The most celebrated of the Five Nations (see
Iroquois Confederacy). Their proper name was Agmegue, and they called themselves, as
[
218]
a tribe, She-bears.
That animal was their totemic symbol.
The neighboring tribes called them
Mahaqua, which name the
English pronounced
Mohawk.
Champlain and his followers, French and Indians from
Canada, fought them in northern New York in 1609.
At
Norman's Kill, below the site of
Albany, the
Dutch made a treaty with them in 1698, which was lasting; and the
English, also, after the conquest of New Netherland, gained their friendship.
The
French Jesuits gained many converts among them, and three villages of Roman Catholics on the
St. Lawrence were largely filled with the Mohawks.
They served the
English against the Canadians in the
French and Indian War, and in the
Revolutionary War, influenced by
Sir William Johnson and his brother-in-law
Brant, they made savage war on the patriots, causing the valleys in central New York to be called the “Dark and bloody ground.”
After that struggle, the greater portion of them removed to
Grand River, 50 or 60 miles west of the
Niagara River, where they still are. Many of them are Christians.
The Common Prayer-book has been translated into their language, one edition by
Eleazar Williams (q. v.), the “Lost
Prince.”
Tradition says that at the formation of the confederacy
Hiawatha said, “You, the Mohawks, sitting under the shadow of the ‘Great Tree,’ whose roots sink deep into the earth, and whose branches spread over a vast country, shall be the first nation, because you are warlike and mighty.”
The confederacy being called “the long house,” the Mohawks were denominated the “eastern door.”
The
Mohawks in eastern New York made frequent incursions into
Canada.
Finally, in 1661,
M. de Tracy, French viceroy of New France, although over seventy years of age, led a military expedition against them.
He was accompanied by
M. de Courcelles, governor of
Canada.
A regiment had lately been sent to
Canada from
France.
With twenty-eight companies of foot, and all the militia of the colony of
Quebec, he marched 700 miles into the
Mohawk country in the dead of winter, easily crossing the swamps and streams on bridges of ice, and burrowing in the snow at night.
The
Mohawks, on the approach of the
French, retired deeper into the forest with their women and children, and all the invaders accomplished was to burn several villages and murder some sachems.
In the spring of 1667 the exasperated
Canadians resolved to chastise them for their perfidy.
De Tracy again set out in person at the head of 1,200 white soldiers and 100 Indian allies, passed down
Lake Champlain in boats and canoes, and in October marched through the
Mohawk country, burning the villages and setting up the arms of
France at conspicuous places.
On his return to
Quebec De Tracy sent back prisoners with terms of peace for the Mohawks to consider.
The
English, made anxious by these events, tried to persuade the Mohawks to remain faithful to then; but the latter, remembering how well the
French could fight, and also the fearful sight of their burning villages, their women and children hiding in the woods, and their dead warriors, would not listen to the appeals of the
English.
When the warm weather came deputations from the Mohawks and Oneidas appeared in
Quebec and promised submission.
The
Indians brought their families with them to attest their sincerity, and a treaty was made by which the Mohawks promised allegiance to the
French monarch.
They also consented to listen to the teachings of the
Jesuit missionaries.
This treaty left the whole northern frontier exposed to incursions by the
French and
Indians.
In 1693
Count Frontenac, governor of
Canada, unable to effect a treaty of peace with the Five Nations, meditated a blow on the Mohawks.
In midwinter he collected an army of about 700 French and Indians, well supplied with everything for a campaign at that season.
They left
Montreal Jan. 15, and after several hardships reached the
Mohawk Valley early in February, and captured three castles.
At the third castle they found some Indians engaged in a war-dance.
There a severe conflict ensued, in which the
French lost about thirty men. In the expedition they captured about 300 Indians in the
English interest, and were making their way back to
Canada when they were pursued by
Colonel Schuyler and several skirmishes ensued.
In the Scarron (Schroon) Valley the pursuit ended.
The
French had desired to kill their prisoners to facilitate
[
219]
their retreat, but their Indian allies would not consent.
Of these
Schuyler recaptured about fifty.
The
Mohawks called
 |
|
Mohawk Church. |
Colonel Schuyler “Great swift hero,” because of his promptness in coming to their relief.
The
Mohawks, discouraged by their heavy loss, were disposed to make a treaty of peace with the
French, but
Schuyler prevented it.
The governors of
Canada during the
Revolutionary War promised those of the Six Nations who joined the
British in that war that they should be well provided for at its close.
In the treaty of peace (1783) no such promise was kept.
At that time the Mohawks, with
Brant at their head, were temporarily residing on the
American side of the
Niagara River, below
Lewiston.
The
Senecas offered them a home in the
Genesee Valley, but
Brant and his followers had resolved not to reside within the
United States.
He went to
Quebec to claim from
Governor Haldimand a fulfilment of his and
Carleton's promises.
The Mohawks chose a large tract of land, comprising 200 square miles on the
Ouise or
Grand River, or 6 miles on each side of that stream from its source to its mouth.
It is chiefly a beautiful and fertile region.
Of all that splendid domain, the Mohawks now retain only a comparatively small tract in the vicinity of
Brantford, on the
Grand River.
In 1830 they surrendered to the government the town-plot of
Brantford, when it was surveyed and sold to actual settlers.
On their present reservation is a church built of wood in 1783, a plain, unpretending structure.
It is furnished with a silver communion service which Queen Anne presented to the Mohawks in 1712.
Upon each piece is engraved the royal arms of
England and the monogram of the
Queen, “A. R.” —
Anna Regina—with the following inscription: “The Gift of her Majesty, Anne, by the Grace of God, of
Great Britain,
France, and
Ireland, and of her Plantations in
North America,
Queen, to her Indian Chapel of the Mohawks.”
