"Burying the Hatchet" at the Treaty of Kahnawake

    In the summer of 1760, the aboriginal alliance known as the Seven Nations of Canada realized that the British were going to win the French and Indian War. They accepted peace overtures by Sir William Johnson and abandoned their French allies as the British army converged on what was left of New France.
   On September 15th and 16th of 1760, a week after the capitulation of Montreal, a peace council was held at Kahnawake to restore peaceful relations between the Seven Nations and Iroquois Confederacy, and to formally welcome the former allies of the French into the Covenant Chain of Peace and Friendship with Great Britain. This was the culmination of the diplomacy Johnson had begun at Oswegatchie and continued at Akwesasne.
   While the record of these meetings have somehow vanished from the historical record, a partial transcript of the council at Kahnawake has survived. Although this document contains only what was said by the representatives of the Seven Nations on the second day of the council, we can infer by what was said that the British passed a number of wampum belts across the fire to “document” the promises and commitments made to their new allies.
   The speaker for the Seven Nations began his remarks with a greeting to “Brother Warraghiyagey” (Sir William Johnson’s Mohawk name):

…We are glad to meet you and thank you for your friendly Advice sent us from Oswego, that we should keep out of the Way; We have paid a due Regard thereto and thank the Great Spirit above who allows us to meet together this Day in so Friendly a Manner…

The speaker then presented a string of wampum to Johnson. Next he addressed the delegates of the Five Nations with a wampum belt and the following message:

…It gives us great Pleasure of your having resolved at Swegatchy to accompany our Brother Warraghiyagey as far as here. Your coming along was very necessary and of mutual Service. We therefore most sincerely return you our hearty Thanks for it…

The Speaker then resumed his speech to Johnson:

…We heard and took to heart the good Words you spoke to us yesterday; We thank you most heartily for renewing and strengthning the old Covenant Chain which before this War subsisted between us, and we in the Name of every Nation here present assure you that we will hold fast the Same, for ever hereafter…
   …We are greatly oblidged to you for opening the Road from this to your Country, we on our parts assure you to keep it clear of any Obstacle & use it in a friendly Manner…
   …You desired us to deliver up your People who are still among us - As you have now settled all matters with us & we are become firm Friends. We who are present here as Representatives of 8 Nations do assure you that what you desired shall be fully agreed to as soon as possible…
   …We also agreeable to your Desire yesterday will burry the french hatchet we have made Use of, in the bottomless Pit, never to be Seen more by us or our Posterity…

These last two points were given with wampum belts. The speaker then addressed the Iroquois Confederacy again, addressing them as “Brethren of the 5 Nations”:

…In Return to your Belt of Yesterday Whereby you told us that your Brother Warraghiyagey had finished every thing with us you on your part had something to say which was that as there had been during this War a Division & Disunion between us; and desired us to reunite & be firm Friends as heretofore, We hereby assure all here present that we with pleasure agree to your friendly Proposal and reunite as formerly…

The speaker addressed Sir William Johnson again:

…With Regard to the String you spoke by yesterday of Returning as soon as possible to your homes and of your leaving two Persons behind to transact Business in your Absence and at the same time told us to send some of every Nation with you to Albany in order to try the goodness of the Road, we are ready whenever You go to accompany You…

This was given with a wampum string. The next part of the speech was given with a large wampum belt.

…As we have now made a firm Peace with the English & the 6 Nations we shall endeavour all in our Power to keep it inviolably. There is one thing Brother which we understand you have great Plenty of, which is Liquor, as that is the only thing which can turn our heads and prove fatal to us, we who now represent 8 Nations here present entreat you in the most earnest Manner not to suffer any of your People to sell or give any to us…
…With another large Belt they made the same Request to the 6 Nations not to bring any Liquor to their Country…
…Every thing now settled between us in the most friendly Manner which we rejoice at; We have only to acquaint you that our Young Men are soon going upon the hunt and perhaps may happen to come to some of your Posts, that you will give Strict charge to the Officers of every Post along not to suffer any Person to dispose of any Liquor to any of our People that may come there as it might be productive of Disputes & ill Consequences between them & your People which might shake the Friendship now so happily strengthned and which by all Means I will endeavour to avoid…

This was accompanied by a black (actually purple) wampum belt. The speaker then reminded Johnson that under the French, blacksmiths were allowed to work for them at the government’s expense. With his next statement, also accompanied by a wampum belt, he acknowledged that the British had allowed them to keep their Catholic priests:

…We are heartily thankfull to the General for his Goodness in allowing our Priests to remain & instruct us as usual, and we shall endeavour to make good Use of it, as He is now the head of all here, & had subdued our former Superiors, who maintained our Priests, they must now suffer & cannot subsist without your Assistance; Therefore we beg you will not be worse than our former Friends the french. And also beg that you will regulate Trade so that we may not be imposed upon by the People our new Brothers…
…Then arose Ad’yadarony chief of the Warriors of Caghnawagy and addressed himself to Sir William in the following manner…
…The Sachems having finished the Good Work of Peace which is agreeable to all our young Men, I shall offer something in behalf of them, which I beg you to take Notice of. -- Should any of the young People thro’ Imprudence or Liquor drop or make Use of any foolish or rash Expression to You or those you leave behind, we beg you will not take Notice of them, but of us now present who are their chiefs…

He then gave Sir William a “a warrior’s belt.”

…As we are now linked together in the Chain of Friendship; we the Warriors have one Request more to make which is that if Mr. Purthuit alias Ohowa late Interpreter to Onontio should apply to you to be further employed that Way, you will not hear to it, but let him go with his former Master over the great Lake and let us have on of your own People to act as Interpreter…

This statement was accompanied by a string of wampum. The speaker then concluded his remarks with the following words, accompanied by “a large black belt.”

…As every Matter is now settled to our mutual Satisfaction we have on Request to make to You who have now the Possession of this Country, That as we have according to your Desire kept out of the Way of your Army, You will allow us the peaceable Possession of the Spot of Ground we live now upon, and in case we should remove from it, to reserve to us as our own…

Thus ends the only known transcript of the most important meeting of Mohawk history since confederation -the one in which the Seven Nations of Canada and the Iroquois Confederacy “buried the hatchet” after five years of conflict. The resumption of peaceful relations between the two did not mean that the Mohawks of Kahnawake, Kanehsatake, and Akwesasne were returning to the Iroquois Confederacy, however. They continued to speak through the Great Council Fire of the Seven Nations of Canada for many generations afterward.
As for the promises made by the British to the Seven Nations, they of course reneged on them. Sir William Johnson had to intervene on our behalf to have those treaty rights reinstated. In doing so, he left behind a legacy of documentation that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the communities of the Seven Nations were true sovereigns whose rights came not from the benevolence of some colonial power, but were inherent in our communities from the beginning. This is something the Crown’s current representatives-and many of our own people-still have a hard time grasping.

[Author’s Note: Slight changes have been made to the text quoted above for clarity. Words that were crossed out in the text have been eliminated, and abbreviations have been expanded. Salutations before each paragraph of the speeches (such as Brother Warraghiyagey) have also been eliminated. Typographical errors have been left as is. Those who require the original text should consult The Papers of Sir William Johnson, Volume XIII, available at the Akwesasne Library and Cultural Center. For those with the internet, it also available at www.wampumchronicles.com/treatyofkahnawake.html. I also recommend the following books that deal with this time period: The Last French and Indian War by Denis Vaugeouis, Les Traites Des Sept-Feux Avec Les Britanniques by Denys Delage and Jean-Pierre Sawaya, and The Canadian Iroquois and the Seven Year’s War by D. Peter MacLeod.]

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Was Akwesasne's "Burnt Church" a Sacrifice to Peace?

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