The two Hendricks : unraveling a Mohawk mystery / Eric Hinderaker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hinderaker, Eric, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indians of North America--History--Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775.

Indians of North America.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (369 pages)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, [2011]

Summary:

In September 1755, the most famous Indian in the world-a Mohawk leader known in English as King Hendrick-died in the Battle of Lake George. He was fighting the French in defense of British claims to North America, and his death marked the end of an era in Anglo-Iroquois relations. He was not the first Mohawk of that name to attract international attention. Half a century earlier, another Hendrick worked with powerful leaders in the frontier town of Albany. He cemented his transatlantic fame when he traveled to London as one of the "four Indian kings."Until recently the two Hendricks were thought to be the same person. Eric Hinderaker sets the record straight, reconstructing the lives of these two men in a compelling narrative that reveals the complexities of the Anglo-Iroquois alliance, a cornerstone of Britain's imperial vision. The two Hendricks became famous because, as Mohawks, they were members of the Iroquois confederacy and colonial leaders believed the Iroquois held the balance of power in the Northeast. As warriors, the two Hendricks aided Britain against the French; as Christians, they adopted the trappings of civility; as sachems, they stressed cooperation rather than bloody confrontation with New York and Great Britain.Yet the alliance was never more than a mixed blessing for the two Hendricks and the Iroquois. Hinderaker offers a poignant personal story that restores the lost individuality of the two Hendricks while illuminating the tumultuous imperial struggle for North America.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

List of Illustrations

Map: The Mohawk Valley and environs, 1670-1755

Map: The Two Hendricks' wider world

Introduction: Fame and Obscurity

Chapter 1. New Birth

Land of shadows

The French ascendancy

Covenant Chain

Protestant Mohawks

Woeful war

The Albany swindle

Hendrick's nadir

Neutrality

Chapter 2. Odyssey

"Great veneration"

"Glorious enterprise"

Queen and court

City and country

Hendrick's transformation

Inglorious enterprise

Fort and chapel

Schoharie lands

Eclipse

Backcountry crises

Boston and Maine

The land under their feet

End of days

Chapter 3. Hendrick's War

Origins of the Iroquois myth

The transformation of Mohawk country

William Johnson and the Mohawk Valley

Hendrick Peters Theyanoguin

Stretching the chain

Calls to war

Warraghiyagey

Hatchet in hand

The failure of arms

Chapter 4. Apotheosis

Politics and prisoners

The decline of Mohawk influence

The chain gathers rust

Stockbridge

The stakes are raised

The chain broken

Covenant Chain and empire

The road to the Albany Congress

Exhortation and acquiescence

Apotheosis

Light and shadow

Conclusion: Memory and Meaning

Abbreviations

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780674273856

0674273850

OCLC:

1272994477