10115 Chief Joseph Brant, 1776

Chief Joseph Brant, 1777-83

Joseph Brant (Mohawk name Thayendanegea) grew up the Mohawk and Iroquois lands of New York, a territory under British influence. He attended Moor’s Charity School for Indians, (which became Dartmouth) and learned to read and write English. This education gave him the skills which made him prosperous and favored by the English. During the French & Indian War he traveled with his brother-in-law, Sir William Johnson, a British officer. Brant learned to speak six tribal languages and became a trusted leader of both natives and settlers. But when war broke out again in 1775 Brant predicted that independence for the colonists meant the end of native independence across North American.