John Smoke Johnson (December 2 or 14, 1792 – August 26, 1886) or Sakayengwaraton (also known as Smoke Johnson), 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 ...

leader in Canada. After Johnson fought for the British Crown in the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It be ...

, he was honoured by his tribal council as a "Pine Tree Chief", a non-hereditary position. He was influential in the Mohawk and

Anglophone Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the ''Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest language ...

communities of

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

Early life and education

Smoke Johnson was born in 1792 in Ontario into the Bear

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, mea ...

of his Mohawk mother at the Six Nations

Indian reserve In Canada, an Indian reserve (french: réserve indienne) is specified by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." In ...

. In the Mohawk

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 ...

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, the mother's clan and eldest brother were most important in her children's life; they took their status from her clan. His father was Jacob ''Tekahionwake'' Johnson (1758–1843). Smoke was reared in traditional Mohawk culture, but likely learned English as well. His father Tekahionwake was born in Mohawk territory in the colony of New York, in what became the United States. ''Tekahionwake'' was baptized and took the name Jacob Johnson, adopting his surname from that of

Sir William Johnson Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet of New York ( – 11 July 1774), was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Ireland. As a young man, Johnson moved to the Province of New York to manage an estate purchased by his uncle, Royal Na ...

, the influential British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, who acted as his godfather.Leighton, ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'' Jacob passed the Johnson surname down to his children. With the United States victory in 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 ...

, the Mohawk and other Iroquois allies of the British had been forced to cede their large territories in New York. They moved to Canada, where the British Crown granted them land in compensation at the Six Nations and other reserves in what became Ontario.

Marriage and family

Smoke Johnson married Helen Martin (1798 – March 27, 1866) of the Wolf clan. She was the daughter of Catherine Rolleston and her husband ''Ohyeatea'', also known as George Martin. Catherine Rolleston was ethnic Dutch, but she had been captured as a girl by the Mohawk, adopted by a family in the Wolf clan, and became assimilated as Mohawk. The Johnsons had seven children, who were considered to be born into the Wolf clan: Mary, Aaron, Joseph, William, Margret, Susannah and George Henry Martin (''Onwanonsyshon'').

Career

Johnson became a leader in Canada. He fought for the British Crown in the

and was honored by his tribal council when chosen as a "Pine Tree Chief", a non-hereditary position. He was influential in the Mohawk and British communities of Ontario, Canada.

Legacy

His son George Henry Martin Johnson was selected as a hereditary Mohawk chief of his mother's Wolf clan in the

society. Fluent in English and

, he became a leader on the Six Nations reserve and an interpreter for the Canadian government. As an informal diplomat and negotiator, he helped facilitate relations between the Native and British communities. George Johnson married Emily Howells, a native of England whose family had immigrated to the United States in 1832. They had four children, including

Emily Pauline Johnson Emily Pauline Johnson (10 March 1861 – 7 March 1913), also known by her Mohawk stage name ''Tekahionwake'' (pronounced ''dageh-eeon-wageh'', ), was a Canadian poet, author, and performer who was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centur ...

(1861–1913), who became a respected Native American poet.

Notes and references

External links and further reading

Horatio Hale, "Chapter III: The Book of Rites", ''The Iroquois Book of Rites'' (1883), Gutenberg Website
references to J. S. Johnson and his son George M. Johnson
Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
* O'Toole, Fintan, ''White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America''; New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005. .
"John Smoke Johnson"
The Pauline Johnson Archive, McMaster University {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, John Smoke 1792 births 1886 deaths Canadian Mohawk people Native American leaders Native American people of the Indian Wars Indigenous leaders in Ontario Six Nations of the Grand River