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.This is a family quarrel between us and oldEngland.We desire you to remain at home, and not join oneither side, but keep the hatchet buried deep. 54 THE MOHAWKFor their part, the British attempted to use their long-standing alliance with the Iroquois to convince the Indians tofight against the revolutionaries.In July 1775, Sir FrederickHaldimand, governor of Canada, met with Mohawk leadersand told them: Now is the time for you to help the King.Thewar has begun.Assist the King now, and you will find it to youradvantage.Go now and fight for your possessions, and what-ever you lose of your property during the war, the King willmake up to you when peace returns. Because the British were well aware of the Iroquois need ofEuropean goods, they tried to become their sole suppliers ofclothing and other necessities so that the Indians would remainloyal to them.In 1776, they successfully cut off the flow ofAmerican goods when they defeated American troops led byGeorge Washington in New York City.British officials also used their friendship with severalinfluential Mohawk leaders to enlist Indian support.JosephBrant, grandson of one of the Four Indian Kings entertainedin London in 1710 and himself a powerful leader and orator,was invited to England.There he heard numerous argumentsfavoring Iroquois military assistance for Great Britain.Brantreturned to New York and spoke vigorously in support of theBritish cause at council meetings of the confederacy.The leaguerefused to officially endorse either the British or American side.Three nations the Mohawk, the Seneca, and the Cayugafavored the British.The Oneida and Tuscarora leaned towardthe Americans, and the Onondaga, divided among themselves,were unable to take a stand.Without a consensus, the IroquoisConfederacy adopted a position of neutrality, more bydefault than by conviction.The dissension among its membersshook the stability of the league because the confederacy hadalways drawn its strength from the principle of unanimity, ofOne Heart, One Mind, One Law.Reacting to insurmountabledisagreements among the nations, confederacy leaders coveredup the council fire at the principal Onondaga village in 1777. Deepening Crises 55Joseph Brant, or Thayendanegea, was an ardent supporter of theBritish during both the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars.After the Revolution, Brant secured land for his people near present-day Brantford, Ontario. 56 THE MOHAWKThis symbolic gesture foreshadowed the end of the league as adominant political and military force in the region.Many Mohawk leaders and warriors remained neutralduring the Revolution.Others, led by Joseph Brant, supportedthe British.Several considerations led to their decision.First,after 1776, the British had succeeded in becoming theMohawks greatest supplier of tools, clothing, and weapons.The Indians economic dependence was translated into amilitary alliance.Second, the Mohawks continued to be wary ofcolonists incursions into their territory.They were warned byBritish officials that a rebel victory would signal the end of theIndians control over their land.The British argued that therebels could not be trusted to respect the Mohawks landclaims.Their prediction was supported by an action of the NewYork legislature during the Revolution.The state claimed allIndian land within its boundaries and promised to give sixhundred acres to anyone who enlisted in the rebel army.Some Mohawks were persuaded to continue their militaryalliance with Great Britain, while others fought on the side ofthe Americans.Most, though, remained neutral.Regardlessof their allegiances, Mohawk communities around Albany weretargets of retaliation by American settlers.Crops were burned,livestock was stolen, and people were attacked.In 1779, anAmerican army under the command of General John Sullivandestroyed Iroquois villages throughout New York.The Treaty of Paris in 1783 formally concluded the Revolu-tionary War.It also marked the end of what little security theMohawks had had in New York.The treaty transferred Britishterritory as far west as the Mississippi River to the victoriousAmericans.However, it did not address the issue of Indianrights to land in this area.Only Governor Haldimand ofCanada spoke up for Indian claims at the treaty conference.He argued that the Natives did not think Great Britain hadthe right to cede their lands to the United States and wanted tomaintain the boundaries provided in the 1768 Treaty of Fort Deepening Crises 57Stanwix.Haldimand s recommendations were ignored.By theearly 1780s, most of the Mohawks had left their traditionallands in New York to seek safety in Canada.The Mohawk refugees slowly began the process of rebuildingtheir lives in Canada, hoping finally to live and prosper in peace.They came to reside in five communities each of which had itsown complex history and unique problems and opportunities.The people hoped to be able to reaffirm the ancestral bonds thathad kept them of One Mind for so many centuries.But thesebonds had been torn asunder by conflicts that the Mohawks didnot create but that had, in the end, engulfed them nonetheless. 5A NationDividedost of the Mohawks had emigrated from their traditional lands byMthe end of the eighteenth century and settled in several communi-ties where they hoped to reestablish their lives in tranquility andharmony.The first Mohawk refugees in the seventeenth century wantedto escape from intertribal conflicts caused by economic competitionover the fur trade.A hundred years later, a new group of refugees lefttheir aboriginal territory because of warfare between Great Britainand the American colonies.In all cases, the Mohawks had to adjust tonew circumstances beyond their control.They did so while tryingto maintain as much of their traditional culture as possible.Founded in 1667, the mission settlement of Kahnawake, La Prairie,was located south of Montreal on land granted by the king ofFrance and owned in trust by the Jesuits.Although the majority ofKahnawake s residents were Mohawks, members of other nations inthe Iroquois Confederacy sought refuge there as well.58 A Nation Divided 59As Kahnawake grew, it became famous for several of itsinhabitants
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