Timeline • Mohawk University

Many events have shaped how Mohawk civil society and Mohawk Identity are perceived in North America. This timeline highlights many of the significant events related to The Mohawk Nation of Grand River Country and the evolution of colonialism, racial treatments in North America and the establishment of the Mohawk University.

Founding
Papal Bulls
Point of Contact
Battle
Treaty
Indian Act
Legislation

14000 MYA: Formation of the Universe.
4600 MYA: Formation of Earth, 3rd Planet from the Sun.
541 MYA – 485 MYA: Explosion of Life on Earth.
300 MYA – 200 MYA: Pangaea, Supercontinent.
299 MYA – 252 MYA: Largest Mass Extinction.
252 MYA – 66 MYA: Age of Dinosaurs.
66 MYA: Age of Mammals.
5 MYA – 2500 BC: The Human Era.
400,000 BC: Control of Fire by Early Humans.
108,000 BC – 10,000 BC: Extinction of Large Mammals.
15,000 BC – 7000 BC: Paleo-Indian Era.
10,000 BC: Paleo Indians Become the Most Accomplished Stone Age Hunters.
9000 BC: Clovis Culture emerges.
7500 BC: Eastern Woodlands Archaic Indian Era begins.
3000 BC: American Indians begin shift to agriculture.
2000 BC – 1000 BC: Red Ochre Culture appears.
1000 BC: Woodland Period begins.
250 AD: Bow and arrow introduced.
300: Archaic upper Great Lakes cultures begin building effigy mounds.
800: Bow and arrow spread across the North American Continent.
909 August 18: The Iroquois Confederacy is founded; clan system of lands and title established.
1302: Unam Sanctam (The One Holy) Boniface VIII Creates 1st Express Trust in history for whole Planet. Proclaimed that it ” is absolutely necessary that every human creature be subject[son] to the Roman pontiff [father]. (Papal Bull)
1452: Dum Diversas (Until different) Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas on 18 June, 1452. It authorised Alfonso V of Portugal to reduce any “Saracens (Muslims) and pagans and any other unbelievers” to perpetual slavery. (Papal Bull)
1455: Romanus Pontifex (The Roman pontiff) Nicholas V 1st Testamentary Deed & Will & 1st Crown over Land. (Papal Bull)
1481: Aeterni regis (Eternal Crown) Sixtus IV 2nd testamentary Deed & Will & 2nd Crown of People as Permanent Slaves. (Papal Bull)
1492: Christopher Columbus makes landfall in the Caribbean. (Point of Contact)
1493: Inter Caetera (“Among other [works]”) The Pope asserts rights to colonize, convert, and enslave. Pope Alexander VI issues a papal bull or decree, “Inter Caetera,” in which he authorizes Spain and Portugal to colonize the Americas and its Native peoples as subjects. The decree asserts the rights of Spain and Portugal to colonize, convert, and enslave. (Papul Bull)
1520: The Aztec Empire at Mexico City falls to Hernando Cortes. (Point of Contact)
1537: Convocation Assembly Paul III 3rd Testamentary Deed & Will & 3rd Crown over Souls. Speaking on behalf of Christian Europe, in 1537 on the basis of natural law the Pope declared that for purposes of international law, the Europeans were legally bound to respect indigenous peoples’ previously established jurisdiction as human beings with free belief. (Papal Bull)
1540: Regimini militantis ecclesiae To the Government of the Church Militant Paul III Creation of Jesuit Order. (Papal Bull)
1550: Exposcit debitum (The Duty demands) Julius III Additional powers of Jesuits. (Papal Bull)
1565: St. Augustine, oldest European city in North America, is founded. (Point of Contact)
1598: Spanish establish colony near present-day Santa Fe, New Mexico. (Point of Contact)
1607: Jamestown Colony founded by England in present-day Virginia. (Point of Contact)
1608: Champlain founds Quebec City.
1609: Battle between Champlain and Mohawks near Fort Ticonderoga. Samuel de Champlain (French) attacks, defeats and kills three “Mohawk” Royane at Ticonderoga (marked the beginning of a century of warfare between the French and the Mohawk/Iroquois)
1610 June 19: The Battle of Sorel occurred with Champlain coming to join a fight in progress against a Mohawk raiding party.
1613: The Two Row Wampum Treaty, also known as Tawagonshi Agreement of 1613 between the Dutch and Mohawk is made.
1614: The Dutch establish a trading post on Castle Island known as Fort Nassau in the Hudson River.
1615: Champlain joins a Huron war party and takes part in a siege among the Onondaga town. (Modern day Syracuse) The attack ultimately fails, and Champlain is wounded.
1620: Puritans establish Plymouth colony in present-day Massachusetts. (Point of Contact)
1624: The Dutch West Indian Company establishes a new trading post and settlement, Fort Orange.
1628: The Mohawk defeat the Mahican and establish a monopoly of trade with the Dutch at Fort Orange.
1629: The Mahican sell most of their land around Fort Orange to the Dutch West India Company.
1634: The Oneida invite three Dutch traders from Fort Orange to their main settlement. Including Harmen Van der Bogart.
1635: A delegation of Onondaga meet with Dutch traders at the main Oneida town.
1638: The Iroquois attack the Wenro.
1639: Peter Minuit Founds New Sweden.
1640: The English as a part of their efforts to lure the Iroquois away from the Dutch begin trading guns. The Dutch responded by trading large amounts of firearms and ammunition to the nations of the Iroquois Confederacy and to the Mahican.
1641: Mohawks travel to Trois-Rivières in New France to propose peace with the French and their allied tribes. They asked the French to set up a trading post in Iroquoia. Governor Montmagny rejects this proposal because it would imply abandonment of their Huron allies.
1645: The Mohawk learn to repair their own guns and casting their own shot from lead bars purchased from the Dutch.
1645: The French call the Five Nation together to negotiate a treaty to end the conflict. Two Iroquois leaders, Deganaweida and Koiseaton, travel to New France to take part in the negotiations. The French agree to most of the Iroquois demands, and grant them trading rights in New France.
1646: A fleet of eighty canoes carrying a large harvest of furs travel through Iroquois territory to be sold in New France. When the Iroquois arrive, the French refuse to purchase the furs and tell the Iroquois to sell them to the Huron, who would act as a middleman. Outraged, the Iroquois resume the war.
1646: Jesuit missionaries at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons travel as envoys to the Mohawk lands to protect the fragile peace of the time. Mohawk attitudes toward the peace sour while the Jesuits’ are traveling and the party is attacked by Mohawk warriors en route. The missionaries are taken to the village of Ossernenon, where the moderate Turtle and Wolf clans recommend setting the priests free. Angered, members of the Bear clan kill Jean de Lalande and Isaac Jogues on October 18, 1646. The Catholic Church has commemorated the two French priests as among the eight North American Martyrs.
1647: The Huron and Susquehannock form an alliance to counter Iroquois aggression. Together their warriors greatly outnumber those of the Iroquois. The Huron tries to break the Iroquois Confederacy by negotiating separate peaces with the Onondaga and the Cayuga. When the other tribes intercept their messengers, they put an end to the negotiations. During the summer of 1647 there are several small skirmishes between the tribes.
1648: A more significant battle occurs when the two Algonquin tribes attempt to pass a fur convoy through an Iroquois blockade. Their attempt succeeded and they inflicted high casualties on the Iroquois.
1648: The Dutch authorize selling guns directly to the Mohawk rather than through traders, and promptly sell 400 to the Iroquois.
1648: Confederacy send 1,000 newly armed warriors through the woods to Huron territory. With the onset of winter, the Iroquois warriors launch a devastating attack into the heart of Huron territory, destroying several key villages, killing many warriors and taking thousands of people captive, for later adoption. Among those killed are the Jesuit missionaries Jean Brebeuf, Charles Garnier, and Gabriel Lallemant. Each is considered a martyr of the Roman Catholic Church.
1648: The Mohawk successfully sue and receive compensation from Harmen Van der Bogart’s estate in a lawsuit after he burned one of their storage barns while fleeing from Fort Orange on child sodomy charges.
1649: The Dutch supply the Iroquois with 400 guns and unlimited ammunition on credit.
1649 March 16: A Haudenosaunee war party of about 1000 enter Wendake and burn the Huron mission villages of St. Ignace and St. Louis in present-day Simcoe County, Ontario, killing about 300 people. They also kill many of the Jesuit missionaries, who have since been honored as North American Martyrs. The surviving Jesuits burn the mission after abandoning it to prevent its capture.
1649 May 1: The Huron burn 15 of their villages to prevent their stores from being taken and flee as refugees to surrounding tribes. About 10,000 flee to Gahoendoe (now also called Christian Island). Most who flee to the island starve over the winter, as it is a non-productive settlement and could not provide for them. After spending the bitter winter of 1649–50 on the island, surviving Huron relocate near Quebec City, where they settled at Wendake. Absorbing other refugees, they became the Huron-Wendat Nation. Some Huron, along with the surviving Petun, whose villages the Iroquois attacked in the fall of 1649, flee to the upper Lake Michigan region, settling first at Green Bay, then at Michilimackinac.
1651: the Iroquois attacked the Susquehannocks, without sustained success.
1652: Father Jacques Buteux was killed along with a Frenchman accompanying him named Fontarabie by a Mohawk raiding party.
1653: Lauzon the Governor of New France negotiates a peace treaty with the Mohawk.
1654: The French are invited to establish a trading and missionary settlement at Onondaga.
1654: The Erie Nation is defeated and assimilated.
1655: New Sweden is conquered by New Netherlands.
1656: Jesuit mission among the Onondagas is threatened by Mohawks, the French removed the mission after only two years. Jesuit Father Pierre-Joseph-Marie Chaumonot traveled from the Cayuga nation to the Seneca nation. Then, “Having assembled all the Elders of Gandagan, the principal village of Sonnontouan [the Seneca], and having bestowed the presents that are usually given as tokens of alliance, he commenced in a fervent and loud tone to explain the principal truths of the Gospel, which he sealed with the three finest presents of all, which he had reserved for this purpose.
1658: Jesuit mission among the Onondagas is threatened by Mohawks, the French removed the mission after only two years
1660: The Battle of Long Sault occurred over a five-day period in early May 1660 during the Beaver Wars. It was fought between Canadian militia, with their Huron and Algonquin allies, against the Iroquois Confederacy.
1660 May: an Iroquois force of 160 warriors attacked Montreal and captured 17 colonists.
1663: The Iroquois send an army of 800 warriors into the Susquehannock territory. They are repulsed, but the invasion prompts the colony of Maryland to declare war on the Iroquois.
1663: the Iroquois are at war with the Sokoki tribe of the upper Connecticut River.
1664: The English colonists in New England attempte to incite a general war in the Hudson Valley. They encourage the New England tribes to go to war against the Mohawk and to coordinate a general Indian uprising against the Dutch to coincide with an English invasion from Massachusetts.
1664: The English take New York from the Dutch and sign a treaty with the Mohawk. The Mohawk continue to trade with the Dutch traders at Albany who remain to carry on their business under the English flag.
1666 January, the French invade the Mohawk homeland. The first invasion force, of 400 or 500 men,[23] was led by Daniel de Rémy de Courcelle. His men were greatly outnumbered by the Iroquois and were forced to withdraw before any significant action could take place. Being woefully supplied and defeated by harsh winter conditions.
1666 (Fall): A second invasion force is led by the aristocrat Alexandre de Prouville, the “Marquis de Tracy” Upon arriving at the Mohawk villages and finding them deserted, they destroy four villages and their crops. Tracy “claims” all the Mohawk lands in the name of the king of France. With their immediate European support cut off, the Iroquois sue for peace, to which France agree to.
1667: The Silver Covenant Chain (Wampum, also known as the Friendship belt) was a diplomatic devise that solidied a military, political and economic alliance between the Six Nations and representatives of the British Crown.
1667: The remaining two Iroquois Nations sign a peace treaty with the French and agree to allow their missionaries to visit their villages. This treaty lasts for 17 years.
1670 (Around): the Iroquois drive the Siouan Mannahoac tribe out of the northern Virginia Piedmont region. They begin to claim ownership of the territory by right of conquest.
1672: the Iroquois are defeated by a war party of Susquehannock.
1674: the English in Maryland change their Indian Policy and negotiate a peace with the Iroquois. They terminate their alliance with the Susquehannock.
1676: Garacontié dies at Onondaga
1676: Bacon’s Rebellion takes place.
1677: The Iroquois assimilate the Susquehannock
1677: the Iroquois form an alliance with the English through an agreement known as the Covenant Chain. Together, they battle to a standstill the French, The Iroquois colonize the northern shore of Lake Ontario and sent raiding parties westward all the way to Illinois Country. The Silver Covenant Chain: the first known written (non-native) record of the Silver Covenant Chain is noted during the negotiations by the Haudenosaunee in Albany with New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
1680: Kateri Tekakwitha, Patroness of Ecology, dies.
1684: The Seneca force the missionaries to leave.
1684: the Iroquois invade Virginia and Illinois territory again, and unsuccessfully attack French outposts. The Virginia Colony agrees at Albany to recognize the Iroquois’ right to use the North-South path running east of the Blue Ridge (later the Old Carolina Road), provided they did not intrude on the English settlements east of the fall line.
1686: Denonville under pretext of peace captures all 50 Royane (Chiefs) of the Iroquois (they’re sold into slavery)
1687 June: Governor Denonville and Pierre de Troyes set out with a well-organized force to Fort Frontenac.
1687 July: Denonville invades the land of the Seneca, including their capital of Ganondagan. Three Rivers Mohawk join led by Canaqueese the Flemish Bastard. They travelled down the shore of Lake Ontario and created Fort Denonville at the site where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario. This site was previously used by La Salle for a fort named Fort Conti from 1678 to 1679, and was later used for Fort Niagara, which still exists to this day.
1689 August 4: For revenge the Iroquios attack Lachine, a small town adjacent to Montreal, it is burned to the ground. Denonville was finally exhausted and defeated.
1690: Frontenac, New France and his Indian allies attack English frontier settlements in early 1690: most notably at Schenectady.
1691: Battle of La Prairie.
1691: Chief Hendrick Theyanoguin of the Mohawk is born.
1692 February: Mohawk Valley raid.
1692 October 22: 14 year old Marie-Madeleine Jarret defends against an Iroquois attack at Fort Verchères on the St. Lawrence River in Canada.
1701: After being worn down by the so-called “Mourning War” against the Anishinaabe peoples of the Upper Great Lakes, delegates of the Five Nations went to Montreal to forge the “Great Peace” with the Anishinaabek and their allies the French. After the treaty, the Five Nations returned to their ancestral homeland in the region to the south of Lake Ontario and to the east of the Niagara River.
1701: The Great Peace of Montreal is signed. 1701: Haudenosaunee made peace with both the English and the French, declaring neutrality.
1704-1776: Queen Anne commissioned a Standing Trial Level Sub-Committee of the Appellate Level Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) with independent and impartial third-party court jurisdiction over boundary disputes between sovereign crown and Indian tribal governments in the case of Mohegan Indians v. Connecticut.
1704: ORDER OF QUEEN ANNE’S COUNCIL, The Imperial Crown recognized Indigenous tribal sovereignty and dealt with the issue of corresponding court remedies in North America in 1704 when Queen Anne commissioned a Standing Trial Level Sub-Committee of the Appellate Level Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in order to deal with the question of jurisdiction over boundary disputes between the Imperial Crown and pre-existing indigenous tribal governments in the case of Mohegan Indians v. Connecticut (1704). The Committee found that there was an intrinsic bias in the British courts against indigenous land claims and that a special constitutional court should be convened in order to deal with the issue of the indigenous land claims such as that of the Mohegan Indians. The committee accepted the premise that since indigenous tribunals and jurisdiction pre-existed Imperial authority in British North America, indigenous people have original jurisdiction whereas, in contrast, since Imperial courts were here second, the Imperial Crown has derivative jurisdiction. It held that the mode of derivation was understood to be territorial purchases, and it was settled international and constitutional law that the issue of purchase, upon which jurisdiction turns, cannot legally be resolved unilaterally by neither indigenous, nor Imperial courts, but rather, jurisdiction over such native versus newcomer disputes vests in an independent and impartial third-party court system to be established pursuant to the said order in council for this specific constitutional purpose. Contrary to the findings, such a court was never convened, and Indigenous people continued to lose their lands notwithstanding the Committee’s findings.
1710: The “Four Mohawk Kings” to travel to London. Four North America (three Mohawk and a Mahican) delegates meet Queen Ann and are received as Ambassadors and “Indian Kings”. (“the Queen Ann’s Case” sets out the relation under rule of “law”)
1710: Oskanondonha – Shenandoah Oneida Chief is born
1711 September 22: The Tuscarora War begins.
1711: Queen Anne’s Royal Chapel built in the Mohawk Valley.
1713: The Battle at Fort Neo-he-ro-ka
1713: End of War of the Spanish Succession, France cedes much of Acadia colony to England
1713: Treaty of Utrecht ends a war between England and France. In this treaty, England and France recognize the Haudenosaunee right to travel and trade on both sides of the English-Canada border and throughout the territories claimed by both England and France. The right of the Haudenosaunee to travel and trade is an “aboriginal right” – that is, a right that existed before contact with the Europeans. In fact, archaeological evidence proves the Haudenosaunee right to travel and trade had been asserted for at least three thousand years prior to white contact.
1715 11 February: The Tuscarora War Ends
1722: Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia concluds a new Treaty at Albany with the Iroquois, renewing the Covenant Chain and agreeing to recognize the Blue Ridge as the demarcation between Virginia Colony and the Iroquois.
1722: The Tuscarora flee NC and join the Iroquois Confederacy.
1723: Logan the Orator is born
1725: Guyasuta is born in Western NY
1735: Hendrick Tejonihokarawa (Tay yon’ a ho ga rau’ a), also known as Tee Yee Neen Ho Ga Row and Hendrick Peters dies.
1735: Handsome Lake is born, becomes a Seneca Prophit.
1737: The sons of William Penn commit the “Walking Purchase” Land Fraud. The Delaware (Lenepe) are forced to move west.
1738: William Johnson arrives in Mohawk vally.
1741: Simon Girty Katepacomen the “White Savage” is born.
1742: Cornplanter is born.
1742: Joseph Brant is born on the banks of the Ohio River.
1743: Virginia Governor Gooch pays the Iroquois the sum of 100 pounds sterling for any settled land in the Valley that was claimed by the Iroquois.
1744: During treaty negotiations in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Canasatego, an Onondaga chief, urges the English colonists to unite by following the example of the Haudenosaunee.
1744: Lancaster Treaty Council An important treaty councils between the Iroquois, their allies and delegates of the middle Atlantic colonies, PA, and VA. In the Summer of 1744 Lancaster was a frontier settlement at the time. Treaty of Lancaster signed without “Mohawk” participation English and French are struggling to acquire “Indian” land (Benjamin Franklin is present)
1748: Shikellamy (Swatana) dies.
1750: Red Jacket is born.
1751: Benjamin Franklin writes to James Parker on March 20, l750/5l, referring to the confederacy formed by the Haudenosaunee and noting that the colonists should form a similar union.
1753: George Washington carries Virginia’s ultimatum over French encroachment to Captain Legardeau de Saint-Pierre at Riviere aux Boeufs. He rejects it.
1754 May: Washington ambushes Jumonville. The Half-King then kills the French officer.
1754 July 4: The French take Fort Necessity. Washington surrenders and returns to Virginia.
1754: The Albany Plan of Union, drafted primarily by Benjamin Franklin, was based on the Haudenosaunee example and is proposed at an Albany meeting of colonists. Although the plan fails, it sets the precedent for the Stamp Act Congress of 1765 at which the united colonists protested Great Britain’s tax
June 1755 June: The British seize Acadia (Nova Scotia).
1755 July: British General Braddock’s forces are defeated. He is mortally wounded near Fort Duquesne in Pennsylvania.
1755 July: British Col. William Johnson arrives at the Great Carrying Place to build a fortified storehouse. Col. Phineas Lyman takes over to complete construction of Fort Lyman which would later become Fort Edward.
1755: Hendrick, one of the Ambassadors to Queen Ann’s Court is killed by the French at the Battle of Lake George (13-year-old Joseph Brant is present at the battle)
1755 August: William Johnson arrives at Lac du Saint Sacrament and changes the name to Lake George. Begins work on a fortification named Fort William Henry.
1755 September 9: William Johnson’s forces are engaged in several battles that would collectively be known as the Battle of Lake George. Including the Bloody Morning Scout, an ambush that resulted in the death of British Col. Ephraim Williams and Mohawk King Hendrick. A later engagement would be called the Battle of Bloody Pond. Johnson’s forces win the day making him the first British hero of the war.
1756 May: War is officially declared between Great Britain and France.
1756 June: Fort Oswego falls to the French
1757 August: Fort William Henry falls to the French.
1758 July 6: The British are defeated at Ticonderoga with thousands of casualties.
1758 August 28: Fort Frontenac Falls to the British
1758 October: William Johnson and 15 Native nations ratify the Treaty of Easton. Taking many Native tribes out of the war against the English.
1758 November 24: The French burn and retreat from the Forks of the Ohio. George Washington and General Forbes enter the ruins the following day.
1759 June 25: The French outpost Fort Niagara falls to a Anglo-Iroquois forces.
1759 September:Quebec falls
1760: Surrender of New France after the Siege of Quebec City
1760 September 15: The Functional end of the French and Indian War. The British flag is raised over Detroit.
1763 February 10: Treaty of Paris – All French possessions east of the Mississippi, except New Orleans, are given to the British. All French possessions west of the Mississippi are given to the Spanish. France regains Martinique, Guadeloupe and St. Lucia.
1763 May: Pontiac and Guyasuta’s War against the British begins with for Detroit being put under siege. Soon dozens of British outposts will be captured by numerous Native Nations.
1763 October: King George III of Great Britain signs the Proclamation of 1763. Instructing all lands in North America beyond the Appalachians to be reserved for Native Nations. Royal Proclamation (said to be founding document of “Canadian Constitution”) notes “aboriginal” claims to lands and says treaties
with natives will be handled by the Crown.
1763 December: The Rebel Paxton Boys kill dozens of innocent Iroquois at Conestoga.
1768: The Treaty of Fort Stanwix cedes lands to the south and west to the British colonies. The Six Nations are paid for it but the treaty does not consult the Shawnee or Western Delaware people who live beyond the Appalachians.
1770 March 5: Crispus Attucks and Afro-Native American is the first killed in the Boston Massacre.
1773: The Boston Tea Party, Samual Adams and a group known as Sons of Liberty orginized a group of sixty colonists. They disguised themselves as Mohawk, they boarded the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver. These East India Company ships were docked in Boston Harbor. The raiding party quickly broke into the ships’ holds. They brought the crates of tea on deck and dumped their contents into the harbor.
1774: The Cayuga Mingo man known as Logan the Orator. Hears that his family is killed by Virginian settlers. This begins “Lord Dunmore’s War”
1774 July 11: Sir William Johnson dies from a stroke at a Six Nations conference.
1774: Joseph Brant joins Guy Johnson on a trip to England. Joseph Brant is well received and returns home even more devoted to the British cause in North America.
1775 July 15: Continental Congress appoints George Washington General and Commander-in-Chief of the forces of the United American Colonies.
1775 June 17: Battle of Bunker Hill.
1775: At Ft. Pitt, commissioners from the Continental Congress, asks the Haudenosaunee and its allies to remain neutral in the upcoming revolution. The Haudenosaunee and its 1500 delegates agrees.
1755 July 22: Ephraim Williams, Jr. (1715–1755), military officer and son of a wealthy landowner, included a provision in his will for a school.
1775 June 27: Guy Johnson holds Indian council at Fort Ontario (present day Oswego, NY). Some 1,458 Indians were present according to Johnson. He called on the Indians to remain loyal to Britain.
1756-63: French and Indian War.
1763 October 7: Royal Proclamation, the Imperial Crown recognized indigenous title in the North American colonies including Canada, reserved large tracts of land for Indians, and assumed fiduciary responsibilities to protect the indigenous peoples in the enjoyment of their inherent and aboriginal rights and in particular in the possession and use of their lands. Pursuant to the Royal Proclamation of 1763, no lands were to be taken from indigenous people without their express consent. In particular: (a) colonial governments were forbidden to grant any unceded Indian lands; (b) private parties were forbidden to settle on unceded Indian lands; (c) private parties were forbidden to purchase or otherwise possess unceded Indian lands; and (d) a system of public purchases was adopted as the official mode of extinguishing Indian title.
1776 June 11: while the question of independence was being debated, the visiting Iroquois chiefs were formally invited into the meeting hall of the Continental Congress.
1776 June 11: A delegation from the Six Nations travels to Philadelphia and speaks before the Continental Congress. They bestow an Onondaga Name to John Hancock.
1776 July 2: The Second Continental Congress declares independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Thirteen English colonies declare Independence from England (the American Revolution begins)
1777 January: The Grand Council at Onondaga is unable to come to a consensus and extinguishes the fire while the Six Nations determine what is best for each of them.
1777 August 3: Barry St. Ledger and Joseph Brant lead a British-Iroquois force to the Oneida Carry and surround the American held Fort Stanwix.
1777 August 6: The Battle of Oriskany is fought. It will be one of the bloodiest battles in the North American theater of the American Revolutionary War. Joseph Brant’s British-Iroquois force attacks Nicholas Herkimer and Han Yerry’s American-Iroquois relief force before they can relieve Fort Stanwix.
1777 August 22: St. Ledger is forced to retreat from Fort Stanwix.
1777 September 19: The Battle of Freedman’s Farm
1777 October 7: The Battle of Bemis Heights
1777 October 17: John Burgoyne surrenders his entire army at Saratoga to American forces.
1778: Haudenosaunee leaders state that the United States does not have the authority to draft our men into war.
1778 May 30: Battle of Cobleskill
1778 Sep 17: Attack on German Flatts
1778 July 3: The Battle of Wyoming Valley. John Butler and Sayenqueraghta’s Seneca warriors burn nearly 1000 houses and kill 227 rebels.
1778 Oct: American Raid on Unadilla and Onaquaga
1778 November 11: Cherry Valley Massacre
1779 April 7: “Some of the Mohawks of the Villages of Canojaharie, Tikondarago, and Aughugo, whose settlements than had been on account of their steady attachment to the King’s service and the interests of Government ruined by the rebels; having informed me that my predecessor, Sir. Guy Carleton, was pleased to promise, as soon as present troubles were at an end, the same should be restored at the expense of the Government, to the state they were in before these wars broke out, and said promise appearing to me just, I do hereby ratify the same and assure them the said promise, so far as in me lies, shall be faithfully executed, as soon as that happy time comes.”
1779 July 22: The Battle of Minisink
1779: The Sullivan Expedition is launched
1779 August 26: the Battle of Chemung
1779 Sept. 14-15: Little Beard’s town is destroyed
1779: General George Washington orders General Clinton and Sullivan to destroy the Mohawks (and such others of four surviving Nations) that they will never rise again (remanence of the League of Peace flee to Fort Niagara and later to the Ouse/Grand River Country). The Americans destroy 41 native villages and force them to flee to British Fort Niagara. The campaign was executed under the direction of General John Sullivan
1780: Logan the Orator son of Swatana is murdered by his nephew near Detroit
1781: the Battle of Johnstown on the Mohawk River
1781: English General Cornwallis surrenders to General George Washington and French Army Troops led by Comte Rachambeau at Yorktown (Mohawks are alone to fight the 13 colonies and a renewed force of French whom they had just defeated at the Siege of Quebec City, 1761)
1782: Ninety-six Moravian Christians are murdered by a milita at Gnadenhütten, Ohio.
1784 May 22: Frederick Haldimand purchases interests (quitclaim) for land along the Grand River from the Mississauga nation.
1784 October 25: Joseph Brant forces Haldimand to fulfill his pledge made before the hostilities of the American Revolution. Haldimand’s Proclamation awards the Six Nations a tract of land six (nautical 6.90miles) miles wide on either side of the Grand River from its source to its mouth… “Whereas His Majesty having been pleased to direct that in consideration of the early attachment to his cause manifested by the Mohawk Indians, and of the loss of their settlement which they thereby sustained– that a convenient tract of land under his protection should be chosen as a safe and comfortable retreat for them and others of the Six Nations, who have either lost their settlements within the Territory of the American States, or wish to retire from them to the British — I have at the earnest desire of many of these His Majesty’s faithful Allies purchased a tract of land from the Indians situated between the Lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron and I do hereby in His Majesty’s name authorize and permit the said Mohawk Nation and such others of the Six Nation Indians as wish to settle in that quarter to take possession of and settle upon the Banks of the River commonly called Ours [Ouse] or Grand River, running into Lake Erie, allotting to them for that purpose six miles deep from each side of the river beginning at Lake Erie and extending in that proportion to the head of the said river, which them and their posterity are to enjoy for ever.”
1784: Mohawk territory seized by newly formed United States government. Many displaced Mohawk people resettled in Canada where they had negotiated for land with the British, their ally during the American Revolution.
1784: Settlement (Grand River) by the pro-British emigrants (majority Mohawk and Cayuga) of the Six Nations confederacy (in Mohawk: Rotinonshonni “Longhouse People”) from the New York State, U.S. (see also Cayuga, Oneida of New York, Onondaga, Seneca, Tuscarora; in the U.S.), governed by the Great Council of the confederacy (50 lineages of titled/named life chiefs of five original nations, added by non-voting chiefs of Tuscarora and of three allied nations: Delaware, Nanticoke, Tutelo [latter two extinct respectively by c.1900 and c.1850]).
1784 October 22: Second treaty at Fort Stanwix between the British and the Six Nations.
1785: Mohawks relocated to Southern Ontario, the Mohawk Royal Chapel was rebuilt in Mohawk Village.
1786: Sayenqueraghta “Old Smoke” dies.
1791: (after) Queen Catharine Montour dies.
1792 – 1969: Six Nations (1832 – 1891, Grand River) Indian Superintendency established.
1793: The Williams Free School provided for by Ephraim Williams becomes Williams College.
1793: Formal British patent (Simcoe Patent) to the land grant issued to the Six Nations. The lieutenant governor of the new province of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe, drafted the “Simcoe Patent” a document which stipulated that all land transactions in the Haldimand Tract had to be approved by the Crown. Brant simply ignored Simcoe, and his “Patent” and continued to invite British settlers into the Haldimand Tract. Somewhere between Haldimand’s grant and Simcoe’s action, Brant and other Iroquois leaders had changed their minds about the presence of British settlers. In the early days they had been invited in as a means of demonstrating Iroquois sovereignty but as time went by Brant came to realize the extent of the huge changes that were sweeping across the region.
1794: Guyasuta dies in Corydon, PA
1794: The Jay Treaty formalizes the border between the United States and Canada
1794 November 11: The Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy and the United States negotiated the Treaty of Canandaigua. In exchange for goods and money, the Iroquois granted US citizens the right to traverse their lands and create roads for commerce. The United States recognized Six Nations sovereignty and vowed not to settle on Iroquois lands. After Americans gained access to western New York, subsequent, often illegal, treaties reduced Iroquois territory. Many members of the Six Nations relocated to Canada or the upper midwest.
1794 November 11: The Treaty of Canandaigua is signed
1796 April 16: Mary “Molly” Brant dies
1798: Gai-ya-sot-ha dies
1799: Seneca chief, Sganyadaiyoh (Handsome Lake), has a series of visions which yields the Gaiwiyo (“The Good Message”) urging the Iroquois to revert back to a more traditional way of life. Handsome Lake founds “longhouse religion”.
1805: Red Jacket speaks before Congress
1806: Little Beard dies
1807: Joseph Brant dies on November 24 at his home in Burlington, Ontario.
1812 May 1: the Crown’s duly authorized representative, the Governor-General of Upper Canada issued instruction further regulating the alienation of Indian lands in the then Province of Upper Canada by requiring: (a) that the person administering the government in Upper Canada requisition any Indian lands wanted for public service and identify those lands with a sketch; (b) that all purchases by the Crown be made at a public council according to the ancient usages and customs of the Indians to whom the lands belonged, with proper interpreters present and without the presence of liquor; (c) that the Governor or two persons commissioned by him, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, two or three members of his Department and at least one military officer be present at the public council; (d) that there be a proper explanation to the Indians of the nature and extent of the proposed disposition and the proceeds to be paid therefore; and (e) that deeds of conveyance and descriptive plans of the lands so conveyed be attached to the deed and be executed in public by the Principle Indian Chiefs and the Superintendent of the Indian Department or his appointee, and duly witnessed.
1811 November 7: The Battle of Tippecanoe.
1811: Chief Tecumseh leads the Last Great American Indian Confederacy
1812: The War of 1812 begins
1812: Americans are repelled by Mohawks and such others of the remaining Nations of the League of Peace at Stoney Creek and at Brant’s crossing on the Ouse/Grand River.
1814 July 5: Battle of Chippewa , in which the American Six Nations, under Red Jacket, fight against the Canadian Six Nations and the British under Major Norton.
1815: Handsome Lake the spiritual leader dies
1815: The Treaty of Ghent between Great Britain and the United States restores to all Indian people all the rights and treaties they had prior to 1811.
1816: Shenandoah dies.
1817-42: Seminole Indian Wars
1818 February 18: Simon Girty “The White Savage” dies in Grand River. Totally blind.
1828: Ely Samuel Parker is born Grandson of Red Jacket
1830 January 20: Red Jacket dies.
1829: The Mohawk Institute is established at Six Nations by the New England Company.
1830: Orange Lodge established at Tyendinaga.
1830s: Indian removal Policies begin in U.S. and Canada.
1830s: The Six Nations conditionally releases 800 acres for the site of the town of Brantford, Ontario.
1831: Rev. Nelles assigned to Six Nations.
1832: Death of Capitan John Brant (son of Joseph Brant) extinguishes a direct and influential line of the communication between the Crown and Six Nations.
1833: The first fraternity chapter was founded at the Williams College.
1834 -1842: Six Nations funds were invested in the Grand River Navigation Company without the approval of the Six Nations. The investment was a total disaster and the money was lost and assets (locks) sold for dollars. Part of the Six Nations funds was also used for the founding of McGill University and the University of Toronto.
1834: the first inquiry into the situation in the Haldimand Tract was held. The Crown determined that Brant had acted illegally, but by this point it would be too costly and difficult to move all of the British settlers from their farms. The only option open to the Crown at this juncture was to confirm the legality of Brant’s leases. At the same time the inquiry raised a number of concerns about the rapid growth of Brantford and the other communities within the Haldimand Tract.
1836: Cornplanter dies.
1837: Mackenzie Rebellion, 100 Six Nations men participate. ~ Rev. Abraham Nelles and Adam Elliot assigned to Six Nations by New England Company (Mohawk Chapel and Institute).
1838: Daniel Bread (1800-1873) helps negotiate a treaty for the Oneida in Wisconsin
1840’s: Iroquois Refugees share Gospel with Flathead Indians.
1840: Establishment of Orange Lodge at Six Nations.
1841 August 10: Oronhyatekha (Peter Martin) is born. Peter Martin, son of Lydia Loft, Mohawk from Tyendinaga and Peter Martin, Mohawk from Six Nations (Participant in War of 1812)
1841 February 10: “United Province of Canada” creates Canada East – West. Indians now considered wards, not allies, reserves not territories.
1841: Six Nations purportedly surrenders 20,000 acres on a recommendation by Samuel Peter Jarvis, Chief Superintendent of Indian Affairs.
1841 January: Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Samuel Peter Jarvis, went to the Onandaga Council House and suggested the Iroquois voluntarily surrender their lands (save some reserve lands and the areas of the villages, a total of about 20,000 acres) back to the Crown so that the Crown could administer the Haldimand Tract “for their exclusive benefit and interest.” The main objective was to settle the squatters from trespassing.
1843: following an Order in Council that affirmed the surrender, a delegation of Iroquois chiefs appealed to the government to grant an additional 35,000 acres. This was granted and in 1847 the reserve was formally granted at approximately 55,000 acres but subsequent surrenders reduced the size of the reserve to 44,900 acres. The government also forced squatters off the reserve land, but many of them simply returned.
1844: Six Nations request assistance in consolidations, David Thorburn (“Old Ironsides”) appointed Indian Superintendent.
1845: The Government recommends that Indian boarding schools be set up.
1845: Squatter evictions; notices issued, posted and enforced. From 1839 to 1853, evictions are often violent, resulting in skirmishes and retaliations. Six Nations families are also being relocated. Mohawks at Cainsville, possibly including the Martins and Powless, are burned out of their homes.
1846: Orillia Conference (Ontario).
1846: Six Nations with Methodists/Baptists establish three schools on “Reserve”– Martin’s Corner.
1847: Indian Affairs consults with Rev. Egerton Ryerson on setting up Indian Industrial Schools
1847: Six Nations Reserve (from 1988, referred also to as the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory) organized; the Councils of Chiefs of the individual nations abolished.
1847: Until this time, “National Councils” have managed their own affairs. Confederacy has only met when issues affected the whole. Now, “National Councils” are considered divisive and dissident, and are therefore condemned by Confederacy.
1847: Between 1847 and 1851, settlement and cultural patterns are establishing at Six Nations. Predominately Christian Mohawks, Oneidas and Tuscaroras settle at the “upper end,” while the predominately Longhouse Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas settle “down below”.
1850: No. 1 School founded at, Chief W. Smith’s Corner.
1850: A law of the colony of Lower Canada defines an ‘Indian’.
1850: Indian Protection Act for tax/debt exemption.
1853: Eviction of squatters complete.
1856: Jimmy Johnson. Sos-heo-wa dies.
1856: Six Nations Council/New England Company establishes schools at Six Nations.
1857: The Gradual Civilization Act, Any First Nations male who was free of debt, literate and of good moral character could be awarded full ownership (owned but not to be sold) of 59 acres of reserve land. He would then be considered enfranchised and would have to cut all ties to his band and cease to be an Indian. Death of the ‘nation-to-nation’ relationship, Act sets up a way for Indians to lose status: devalues the identity of first nations and sets the groundwork for public opinion in Canada.
1857: Enfranchisement Act – forces abandonment of Indian status for the right to vote.
1858: Walter and James Kerr, Elias Hill (a young Mohawk shoemaker) apply to enfranchise. Kerr’s request is denied, while Hill’s is accepted. The Confederacy reacts to a perceived infringement on membership/land sovereignty.
1859: Governor Blacksnake dies “Thaonawyuthe” “Chainbreaker”,
Commemoration transitions to bread and cheese
1860 – 1919: There were 14 Royal/Vice Regal visits to Brantford and/or the Grand River Territory.
1860 September 14: His Royal Highness, Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales, visits Brantford.
1860: Bread and Cheese Day at Six Nations. Six Nations see the gift as affirmation of Crown relations. The crown sees it simply as a gift to the poor and needy.
1860: Transfer of Indians Affairs from British military control to Canadian civil authority.
1861 – 1865: Civil War in United States.
1861: Grand River Navigation Company goes bankrupt. Six Nations loses all its investments.
1861: December: Isaac Powless leads “Reformers” a group of well-educated, young upper Mohawks with petition seeking elected government at Six Nations. The Mohawk Workers is founded.
1862: Confederacy and Indian Affairs react negatively to petition citing no Indian Act provision to “elect”. ~ Jasper Tough Gilkison replaces Thorburn as Superintendent at Six Nations and quiets the reform movement.
1862: Pauline Johnson is born.
1865 April 9: Battle of Appomattox Court House, Ely S. Parker is there to see Grant’s surrender.
1865: Completion of Ohsweken Council House (begun in 1863). Seat of government moved from Onondaga Longhouse at Middlepoint.
1867 July 1: Confederation, (Sir John A. MacDonald, Prime Minister) The British North America Act, gives the federal government responsibility for aboriginals and their lands. Law-making power split between provinces and federal government. S.91(24) Law-making power of federal government includes. Indians and lands reserved for the Indians. Keeps authority away from local authorities with conflicting interests. The concept of ‘Nations’ is replaced by the idea of ‘Indian Persons’.
1868: Chiefs Will Smith and Joseph Powless, prominent Mohawk farmers, establish the Six Nations Agricultural Society.
1869 October 1: Prince Arthur, the third son of Queen Victoria and later the Duke of Connaught, arrived in Brantford from Long Point, traveled to Mohawk Church where he signed the Queen Anne Bible and visited Brant’s tomb. Prince Arthur was given the Mohawk name Kar-a-kon-dye, The Sun Flying, by the Six Nations.
1869: The Gradual Enfranchisement Act, This act increased government control of on-reserve political systems. The First Nations’ participation in their own governance was minimal and the Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs determined when and how First Nations elections of governance would take place.
1869: Indian Act, Indians’ defined narrowly without regard to family, clan, nation; many ‘enfranchised’ Indians go to provincial responsibility. Nation- to-nation’ has now become the government looking after individuals who are treated like children, or ‘wards of the state’.
1869: New Process for Leadership, In 1869, the Canadian Government introduced the voting system for chief and council which took place every two years. This system replaced the traditional forms of choosing First Nations leadership. Band council systems of government reinforced the rules and regulations created under the Indian Act, also provides for election of council; The act automatically enfranchises women who marry non-Indians.
1869: President Grant appoints Ely Parker as Commissioner of Indian Affairs
1869: Prince Arthur (later the Duke of Connaught and Governor General of Canada) was escorted to the Six Nations by the Burford Cavalry. Once he met with the Chiefs, an honorary Chieftainship was conferred upon him.
1870s: The first residential schools open. Their painful legacy would stretch to today.
1870: Tyendinaga becomes first elect Band Council (Sampson Green – First Chief Councillor). Since 1811, Tyendinaga has had various signatories and designates for administration.
1971: New Credit begins elected Band Council.
1871: Nikon “Old Mosquito” dies at 105 last of the Tutelos adopted by the Cayuga.
1872: As Chairman of the Grand Indian Council, Oronhyatekha petitions for changes in Indian Act. Oronhyatekha campaigns for Sir John A. Macdonald and conservatives at Wallace Township. In Stratford, he meets Sir John A. Macdonald, who recommends Oronhyatekha as Consulting Physician, Tyendinaga. Although his reasoning is unclear, Oronhyatekha petitions Indians Affairs for enfranchisement. December 31: Oronhyatekha accepts the position, and is also appointed agent with Sampson Green to look after debts for back rent at Tyendinaga.
1873: Sampson Green reports that Oronhyatekha has falsified information on documents.
1873: Six Nations Agricultural Society begins receiving grants from Department of Agriculture and New England Company.
1874: Oliver Mowat, Ontario Premier, adds “enfranchised Indians” to elections Act.
1874: Alexander Bell invents the telephone.
1874: Governor General and Countess of Dufferin visit Six Nations in summer.
1876: Indian Act goes against Iroquois tradition by emphasizing male lineage and suppressing traditional forms of native government in favor of a system of non-customary elected Band Councils.
1876: The Indian Act, The Indian Act was not part of any treaty made between First Nations peoples and the British Crown. The sole purpose of the act was to assimilate and colonize First Nations peoples.
1876: The Indian Act is passed, essentially extinguishing any remaining self- government for natives and making them wards of the federal government.
1876: First long distance telephone call, Brantford to Paris.
1876 – 1920s: (Indian Act) Amendments and also criminal code criminalize First Nations’ values, family relations, and spiritual practices.v
1877 January 15: Samuel Parker dies at the age of 104 years.
1878: Formation of the Six Nations School Board.
1879 September 16: The Marquis of Lorne, the Governor General of Canada, and his wife, Her Royal Highness, Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria, visited Brantford for ninety minutes.
1879: Nicholas Flood Davin recommends that Canada’s Indian children be removed from their “evil surroundings.” In the U.S., Industrial Schools are modeled after a prison commanded by Lt. Richard Henry Pratt. Pratt’s motto was “the only good Indian is a dead Indian” … “Kill the Indian in him and save the man”
1880s: Churches start to build schools across Canada.
1880: Establishment of the Six Nations Exhibition Hall on a 12 acre park earmarked for fairs and special events.
1880: Department of Indian Affairs, o By 1880 the Department of Indian Affairs was created to administer the Government of Canada’s responsibilities under the Indian Act. Indian agents were appointed to regulate and enforce the Indian Act. Indian agents provided for agricultural or trade-training for men. Women were taught domestic skills. Indian agents had decision-making powers over every aspect of First Nations lives.
1880: Laura Cornelius Kellogg is born.
1882: Clinton Rickard is born.
1884: Provisions to the Indian Act, In 1889, First Nations peoples were banned from conducting or participating in First Nations spiritual ceremonies. (Potlatch, ceremonies etc:.).
1884: Indian Advanced Act specifically institutes elected Band Councils.
1884 to 85: Six Nations participates in the Nile Expedition.
1885: Franchise Act (Federal) extends right to vote to Indians without loss of Status.
1885: Indian Pass System requires Indians to have a pass when leaving or entering a reservation.
1885: Mohawk Chief William Smith and others found Union Association to pursue land claims of Six Nations.
1886: Chief Harry Martin campaigns against the vote at Six Nations.
1886: Prime Minister Sir John A. McDonald visits Six Nations, encourages voting.
1886: Her Majesty, with the advice and consent of the Senate and the House of Commons of Canada, created the Indian Act, which included this line: “The expression ‘person’ means any individual other than an Indian” (chapter 43).
1888: Tyendinaga petitions Governor General and proposes return to the traditional Confederacy. No response is received.
1889: Six Nations Council supports Union Association petition to Colonial Secretary in London, England.
1889: Tyendinaga makes a direct representation to the Governor General to return to the traditional Confederacy system.
1889: Indian Affairs department holds firm to industrial model schools.
1890: Six Nations Lower Chiefs have occasionally petitioned Crown to confirm sovereignty status. Creation of the Covenant Chain, a two-row wampum.
1890: Caughnawaga petition Governor General. Over 1000 from Oka, Caughnawaga, and Awkwasasne meet and call for a reunification of the Confederacy.
1892: Extra Census Bulletin The Six Nations declares the imposition of allotment and citizenship would violate treaties with the Haudenosaunee. One of the authors of this report, Thomas Donaldson, noted: “If the Iroquois” … “want to become citizens of the United States they must renounce allegiance to their own people” . . . . “neither the state of New York nor the United States can break them [the reservations] up without the Indians’ consent, or through conditions analogous to those of war. They have always been recognized as nations…”
1894: Industrial/Residential Schools, Provisions to this act in 1894 provided for compulsory school attendance of First Nations children. Industrial schools ran from 1883-1923. After 1923 these schools became known as “residential schools.” Part of the federal government assimilation policy focused on eliminating First Nations children’s cultural beliefs and practices. First Nations parents were fined or jailed if they did not send their children to residential schools. Residential schools and compulsory education; Children taken from their families; Trespass laws keep parents away.
1894: Progressive Warriors, upper nations, organize and petition. Some are descended from the reformers of 1860-1861. They are members of the Church., the Orange Lodge, and the Agricultural Society. They petition for: Council accountable by election. Principle of achievement.
1895 August 31: Ely S. Parker dies.
1896: The Canadian government funds 45 church-run residential schools across Canada.
1898: Federal Liberal Government denies right to vote from Indians.
1898: Progressive Warriors petition government again. Awkwasasne election is prevented (for a second time) and Clan Mothers petition the Governor General.
1899 March: Awkwasasne and Police confrontation.
1900: Official publication of the oral constitution of the Six Nations confederacy (in Mohawk: Kaianere’ko:wa “Great Peace”), the first time written down in 1880. Six Nations Confederacy issue the “Official Constitution.” The Chief is John A Gibson (Seneca).
1901 October 14: The Duke and Duchess of York, later King George V and Queen Mary, made a brief visit of twenty-five minutes to Brantford. Rev. Mr. Ashton presented the Queen Anne Bible for the royal couple’s signatures.
1901: Death of Queen Victoria.
1904: Fire at the Mohawk Institute. Current building constructed.
1904: The DIA issues two policies to quicken Indian assimilation: end Native customs and improve Indian education, and pressure First Nations to give up portions of their lands to settlers.
1904: Taytapasahsung, ninety years old and nearly blind, sentenced to Regina Jail for two months with hard labour for offence of practicing his religion.
1904: Progressive Warriors fracture. Indian Rights Association of “Dehorners” want total replacement of Confederacy. Formation of the Moral Reform League, which is short-lived and radical.
1907: Indian Affairs submits the Bryce Report.
1909: “’It is the policy of the Canadian Government, as I understand it, to recognize its relations with the Six Nations Indians of the Grand River as being on a different footing from those with any of the other Indians of Canada. The Six Nations Indians of the Grand River came to Canada under special treaty as allies of Britain, and the policy of the Canadian government is to deal with them having that fact always in view. It is no part of the intention of the Department to make any official action except through recognized tribal authority of the Six Nations.” Frank Oliver, Canada’s Minister of the Interior.
1910: Second “Dehorners” petition rejected.
1911: “Dehorners” send a delegation to Ottawa; they need two thirds voter support for election at Six Nations.
1912: Six Nations tries to establish a hospital as an “Oronhyatekha Memorial.” Six Nations rejects the proposal as Indian Affairs will not pay to maintain and operate it.
1912: 3,904 aboriginal children are in residential/industrial schools.
1913: Pauline Johnson dies.
1913: Prince Arthur (now the Duke of Connaught and Governor General of Canada) was given the condolence ceremony again at the Old Council House in Ohsweken because his mother Victoria had died since he’d been there in 1869.
1913: 19-year-old Prince Arthur (the Duke of Connaught and Governor General of Canada) was given the condolence ceremony by Chief John Buck in Brantford, made a chief (Rotiianer), and was adopted into the Long House with the name “Kar-a-kow-dye” which is the Mohawk wolf clan name Karakontie, signed the Queen Anne Bible.
1914: Addressing the Duke during his third visit, Six Nations Chief A.G. Smith and Secretary Chief Josiah Hill reminded the Duke that the Crown needed to respect the treaty rights of the Six Nations as they had been ignored by the Canadian Federal government since the Department of Indian Affairs had been brought under the Canadian government’s control. Smith and Hill further asked the Duke if he could secure a copy of the original treaty between the Six Nations and the British Crown to clarify whether the Six Nations were within their rights to demand such considerations from the Canadian government. According to the Brantford Expositor the Duke promised to consider this request. Accompanied by his daughter Princess Patricia, made his third visit to Brantford visited Mohawk Church where Princess Patricia signed the Queen Anne Bible.
1914: 292 Six Nations enlist in war. Upper nations Chiefs hold ceremony to reaffirm loyalty to Confederacy. Formation of Mohawk workers. “Thunderwater Movement” elects “longhairs versus shorthairs” at Tyendinaga, Six Nations, Awkwasasne, and Oka “Council of Tribes”.
1914 May 11: “But there are bands of the Six Nations Indians located on the Grand River in Ontario who, I maintain, are in a different legal position from any other Indian bands who are native to the country … and were given lands under a special treaty, not as subjects of Great Britain, but as allies of Great Britain, and I maintain that the holding of these Six Nations Indians on the Grand River is of such a kind that this parliament has no right to interfere with it. I admit that parliament has the power to interfere with the rights of Indians under treaty made with this government. But I say that this parliament has no right to interfere with a treaty made between the imperial government and the Six Nations Indians.” Frank Oliver, House of Commons.
1915: Death of Chief Josiah Hill. He is credited with maintaining Confederacy Council in power.
1917: Six Nations soldiers in France sign petition urging government to establish elected council at Six Nations.
1917: The Grand Council of the Iroquois Confederacy declares war on Germany
1917 31 January: Six Nations Indians Reserve Grand River. Kanienkeh “Post Office”. Clan mothers Letter Repudiating Conscription sent to King George V of England. Canadian legislation was modified to reflect this reality.
1918: Thunderwater proposes “An Act to Incorporate a Council for the Indian Tribes of Canada,” but it is defeated.
1918: Soldiers Settlement Act applies to Six Nations.
1919 October 20: Edward, the Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VII, visited Brantford. He also visited the Bell Memorial, the Mohawk Church where he signed the Queen Anne Bible, plants a tree at the foot of Joseph Brant tomb, and Victoria Park where he was made a Chief of the Six Nations, Da-yon-hem-se-ia (Dawn of the Day).
1920: Confederacy Chief Deskaheh (Levi General) goes to England to affirm Crown relationship and responsibility.
1920: Duncan Campbell Scott from Indian Affair recommends Bill 14 which restates Canada’s right to force attendance at Indian Residential Schools: “I want to get rid of the Indian problem. I do not think as a matter of fact, that this country ought to continuously protect a class of people who are able to stand alone. That is my whole point. Our Object is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic, and there is no Indian question, and no Indian department and that is the whole object of this Bill.
1820s: Floods of British settlers enter Upper Canada
1920: Indian Act amendment makes Day or Residential/Industrial School attendance compulsory.
1920: Amendment of Indian Act to call for compulsory enfranchisement of Indians.
1920: Deskaheh goes to England, Geneva and United Nations with claim.
1921: Passport issued by the Confederacy Council to Deskaheh, when he had traveled to England and Switzerland to appeal for aid for the Six Nations, was introduced into evidence. The passport had been “honored by immigration authorities in the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland,” substantiating the Six Nations claim to national authority.879 By 1959, the passport itself had become a linchpin of the structure of Native identity and a symbol of an “ethnic boundary” that separated Six Nations Indians from the dominant society.
1924: U.S. Secretary of the Interior, All Indians declared citizens of U.S.
1924: Federal government calls election at Six Nations.
1926: Chief Clinton Rickards founds the Indian Defense League with Chief David Hill, Jr. and Sophie Martin.
1927: Mohawk steelworker from Kahnawake named Paul Diabo was turned away at the American border by U.S. Immigration authorities. Unable to get to his place of work, Diabo took a detour into a U.S. court and fought for the treaty rights of Mohawks to travel across the US/Canada border unimpeded. The court sided with the Mohawks, and the decision was upheld on appeal the following year. Today, Mohawks issue their own passports that are recognized by both U.S. and Canadian border officials.
1927: Indian Act amendment prohibits raising money or hiring lawyers to pursue land
claims (to 1951).
1939 June 7: King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrived at the C.N.R. station, welcomed by Mayor R. J. Waterous and William Lyon Mackenzie King, the Prime Minister of Canada, signed the Queen Anne Bible.
1939 – 1945: Many Iroquois enlist to fight in WWII.
1942: The Grand Council of the Iroquois Confederacy declares war on Germany
1924 March: Six Nations unsuccessfully apply for the membership in the League of Nations (under the name of the Hodenosaunee Confederation of the Grand River).
1924 October 22: Six Nations of the Grand River Band Council imposed by Canada (the Council is single government of 13 separate bands: Bay of Quinte Mohawk, Bearfoot Onondaga, Delaware, Konadaha Seneca, Lower Cayuga, Lower Mohawk, Ninarondasa Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga Clear Sky, Tuscarora, Upper Cayuga, Upper Mohawk, Walker Mohawk); the Confederacy Council continues (to the late 20th century in opposition) with no recognition by Canada.
1928 June 19: A declaration by the representatives of the separate and independent aborigines, Iroquois people of North America known as and constituting the Confederacy of the Six Nation of the Mohawks, The Oneidas, The Cayugas, The Senecas and the Tuscaroras.
1939 September 1: Beginning of World War II
1942: The Six Nations declare war on the Axis powers, asserting its right as an independent sovereign nation.
1945: 9,149 registered to attend provincial schools. Only 100 (approx)
students in grades over Grade 8 are selected.
1946-48: A special Joint Committee recommended that First Nation Children be educated.
1949: Canada signs the United Nations Genocide Convention. [Adopted by Parliament in 1952]. Residential Schools operated for 30 years after Canada signed the Convention. Article 2: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
1951 October 14: Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, later Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, arrived in Brantford on the royal train, signed the Queen Anne Bible.
1951: Indian act amendment. Returning first nation veterans demand change and influence public opinion. Sets up the Indian Register in Ottawa. Repeals law allowing investment of ‘Indian moneys’. Provincial laws made to apply to Indians. Government regulation authority weakens band bylaw authority. Prohibition on pursuing land claims was removed when the Indian Act was amended.
1951: Indian Act Amendment, The 1951 amendments removed some of the provisions in the legislation, including the banning of dances and ceremonies and the prohibition on pursuing claims against the government. First Nations peoples were now permitted to hire lawyers to represent them in legal matters.
1951: Major changes to the Indian Act remove a number of discriminatory rules, including a ban on native consumption of alcohol, although it is only allowed on reserves.
1957: A series of encroachments on upstate New York reservation lands leads to increased militancy among the Iroquois tribes, including the Mohawk, the Tuscarora, and the Seneca.
1958: The Power Authority of New York announced plans to flood approximately one-fifth of the Tuscarora Reservation.
1959 March 5 – 1959 March 13: Confederacy chiefs take over the reserve, declare the elected Band Council dissolved.
1959 July 2: Queen Elizabeth II visited Brantford for the second time, signed the Queen Anne Bible.
1960: Natives are given the right to vote in federal elections.
1964: Jay Silverheels founds the Indian Actors Workshop.
1968: The Mohawk of the Akwesasne Reserve block the International Seaway Bridge between Massena, N.Y. in the U.S. and Cornwall, ON, Canada to draw attention to the violation of the Jay Treaty of 1794 by the government of Canada.
1969: Prime Minister Trudeau proposed a “white paper” policy with the aim of achieving greater equality for Indians. To do this, he proposed to abolish the Indian Act and dismantle the Department of Indian Affairs. Indians would essentially become like other Canadian citizens. Although it was widely agreed that the Department of Indian Affairs and the Indian Act were hugely problematic, this “white paper” policy was overwhelmingly rejected by Aboriginal peoples across Canada who felt that assimilating into mainstream Canadian society was not the means to achieve equality. They wanted to maintain a legal distinction as Indian people. Due to this widespread resistance against the white paper, the policy was eventually abandoned by the federal government. In fact, scholar John Milloy pinpoints the proposed white paper policy of 1969 as the turning point when the federal government finally abandoned their policy of assimilation for a policy geared toward establishing constitutionally protected rights for First Nations.
1969: The White Paper was strongly opposed by many Indian nations, who responded with their own document, “Citizens Plus” (also known as the Red Paper). Constitutional Express.
24 Jun 1970 – 10 Jul 1970: Supporters of the Confederacy chiefs seize the Council House, following the Iroquois Declaration of Independence of Nov 1969.
1970s: Schooling becomes the “battleground” for First Nations self government concerns.
1970: The Mohawk Institute is closed.
1972: National Indian Brotherhood of Canada calls for an end to federal control of First nation schooling.
1973 June 29: Queen Elizabeth II passed through Brantford.
1973: In the Calder case, the Supreme Court held that aboriginal rights to land did exist, citing the 1763 Royal Proclamation.
1977: The first Haudenosaunee Passports are issued and an Onondaga delegation travels to Switzerland using the passports.
1979: Jeanette Corbière Lavalle and Yvonne Bedard took the Canadian government to court, claiming that Section 12 of The Indian Act violated the Canadian Bill of Rights. They lost their case at the Supreme Court of Canada. In 1981, Sandra Lovelace resumed the fight and took her case to the United Nations. The United Nations Human Rights Committee found Canada in breach of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
1980s: were the Supreme Court’s decisions in Guerin v. The Queen (1984) on the Crown’s fiduciary obligations in relation to reserve lands, Simon v. The Queen (1985) on the legal status and liberal interpretation of treaties, and Dick v. The Queen (1985) and Derrickson v. Derrickson (1986) on the federal government’s exclusive jurisdiction over “Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians”.
1980s: Stories from the victims of Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal residential schools begin to surface.
1982: Renamed Constitution Act 1867. New constitution act guarantees ‘aboriginal and treaty rights’. 1983: Last residential school in Canada is closed.
1984 October 1: Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited Brantford.The royal couple visited the Mohawk Chapel, signed the Queen Anne Bible.
1985: Bill C-31, Bill C-31 was introduced which allowed First Nations women to marry non- Status or non-First Nations men without losing their Indian status. It also allowed First Nations women who had previously lost their status through marriage and First Nations individuals who had lost their status through enfranchisement to apply to have their status reinstated.
1987 December 2: S. Con. Res. 76; Iroquois Confederacy of Nations, To acknowledge the contribution of the Iroquois Confederacy of Nations to the Development of the U.S. Constitution and to reaffirm the continuing government-to-government relationship between Indian Tribes and the United States Established in the Constitution.
1988: US S. CON RES. 76 “Whereas, the original framers of the Constitution, including most notably, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, are known to have greatly admired the concepts, principles and governmental practices of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy; and, Whereas, the Confederation of the original thirteen colonies into one Republic was explicitly modeled upon the Iroquois Confederacy as were many of the democratic principles which were incorporated into the Constitution itself…”
1990: Mohawks protest the expansion of a golf course on tribal burial lands near Oka, Quebec.
1990: in R. v. Sioui the Supreme Court affirmed and applied the principles of treaty interpretation laid down in Simon v. The Queen (above), and acknowledged that prior to the 1763 Treaty of Paris (above, Period 4) the British and French had maintained relations with the Aboriginal nations very close to those maintained with independent nations, and had entered into treaties of alliance with them.
1990: the Supreme Court (Canada) handed down its first decision involving sections 35(1) rights, specifically the Musqueam Nation’s Aboriginal right to fish for food, ceremonial, and societal purposes. The Court decided that any Aboriginal rights that had not been extinguished before section 35(1) came into force on April 17, 1982, were recognized and affirmed and could only be infringed thereafter by or pursuant to legislation that had a valid legislative objective and that respected the Crown’s fiduciary obligations.
1990: A further attempt to renew the Canadian Constitution was made when the Charlottetown Accord was negotiated in 1992. If accepted, the Accord would have provided for explicit recognition and implementation of the inherent right of self-government. However, the Accord failed when it was rejected by a majority of Canadian voters in a referendum held in October, 1992. As a result, further elucidation of Aboriginal rights, including the inherent right of self-government, would depend either on court decisions or negotiated agreements.
1997: The landmark Delgamuukw v. British Columbia decision laid down fundamental principles regarding the nature, content, proof, infringement, and extinguishment of Aboriginal title. Among other findings, the court stated that aboriginal title is a property right, entitling the holders to exclusive possession and use of land and its resources.
1999: First Nations Lang Management Act. Opt-in model of legislation to expand band powers. Other opt-in legislation is introduced from this point on.
2001: Roberta Jamieson is the first female chief elected by the Six Nations.
2005: “The Office that I hold represents the Canadian Crown. As we are all aware the Crown has a fiduciary responsibility for the ongoing well being of Canada’s First Citizens.” Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Iona Campagnolo.
2005: “This stone was taken from the grounds of Balmoral Castle in the Highlands of Scotland—a place dear to my great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. It symbolises the foundation of the rights of First Nations peoples reflected in treaties signed with the Crown during her reign. Bearing the cypher of Queen Victoria as well as my own, this stone is presented to the First Nations University of Canada in the hope that it will serve as a reminder of the special relationship between the sovereign and all First Nations peoples.” Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada.
2006 September 14: Statement of Carl J. Artman (Before the Committee on Indian Affairs, US Senate) “Tribal sovereignty is inherent, and this sovereignty is best exhibited in a vibrant tribal government – one that understands judicious exercise of its jurisdiction for the benefit of its members and the seventh generation. Tribal governments embody the power of sovereignty. The tribal government cares for the present and plans for the future. It is what the outside examines to judge the health of the tribe. It is the face of the tribe and hope of the tribe’s future. Tribal governments can accomplish great things. The peoples and tribes of the Haudenosaunee, the Iroquois Confederacy, comprise the oldest continuous participatory democracy on earth. Authors of our, the United States, representative government, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were inspired by the Iroquois Confederacy, its inner-workings, and the Constitution of the Iroquois Nations known as the Great Binding Law, GAYANALAGOWA. Our Founding Fathers’ inspirations, rooted in the Haudenosaunee, guide all of our lives today and continue to motivate people across the globe to achieve a greater freedom for themselves and their fellow countrymen.”
2008: Prime Minister Stephen Harper offers a formal apology on behalf of Canada over residential schools.
2010 Aug 11: Mohawk Workers to erect signs on various disputed lands throughout Brantford declaring that the land is Mohawk Territory.
2012: Mohawk Workers became listed with the United Nations’ integrated Civil Society Organizations (iCSO) System, developed by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), which facilitates interactions between civil society organizations and DESA.
November 21, 2012: Judgment on Costs “The defendants argue that I should use my discretion to order no costs as this litigation was in the public interest and these defendants are public interest litigators. They further argue that the subject matter of these proceedings were essentially title related. I disagree. The subject of title to the land was certainly put forward but only on the basis of a foregone conclusion that the land belonged to the First Nations, which I found at present not to be the case. The main issue raised by the defendants was that burial grounds of the First Nations people were on the subject property and should not be disturbed by the digging of the archaeologists.” – Superior Court Judge Harrison Arrell.
2016: The Constitutional Principle of ‘Consent’, the political action of First Nations, and the duty to consult result in the requirement that the Indian act be amended or repealed only with the consent of the first nations being first obtained.
2019 June 20: Mohawk Nation of Grand River Country website launched.