Canasatego

Canassatego (c. 1684–1750) was a leader of the Onondaga nation who became a prominent diplomat and spokesman of the Iroquois Confederacy in the 1740s. He was involved in several controversial land sales to colonial British officials. He is now best known for a speech he gave at the 1744 Treaty of Lancaster, where he recommended that the British colonies emulate the Iroquois by forming a confederacy.[1] He was reportedly assassinated, perhaps by sympathizers or agents of New France.

Canassatego
Onondaga leader
Personal details
Bornc. 1684
Died1750

Early career

Canassatego appears in British historical documents only during the last eight years of his life, and so little is known of his early life.[2] His earliest documented appearance is at a treaty conference in Philadelphia in 1742,[2] where he was a spokesman for the Onondaga people, one of the six nations of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) League. According to most modern scholars, Canassatego did not appear to be one of the fourteen Onondaga hereditary sachems who sat on the Iroquois Grand Council.[2][3][4] But Johansen disagrees, saying that Canassatego held the League title of Tadadaho.[5]

This map shows Pennsylvania's land purchases from Native Americans. Canassatego had a role in the 1736 and 1749 sales, although the Iroquois League nations had a questionable claim to those lands.

In the 1730s, a faction of Iroquois leaders opened a diplomatic relationship with the British Province of Pennsylvania, facilitated by Conrad Weiser, Pennsylvania's interpreter and agent. Pennsylvania agreed to recognize the Iroquois as the owner of all Indian lands in Pennsylvania; the Iroquois, in turn, agreed to sell lands only to Pennsylvania representatives.[6] Canassatego probably attended a 1736 treaty where some Iroquois chiefs sold land along the Susquehanna River to Pennsylvania, although the territory had traditionally been occupied by the Lenape people.[6]

Canassatego served as the speaker for the Onondaga at another conference in 1742, where the Iroquois chiefs collected the final payment for the 1736 land sale. At this meeting, Canassatego managed to convince Governor Thomas Penn to pay more than the original purchase price. Penn, for his part, urged Canassatego to remove the Delaware Indians from what was known as the Walking Purchase of 1737, which was quite controversial. Canassatego complied, berating the Delawares as "women" who had no right to sell land, and ordering them to leave. "You are women; take the Advice of a Wise Man and remove immediately", he told the Delaware.[7] The Iroquois denigration of the Delaware as "women" has been the subject of much scholarly writing.

Lancaster treaty

In 1744, Canassatego served as a speaker at meetings to negotiate the Treaty of Lancaster. Witham Marshe, a Marylander in attendance, recorded the only written description of Canassatego:

The first of these sachems (or chiefs) was a tall, wellmade man; had a very full chest, and brawny limbs. He had a manly countenance, mixed with a good-natured smile. He was about 60 years of age; very active, strong, and had a surprising liveliness in his speech, which I observed in the discourse betwixt him, Mr. Weiser, and some of the sachems.[8]

At the treaty conference were representatives of five of the Iroquois nations (except the Mohawk, the easternmost tribe), and the provinces of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. With King George's War underway, the British colonies needed to cultivate a good relationship with their Iroquois neighbors, who might otherwise become French allies. After a speech by Canassatego, officials from Maryland and Virginia agreed to pay the Iroquois for land in their colonies, although they believed that the Iroquois had no legitimate claim to those lands.[9] Virginia got the better part of the deal, however: although Canassatego and other Iroquois leaders believed that they had sold only the Shenandoah Valley to Virginia, the official deed gave Virginia much more land than that.[10]

Near the end of the conference, Canassatego gave the colonists some advice:

We have one thing further to say, and that is We heartily recommend Union and a Good Agreement between you our Brethren. Never disagree, but preserve a strict Friendship for one another, and thereby you as well as we will become the Stronger.

Our wise Forefathers established Union and Amity between the Five Nations; this has made us formidable, this has given us great weight and Authority with our Neighboring Nations.

We are a powerful confederacy, and, by your observing the same Methods our wise Forefathers have taken, you will acquire fresh Strength and Power; therefore, whatever befalls you, never fall out with one another.[11]

Canassatego was concerned that the British colonies lacked a coordinated policy to deal with the military threat coming from New France. He made similar recommendations about colonial unity at another conference in 1745.[12] His words became a central part of the Iroquois Influence Thesis, the controversial proposal that the Iroquois League was a model for the United States Constitution.[13]

Final years

Canassatego's final appearance at a treaty conference was in August 1749, one year after the end of King George's War.[14] In Philadelphia, he complained that colonists were settling on Native land along the Susquehanna River. He agreed to sell this land to Pennsylvania, but once again, the written document ceded much more land than what had been agreed upon in negotiations.[15]

Canassatego was reportedly assassinated with poison in September 1750.[16] Contemporary accounts that were recorded said that he was killed for taking bribes in exchange for selling tribal communal lands. Another said that he had been poisoned by agents of New France. Historian William Starna argued that Canassatego was probably assassinated by pro-French Iroquois who wanted to repudiate Canassatego's diplomatic ties with Pennsylvania.[17]

Legacy

A fictional version of Canasatego was featured in the 1755 novel Lydia: or Filial Piety, by English writer John Shebbeare. Following a literary convention by which Native American characters were used to satirize Europeans, Canassatego was portrayed as wise and honest, in stark contrast to the scheming Englishmen he encounters.[18]

The US Navy named the USS Canassatego (YN-38/YNT-6/YTM-732), a harbor tug, for Canasatego.[19]

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References
Notes
  1. Pearson, Ellen Holmes. "Iroquois and the Founding Fathers." Teachinghistory.org. Accessed 13 July 2011.
  2. Starna, 145.
  3. Fenton, 411.
  4. Shannon, 82–3.
  5. Johansen, 91.
  6. Starna, 148.
  7. Starna, 151–52.
  8. Starna, 144. See "Witham Marshe's Journal", Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society (Boston, 1801), 1st series, 7:179. In Johansen, these words are misattributed to Richard Peters.
  9. Starna, 154.
  10. Starna, 155.
  11. Boyd, 38.
  12. Starna, 156–57.
  13. Kalter, 24.
  14. Starna, 157.
  15. Starna, 160.
  16. Starna, 160–61.
  17. Starna, 161–63.
  18. Shannon, 135.
  19. "Canassatego". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Naval Historical Center. Retrieved 2012-09-26.
Bibliography
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