Tanaghrisson

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Tanaghrisson (also Deanaghrison , Johonerissa , Tanacharison , Tanahisson , Thanayieson ) († October 4, 1754 in Harris's Ferry, Harrisburg ) was a leader of the Iroquois Seneca in the upper Ohio Valley . He played an important role in the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in North America .

Life

Little is known about his youth. Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry wrote that he was a Catawba by birth but that he was captured by the Seneca and adopted by them. Philippe-Thomas Chabert de Joncaire reported that he came from Lac des Deux Montagnes and that he was originally inclined to the French.

Around 1745, settlement pressures and the intervention of English traders changed the political situation in the area between the Ohio River and the Great Lakes. So part of the Hurons ( Wyandot ) and Miami moved from the lakes towards Ohio. Here Tanaghrisson appears in the sources for the first time under the name Tanareeco . He was one of the signatories of a letter from 1747, which reported about a contract between the pro-British Mingo and Shawnee with the "Inomey Nation", the Miamis. One of the Mingo signers was actually a Oneida named Scarroyady. He was a negotiator between the Iroquois and Shawnee, and one of Tanaghrisson's most important allies.

The Iroquois council fire of Onondaga (near Syracuse ), however, viewed the Mingo as warriors who were not authorized to maintain their own council fire and thus to conclude external contracts. Therefore, they had no spokesman, which the British translated as "king". However, the British colonies of Pennsylvania and Virginia preferred not to negotiate with the Iroquois, but with the remaining tribes, if possible with each one of them. It was Pennsylvania about trade rights, Virginia also about the extraction of settlement land. In order to prepare this diplomatically, George Croghan sent a gift to the Ohio Indians on April 1, 1748 in the name of Pennsylvania, and in September the Indian agent Conrad Weiser brought a major gift, in which Virginia also participated. These treaty negotiations were the outward sign that Logstown, Ambridge , Pennsylvania was recognized as a council fire. Tanaghrisson appeared here for the first time as "the half king". The French equivalent of this title, "demiroi", only appears in translations, so it only reflects the British perspective. Tanaghrisson and his allies tried to consolidate their new status by asking for wampum , the symbolic mark of the validity of their treaties. When George Croghan attended a council meeting in May 1751, Tanaghrisson was the speaker, as did at another meeting in June 1752 when Virginia was negotiating the ratification of a land cession.

In 1753 the French began not to settle the upper Ohio Valley - there were far too few willing people to settle - but to secure it militarily. Tanaghrisson was accordingly hostile to this invasion. Therefore he tried to unite all political forces, be they Indians or British, against them. The Delawaren also protested, as did Scarroyady on behalf of the Shawnee, and Tanaghrisson, who brought his request for withdrawal on September 3rd. However, Paul Marin de La Malgue, the French commander, rejected the demands. Scarroyady then led a delegation of Delaware, Shawnee, Hurons and Miami to Winchester , then to Carlisle , Pennsylvania, at the invitation of Virginia . Both Tanaghrisson and Scarroyady meanwhile insisted that they speak not for the Iroquois, but only for the tribes of the Ohio Valley. Tanaghrisson called for the British traders to leave.

After the death of the French commander Marin, he moved to Fort de la Rivière au Boeuf ( Waterford , Pennsylvania) on December 11, 1753 , together with two other chiefs named Jeskakake and Kaghswaghtaniunt and accompanied by Major George Washington . As representatives of the Ohio tribes and Virginias, they again demanded the withdrawal of the French, but they again refused. Tanaghrisson returned to Logstown on January 15, 1754, accompanied by a French delegation led by Michel Maray de La Chauvignerie, who set up a short-lived post.

In February Tanaghrisson accompanied some Virginians who built a fort near what is now Pittsburgh . He supported them until they had to give in to Claude-Pierre Pécaudy de Contrecœur on April 18, who instead built Fort Duquesne. George Washington should restore British authority. Tanaghrisson and his men joined the 160 Virgins under Washington's leadership, and he took part in the Skirmish at Jumonville Glen . In all probability he himself killed the French leader Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville with a tomahawk - presumably to prevent a peace treaty between the colonial powers and to cut off Great Britain's ability to give in to the French. Washington quickly withdrew and established Fort Necessity. Tanaghrisson and 80 to 100 Mingo joined them on June 1, but they left the fort before the surrender, which took place on June 4. They went to Cumberland , Maryland , then to Aughwick ( Shirleysburg , Pennsylvania), where Croghan had his trading post.

Tanaghrisson called a gathering of the Delaware and Shawne leaders there. He himself went to John Harris' post, from where he accompanied Conrad Weiser back to Aughwick for a council meeting. The negotiations from September 4th to 6th came to the conclusion that Delawaren and Shawnee had to be supported in the British interest. But most of the fugitive Iroquois stayed in Aughwick, especially since they could not leave the Ohio Valley, but they could not protect Pennsylvania there either. Scarroyady took the now seriously ill Tanaghrisson to Harris' post, where Tanaghrisson died on October 4, 1754.

Virginia and Pennsylvania immediately recognized Scarroyady as the new Half King . Nevertheless, the situation did not stabilize, but the leadership within the group was fought until January 1756. This was largely due to the fact that the new half-king was traveling to New York to seek help from Sir William Johnson, the superintendent of northern Indians .

Since Scarroyady and Tanaghrisson were equally referred to as half kings, confusion often arose. Scarroyady died in Lancaster , southern Pennsylvania , in June 1757 .

Tanaghrisson had at least one son, who is called "Gahickdodon the half King's Son" in negotiations in Carlisle in January 1756. Two of his daughters stayed in Aughwick for a while, one of whom was married to the British trader John Owen. There was Fort Shirley. They left the fort with a soldier from the garrison in July 1756. In that year, a daughter-in-law of Tanaghrissons lived on the upper Susquehanna River .

literature

swell
  • Fernand Grenier (ed.): Papiers contrecœur et autres documents concernant le conflit Anglo-Francais sur l'Ohio de 1745 à 1756. Les Presses Universitaires Laval, Québec 1952.
  • The Treaty at Logg's Town, 1952 . In: Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 13 (1906) 154-174.
Historical literature
  • Francis Jennings: Empire of Fortune: Crowns, Colonies, and Tribes in the Seven Years War in America. WW Norton, New York and London 1990, ISBN 0-393-30640-2 .
  • William A. Hunter: Tanaghrisson . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).