Beschreibung:

BRANT, Joseph ("Thayendanega") (1742-1807), Mohawk chief. Document signed ("Capt Joseph Brant" in two places) also signed by John Butler Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 6 witnesses, plus 38 other "Sachems, Chiefs and principal Men and Women" of the Mohawk tribe (many using both Indian and Anglicized names), New York, 9 July 1789. 2 o (758 x 560 mm). Calligraphic document in a large clerical hand, signatures arranged in 3 columns beneath, top edge cut to a scallop pattern (typical of treaty documents), large red wax seal of the Canojoharie and Mohawk tribes at lower left, small paper seals for the Indian signatories. (Slight fold separations neatly mended with minor losses, slightly spotted, margins a bit ragged.) Provenance : Frank T. Siebert (his sale Sotheby's New York, 21 May 1999, lot 201). JOSEPH BRANT AND THE MOHAWKS RELINQUISH TRIBAL LANDS. A dramatic, large format indenture signed in two places by the legandary Brant, certifying the sale of "all that certain Tract of Land, Situate, Lying and being on the South side of the Mohawk River in the County of Tryon, near Montgomery...Comprehending all those Lands claimed by us (the Indians late of Fort Hunter Castle..." for the sum of £700. As a young man, Joseph Brant had served the British in the French and Indian War. During the Revolution, commissioned a Captain in the British Army, he planned the bloody ambush of the Continentals at Oriskany (1777) and participated in the notorious Cherry Valley Massacre (1778), and Minisink attacks (1779). He ended the war with a reputation--among the Americans--for relentless ferocity, and with the rank of Colonel in the British Army. In the wake of the American victory, the Mohawks were forced to migrate to Ontario, gradually relinquishing most of their ancestral lands over the next decade. RARE: This is the only such document involving the legendary Brant and his tribe to have appeared on the market since at least 1970.