peters later became a Protestant preacher. He lived in the lower Mohawk village known as ''

Tionondoroge Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site, also known as Erie Canal National Historic Landmark, is a historic district that includes the ruins of the Erie Canal aqueduct over Schoharie Creek, and a long part of the Erie Canal, in the towns of Glen ...

'', along the Mohawk River. The English built

Fort Hunter Fort Hunter is a hamlet in the Town of Florida in Montgomery County, New York, United States, west of the capital at Albany, on the south bank of the Mohawk River and on the northeast bank of Schoharie Creek. The hamlet developed around a fort of ...

here, where Schoharie Creek entered the Mohawk River.

Career

By 1710 Tejonihokarawa may have been selected as one of three Wolf Clan

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, with the title ''Sharenhowaneh.'' The sachems were chosen by the women elders of the clan.Snow, Dean R. "Searching for Hendrick: Correction of a Historic Conflation"
, ''New York History'', Summer 2007, accessed 8 October 2011 His actions helped build the alliance with the English and preserve 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 ...

as a key power to be reckoned with in North America in the early 18th century. He met with English leaders at Albany to preserve Mohawk territory to the west throughout the Mohawk River Valley. Other nations of the Iroquois had territories to the west and north of there, closer to the Great Lakes. He and two other Mohawk chiefs, in addition to a Mahican chief, sailed to London in 1710 to meet with Queen Anne and her court, to mark a treaty. While in London, Tejonihokarawa requested Anglican

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

to help offset French Catholic influence in

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 ...

territory. After the French severely damaged Mohawk villages in 1666, they had forced the people to accept Catholic

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

as missionaries. The Jesuits soon set up a base near what later developed as

Auriesville, New York Auriesville is a hamlet in the northeastern part of the Town of Glen in Montgomery County, New York, United States, along the south bank of the Mohawk River and west of Fort Hunter. It lies about forty miles west of Albany, the state capital. ...

, a few miles west of Schoharie Creek. They had been working to recruit Mohawk converts in present-day New York. Numerous converted Mohawk had migrated to the St. Lawrence River area, settling at the mission village of ''

Kahnewake The Kahnawake Mohawk Territory (french: Territoire Mohawk de Kahnawake, in the Mohawk language, ''Kahnawáˀkye'' in Tuscarora) is a First Nations reserve of the Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, C ...

'' south of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

. Queen Anne sent Anglican missionaries to the New York Colony in 1711, who established a mission and chapel at Fort Hunter. The nearby Mohawk village became largely Christianized within years. In turn, Queen Anne had asked Tejonihokarawa for help in resettling Palatine German refugees in New York. They had been working at English camps in the Hudson Valley to pay off their passage to the colony and wanted their own lands. Through Governor Hunter, Tejonihokarawa offered Mohawk land in his territory to the refugees, some of whom took land near Schoharie Creek. Tejonihokarawa was deposed by Wolf Clan matrons in the winter of 1712-1713, apparently because of differences with the missionaries. By 1720 he had been restored to power, as he was noted as sachem in colonial records. In 1723, a group of 100 Germans were given grants of Mohawk land west of present-day Little Falls, in what is now known as the Burnetsfield Patent in the Mohawk Valley, on both sides of the river. They started other settlements as well. This area was upriver and west of existing Dutch and English settlements, as well as the upper Mohawk village of ''

Canajoharie Canajoharie (), also known as the "Upper Castle", was the name of one of two major towns of the Mohawk nation in 1738. The community stretched for a mile and a half along the southern bank of the Mohawk River, from a village known as ''Dekanohage' ...

''. Tejonihokarawa also traveled to northern New England, trying to build alliances with the

Abenaki The Abenaki (Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was predom ...

there, but he was prevented from meeting with them. They had frequently allied with the French in this period. Until Barbara Sivertsen's work published in 1996, biographical details concerning Tejonihokarawa, or King Hendrick, have frequently been confused with the similarly named

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. ' ...

, who was three decades younger.

References

Sources

Eric Hinderaker Eric A. Hinderaker (born 1959) is an American historian specializing in early America. Education and career Hinderaker graduated from Watertown High School (South Dakota) in 1977. He received his B.A. from Augustana College (now Augustana Uni ...

''The Two Hendricks: Unraveling a Mohawk Mystery''
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2010. * Barbara J. Sivertsen, ''Turtles, Wolves, and Bears: A Mohawk Family History'' (1996), reprint Heritage Books, 2007

''New York History'', Summer 2007

Early life and education

Career

References

Sources

Further reading