Joseph Brant and His World: 18th Century Mohawk Warrior and Statesman (Lorimer Illustrated History) Paperback – October 15, 2008

Consider the millions of people who lived in North America before Columbus “discovered” the continent. These were not savages or barbarians—they were human beings living in advanced societies.The reader cannot doubt that Dr. Paxton respects the vibrant cultures and the cultural heritage of the North American aboriginal peoples who are among his professional interests. As an ethnohistorian, he is careful to consider the cultures of the past, and historical cultural change, in contexts that were a reality for the people who sustained those cultures.Paxton is Associate Professor and chair of the History Department at Moravian College (Bethlehem, PA). The scope of his professional inquiry includes early America, antebellum U.S. history and the history of North America's First People. His passion is the cultures—their antecedents, dynamic interactions, and legacies—of the peoples who were Americans before Europeans arrived beginning in the 16th century. Paxton brings candid and eloquent enthusiasm to his work.I talked with him about this book and his views about writing and understanding history. In part, he is motivated by concern that some historians allow "the cultural assumptions of the West" to shape their understanding and interpretation of the past. Referring to biographies of historical figures, Jamie clarified an element of the ethnohistorical approach to understanding and interpreting history: "We must read a biography in the context of the [subject's] environment—it's hard to judge what influenced the subject, we must contextualize the person." He cautioned that many biographers fall short of this standard ("the whole genre of biographies is problematic"). Many of the existing biographies and treatments of Joseph Brant "offer a flawed framework" of Brant's life and cultural milieu, emphasizing a popular view that the Mohawk leader was "a man of two worlds," that is, the respected Mohawk warrior in the Native American milieu and also the potent, Anglicized "Indian" representative who was a confidant of British colonial administrators and a transoceanic traveler who talked with King George III.In Joseph Brant and His World, Paxton clarifies and expands his own assessment, and his commitment to contextual interpretation: "Brant was fully a Mohawk, but not a Mohawk chief; he was a New World creole, you can't disentangle the multiple cultures he lived in . . . in aboriginal culture, there was no tradition of coerced leadership, Brant was an orator rather than a statesman . . . his wife was an influential clan mother, he was as much channeling decisions as making decisions . . . Brant's connection to the British was important—in aboriginal culture, power was in alliances, independence was ludicrous." Brant was not a simple "cultural chameleon" who could function in distinct Mohawk and British cultures. He was a leader who experienced and helped shape the interaction and evolution of those cultures:"Joseph Brant was a Mohawk. He embodied the broader changes Mohawks had found useful and necessary to live in a predominantly Anglo-American world. It says much about modern myopia when we fail to note that the Mohawks' German and Scots-Irish neighbors also found it useful and necessary to learn the Mohawk language and Haudenosaunee rituals. In important ways, the Mohawk and Grand River valleys were not racial frontiers but sites of cultural blending (p. 78)."Joseph Brant and His World embraces the ethnohistorical commitment to explore and elaborate past cultures and cultural interactions from the point of view of the participants, respecting the milieux they sustained. of my book reviews hererichardsubber.com Read more

James W. Paxton presents Thayandenagea otherwise known as Joseph Brant as a real-estate agent of multiculturalism and assimilation. Born in the Ohio River Valley in March 1743, the offspring of Huron captives/adoptees, Thayandenagea was brought up among Palatines and Mohawks in what is now Canajoharie, New York. Fighting on the losing side of the American Revolution, Joseph Brant struck a deal with British to lead the Canajoharies north into what became Ontario, Canada to settle on land 6 miles on either side of the Grand River, in what is now Brantford and Six Nations/Ohsweken. The terms of the settlement were unclear as to title to the land. It was left an open question whether the Indians owned the land and had the right to sell and lease it, or whether the Indians who settled on Grand River were stewards of the land and dependents on the British crown, which awarded the tribes annual gifts. This ambiguity has never been resolved, contributing to ongoing disputes and resentments around Caledonia, Ontario, and generally in this region. Brant seized the initiative and leased tracts of land, but his right to do so remains in doubt. The question of who owns what land and for how long is part of Brant's legacy to Canada. Paxton does a good job of setting out Brant's family history, especially the history of Joseph's mother Margaret and his sister Molly, who, according to Mohawk matrilineal custom, were important players in the politics of upstate New York, Niagara, and Ontario in the 18th century.Paxton also presents valuable accounts of Klock, Russell, Simcoe, Johnson, and Norton as agents of Colonial History, and he details various battles, skirmishes, and wars, and their outcomes. Paxton twice states that Joseph Brant was Mohawk, but he also indicates that both of Joseph Brant's parents may have been Whites at birth, Mohawk by capture and assimilation.

Just what I needed!