Four Kings and a Queen: Part II— Brant

 Four Kings and a Queen

Part II— Brant

By: Loretta Tucker

 This article is a continuation in our series exploring the stories of the “Four Indian Kings” who visited Queen Anne in London in 1710. This time we will be examining the life of Mohawk warrior Brant Sagayenkwaraton.

He was a member of the Bear clan. As a young man he was known as Thowariage, a name meaning “One whose fence has been broken”. [1, pp. 60–61]. In 1694, he was baptized by Protestant minister Dom. Dellius, who gave him the name Brant. Around 1696, he received a new name from his clan: Sagayenkwaraton, meaning “Disappearing Smoke” or “Old Smoke”. This referred to the duty he would now be responsible for: carrying a smoldering brand from one villag

e to another in order to kindle the council fire. [1, pp. 37, 64], [2] He lived at the Mohawk Lower Castle at Tiononderoge with his wife, Margaret Kviethentha, and their five children.

Brant was similar to Hendrick Tejonihokarawa (discussed in our previous issue) in many ways; He was a Christian Mohawk, from Tiononderoge, with close ties to colonial leaders in     Albany. But unlike Hendrick, Brant was not a sachem. Rather, he was a formidable warrior and appears to have held the position of war chief. This was a military title rather than a political one, but it meant that he was a leader within his community, and his opinions and actions had influence.

   That influence meant that Brant’s peers worked hard to keep him on their side. Though he would famously meet with Queen Anne in pursuit of a mutually beneficial alliance in 1710, Brant had previously had serious doubts about the Mohawk-English relationship. A decade earlier, he and four other Mohawk men considered moving their families to Canada and aligning themselves with the French Catholics instead. This would be a major loss for the local Mohawks as well as their colonial allies, and could even trigger more families to follow suit, worried that the defectors would turn their weapons against those who remained in the Mohawk Valley.

   Clearly concerned, Hendrick personally met with these men and was able to convince them to stay. Hendrick brought Brant with him to report this success to Lord Bellomont, the Governor of New York at the time, and the other Haudenosaunee sachems. Brant stood to address Bellomont directly, asserting that he was now “fully resolved to stay in his own country and live and die under the obedience of his Majesty of England and be further instructed in the true Protestant Religion.” [3, pp. 730–731], [4, pp. 59–60]

   To Brant’s contemporaries, his prowess as a warrior was plain to see. The portraits of the “Kings” show that three of the four had tattoos across their faces and bodies, and Brant’s appeared to be the most elaborate. For Northeastern Native Americans of this period, tattoos were a record of a warrior’s accomplishments on the battlefield. The straight lines crisscrossing Brant’s face were marked with arrows- indicating the number of wounds he’d received in battle- and dots- indicating the number of scalps he had claimed. His chest was decorated with a manitou, or personal guardian spirit, in the form of a crawfish. A warrior’s manitou would inspire his fighting style; for Brant, his manitou may have indicated that “Like a crawfish, he always faces his enemy head on, with his pincers ready to attack. Also like a crawfish, if he needs to retreat, he moves backward, guarding his retreat, not turning tail and running.” [2], [5, p. 147]

   In 1709, Brant was one of the 450 Native American warriors recruited by Col.’s Vetch & Nicholson’s campaign to reduce Canada. That summer, they and 4000 colonial militia waited for the arrival of Her Majesty’s royal navy, which would signal the start of their attack. But as the months went on, the fleet never arrived, and Vetch & Nicholson sensed their allies growing impatient.

   Wishing to placate their concerns, Nicholson invited “four or five of the most credible of the five Nations of Indians sent to Boston”. Brant was amongst this group, likely selected due to his reputation as a warrior. The group dined with the officers and were given “find clothes lac’d with true gold and silver lace”, touring the fort and watching firing demonstrations as a show of New England’s military might.

   These Indigenous leaders were apparently “pleased & surprised beyond expectation”, and satisfied to wait a little longer for the navy. [6, pp. 27–29] But they were not the only ones Vetch would have to convince. Unfortunately for these would-be conquerors of Canada, the promised ships never showed. The colonial leaders realized months later that the Queen had diverted the ships to another cause.

   In hopes of a more successful campaign the following year, Vetch & company decided to arrange a diplomatic mission to London to win greater support from the British government. The idea was to get the Queen’s attention by sending representatives of their Native American allies, who would be presented as “Kings” (though this was an exaggeration of their actual status).

   Brant was quickly recruited for the mission, being an obvious choice. His direct involvement in the 1709 campaign meant that he would have valuable insights in terms of the ongoing conflict between the English and French colonies, and the Mohawk perspective. He could also speak personally about the lure of the French missionaries and the desire for more active involvement from the Protestant church. Thus chosen, he and the rest of the Kings traveled London in the spring of 1710.

   Though they were there on business, the Kings enjoyed various entertainments in London, including a performance of Macbeth at the Queen’s theater at the Haymarket. Unfortunately Brant likely missed the show, having taken ill shortly into their stay. [4, p. 94], [6, pp. 3–5, 98–99], [7] He seemed to improve after some time resting at their apartments, and was able to join his companions for other events, including a review of the guards at Hyde-Park, where he was again impressed by a demonstration of their allies’ military strength. [8]

   The Kings returned to New York by August, having been successful in winning their more support for the continued campaign against Canada. Perhaps Brant was looking forward to joining the fight once more. Unfortunately, the long journey and his illness abroad had left him in weak health, and he reportedly passed away in September of 1710, just a few months after his return home. [6, pp. 40, 119], [9, p. 32]

   After his death Brant’s legacy was not forgotten. Two other prominent Mohawk figures, Joseph and Molly Brant, are believed to be his grandchildren or great-grandchildren, and Joseph recalled this connection during his own visit to London in 1776 [10]. Additionally, at least two other Mohawk Bear clan leaders would inherit his clan name, Sagayenkwaraton.

   Please stay tuned for more in this series and keep an eye out for programming related to the “Four Kings” throughout 2026.

 

Sources:
[1] B. J. Siversten, Turtles, Wolves, and Bears: A Mohawk Family History. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1996.
[2] L. Krutak, “Tattoos, Totem Marks, and War Clubs: Projecting Power through Visual Symbolism in Northern Woodlands Culture,” in Drawing with Great Needles: Ancient Tattoo Traditions of NOrth America, A. Deter-Wolf and C. Diaz-Granados, Eds., Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013, pp. 95–130.
[3] John Romeyn Brodhead, Esq., Ed., Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York, Vol. 4, London Documents: IX-XVI, 1693-1706, vol. IV. in Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York, vol. IV. Albany: Weed, Parsons and Company, 1854. https://archive.org/details/documentsrelativ04brod/page/n8/mode/1up
[4] E. Hinderaker, The Two Hendricks: Unraveling a Mohawk Mystery. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2010.
[5] R. HIll, “View from the Canoe vs. the View from the Ship: The Art of Alliance,” Ab-Orig. J. Indig. Stud. First Nations First Peoples Cult., vol. Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 141–150, 2018.
[6] R. P. Bond, Queen Anne’s American Kings. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952.
[7] R. Steele and J. Addison, “The Tatler, No. 171, May 13, 1710,” in The Tatler, Volume 3, G. A. Aitken, Ed., New York: Haley & Mathews, 1899, p. 299. Accessed: Dec. 06, 2025.
[8] “The Dublin Intelligence, May 20th, 1710,” Dublin, Ireland, pp. 1–2, May 20, 1710.
[9] J. W. Lydekker, The Faithful Mohawks. in Empire State Historical Publications Series, no. 50. Port Washington, Long Island, New York: Ira J. Friedman, Inc., 1938.
[10] J. Boswell, “The London Magazine, 45 (July 1776),” The London Magazine, vol. 45, London, England, p. 399, 1776.