Notable Face

overview of the Chief Joseph series, bringing together all that we've learned about a misunderstood and heroic figure.

Even to the lay historian, the most notable Native American figure in the American Revolution is Chief Joseph Brant; Mohawk warrior, British sympathizer, and patriot. For Brant, an independent American nation was a dangerous element that threatened to undermine the security of the Iroquois Confederacy. For Brant, closely associated with the British aristocracy, the furture of the Iroquois was connected with the longevity of British hegemony in North America. A British victory meant an Iroquois victory.

While he lived, Brant was vilified by the American media as a vindictive warrior, who bathed in the blood of his fallen enemies and exercised no remorse for the slaughter of innoncence. At least, this was the potrayal of Brant by colonial newspapers. This was not only unfair, but totally fabricated. Brant was a fierce warrior, and when pushed to the exteme by the actions of his enemies he proved a force to be reckoned with. However, he was far from the war criminal he was made out to be. He was a patriot, at least in the eyes of the Mohawk. He saw the dangers of an expanding America and realized that the only way to protect Iroquois territory would be to ally with those who had always been friends...the British.

His choice was the rational one; fight with an ally he had learned to trust and protect his homeland from encroachment by a people who had always looked on his lands with a hungry eye. In war, he fought with honor. In peace, though he could never accept an independent America, he worked for Native American unity--to protect what lands remained. History has viewed Joseph Brant in a much more positive light than his contemporaries. That is one of the many tragic results of the American Revolution.