John Brant or Ahyonwaeghs (September 27, 1794 – August 27, 1832) was a

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 ...

chief and government official in

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of th ...

. Brant was born near the current site of

Brantford, Ontario Brantford ( 2021 population: 104,688) is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by Brant County, but is politically separate with a municipal government of its own that is fully indepen ...

, the son of Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) and Catharine Croghan Brant (Adonwentishon). His father Joseph was a Mohawk chief who became famous during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. His mother Catharine was from an important Mohawk lineage: while her father was the Irish trader

George Croghan George Croghan (c. 1718 – August 31, 1782) was an Irish-born fur trader in the Ohio Country of North America (current United States) who became a key early figure in the region. In 1746 he was appointed to the Onondaga Council, the governin ...

, her mother was the sister of Johannes Tekarihoga, one of the hereditary Mohawk civil leaders (or

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). Because the Mohawks were 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 – and which can involve the inheritance ...

society, the title " Tekarihoga" did not pass from father to son. Instead, the women in the family selected the next Tekarihoga from their male relatives. As

Clan Mother 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, mean ...

, Catharine Brant would name Johannes Tekarihoga's successor. At a young age, her son John became an obvious candidate for the next Tekarihoga. The family moved near

Burlington Bay Hamilton Harbour, formerly known as Burlington Bay, lies on the western tip of Lake Ontario, bounded on the northwest by the City of Burlington, on the south by the City of Hamilton, and on the east by Hamilton Beach (south of the Burlington B ...

in 1802. John Brant studied at Ancaster and Niagara ( Niagara-on-the-Lake). In the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

, Brant and John Norton led native warriors to stop an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

attack at the Battle of Queenston Heights in October 1812. He was made a lieutenant in the

Indian Department The Indian Department was established in 1755 to oversee relations between the British Empire and the First Nations of North America. The imperial government ceded control of the Indian Department to the Province of Canada in 1860, thus setting ...

and was involved in several battles throughout the war. He helped his uncle try to get a formal deed for grant of land along the Grand River called the

Haldimand Proclamation The ''Haldimand Proclamation'' was a decree that granted land to the Mohawk (or Kanien'kehà:ka) (Mohawk nation) who had served on the British side during the American Revolution. The decree was issued by the Governor of the Province of Quebec, ...

to the Six Nations. In 1821, he went to England with Robert Johnson Kerr after Lieutenant-Governor Sir

Peregrine Maitland General Sir Peregrine Maitland, GCB (6 July 1777 – 30 May 1854) was a British soldier and colonial administrator. He also was a first-class cricketer from 1798 to 1808 and an early advocate for the establishment of what would become the Canad ...

informed them that they had no title to the northern part of the grant. Despite their efforts, the government of the colony managed to retain control over the sale of native lands in the area. Brant encouraged the building of schools for his people. In 1828, he was appointed resident superintendent for the Six Nations of the Grand River. In 1830, he was elected to the

Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada The Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada was the elected part of the legislature for the province of Upper Canada, functioning as the lower house in the Parliament of Upper Canada. Its legislative power was subject to veto by the appointed Lie ...

for Haldimand. He was the first Indian to sit in Upper Canada's parliament as a lawmaker. But a year later, his right to hold the seat was questioned as he did not own the amount of property required under the law at the time to sit in the Assembly, and he was thrown out of office.

John Warren John Warren may refer to: Medicine * John Warren (surgeon) (1753–1815), American surgeon during the Revolutionary War * John Collins Warren (1778–1856), American surgeon * John Collins Warren Jr. (1842–1927), American surgeon, son of John C ...

was declared elected.; Lefroy, On the Probable Number of the Native Population of British North America, 1853, p. 13 In about 1830 his mother Catharine named him as the next Tekarihoga, succeeding his recently deceased uncle Henry Tekarihoga. Brant held the office for only a short time; he died in 1832 near Brantford, a victim of a cholera pandemic. He was married to Ann Seabrook on February 17, 1825.

References

*Kelsay, Isabel Thompson. ''Joseph Brant, 1743–1807, Man of Two Worlds.'' Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1984. (hardback); (1986 paperback). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brant, John 1794 births 1832 deaths British Indian Department Indigenous people of the War of 1812 Indigenous leaders in Ontario Deaths from cholera Members of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada Canadian Mohawk people