John Brant

John Brant or Ahyonwaeghs (September 27, 1794 – August 27, 1832) was a Mohawk chief and government official in Upper Canada.

Biography

Brant was born near the current site of Brantford, Ontario, the son of Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) and Catharine Croghan Brant (Adonwentishon). His father Joseph was a Mohawk leader who became famous during the American Revolutionary War. His mother Catharine was from an important Mohawk lineage: while her father was the Irish trader George Croghan, her mother was the sister of Johannes Tekarihoga, one of the hereditary Mohawk civil leaders (or sachems). Because the Mohawks were a matrilineal society, the title "Tekarihoga" did not pass from father to son. Instead, the women in the family selected the next Tekarihoga from their male relatives. As clan mother, Catharine Brant would name Johannes Tekarihoga's successor. At a young age, her son John became an obvious candidate for the next Tekarihoga.

Brant helped his uncle try to get a formal deed for a grant of land along the Grand River in what was called the Haldimand Proclamation to the Six Nations. In 1821, he went to England with his brother-in-law, Robert Johnson Kerr, to lobby the British government after Lieutenant-Governor Sir Peregrine Maitland informed them that the Six Nations had no claim to the northern part of the grant. Despite their efforts, the government of the colony managed to retain control over the sale of native lands in the area.

Brant encouraged the building of schools for the Iroquois. In 1830, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada for Haldimand. He was the first Indigenous person to sit in Upper Canada's parliament as a lawmaker. In February 1831, his right to hold the seat was questioned due to voting irregularities, and he was thrown out of office. His opponent John Warren was declared elected.

In about 1830, his mother Catharine named him as the next Tekarihoga, succeeding his recently deceased uncle Henry Tekarihoga. Brant held the office for only a short time; he died in 1832 near Brantford, a victim of a cholera pandemic. He was buried beside his father at His Majesty's Royal Chapel of the Mohawks in Brantford.