MOHAWK - Discovering the Valley of the Crystals Copyright 2004
Chapter Five - Iroquois
The Covenant Chain
The concept of the Covenant Chain began at a 1677 conference in
Albany, but was formalized and strengthened after Frontenac’s reign of
destruction in the1690s.
Not everyone agrees---even today---what the Covenant Chain was or signifies.
“Iroquois diplomacy put
great value in the linking of arms, and the Covenant Chain was an extension
of that metaphor. Alliances were forged by leaders who attracted followers
by their personal traits and reputations. Kin ties were important. Clan
brothers were easily linked, but links with one’s father’s clan could be
important too, even in this strongly matrilineal society. Men traveled
in parties composed of clan brothers. In the larger engagements of the
colonial wars, such units sometimes included men from two or more Iroquois
nations that happened to share common clan names. In one later case a fighting
unit of Mohawk clan brothers joined a particular English army unit because
one of its recruiters was adopted into the clan.
“Thus, while the Covenant Chain was to the English
a hierarchical structure, to the Iroquois it was a nearly flat network
of linked arms. The links all strengthened each other, but they needed
constant nurturing. Gift exchange, most importantly the transfer of wampum
in the seventeenth century, maintained the network and prevented it from
dissolving into the normal human condition of constant warfare.”
Others described The Covenant Chain as
a political relationship between the Iroquois Federation and the English
colonies that utilized ongoing councils and treaties to resolve disputes
regarding settlement, trade, acts of violence, war and mutual defense.
Most of these negotiations took place in the MohawkValley where colonial
governors or their representatives met with Iroquois sachems or their representatives.
This arrangement lasted for over 50 years, but broke down when it became
more and more difficult for the colonies to agree on a “common position.”
So, in the 1750s the English government became more involved, appointing
such men as (Sir) William Johnson to represent the Crown.
King Hendrick
Around the time the Covenant Chain was born, a boy
was born to a Mohawk woman and a Mohegan man living in Massachusetts. Several
years after his birth his family moved, along with other New England refugees,
to the Mohawk Valley. His name was Theyanoguin, meaning “the western
door is open.” When he converted to Christianity he took the name
Hendrick.
As a member or the Wolf Clan and a Christian (later
becoming a preacher), Theyanoguin emerged as a prominent sachem among the
Mohawks. He was one of a handful of Iroquois leaders who sailed to London
in 1710 where they were treated like royalty and introduced as “Kings”
from America. One of the other Mohawk leaders who made this trip was Sagayonguaroughton,
also known as Brant, became Joseph Brant's grandfather. .
For a time Hendrick lived at the Lower Mohawk Castle
but later moved to the Upper Castle, opposite the mouth of East Canada
Creek. It was here that Fort Hendrick was built and where Hendrick planted
an extensive apple orchard.
(See: http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/research_collections/research/history/hendrick/pagenine.html
Through his diplomatic and oratory skills, and close
friendship with Sir William Johnson, King Hendrick emerged as the primary
spokesmen for the Mohawks and for the Iroquois Federation at Covenant Chain
conferences, addressing such notables as Doctor Benjamin Franklin.
In 1754, the year before his death at the Battle
of Lake George during the French and Indian War, King Hendrick addressed
the delegates at a conference in Albany, both thanking and admonishing
the English . . . and predicting the war to come.
"We thank you for renewing and brightening the
covenant chain. We will take this belt to the Onondagas, where our council
fire always burns, and keep it so securely that neither the thunderbolt
nor the lightning shall break it. Strengthen yourselves, and bring as many
as you can into this covenant chain.
"Look at the French; they are men; they are fortifying
everywhere; but, we are ashamed to say it, you are like women, bare and
open, without any fortifications. It is but one step from Canada hither,
and the French may easily come and turn you out of doors."
