The Two Hendricks: Unraveling a Mohawk Mystery

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.

Table of Contents:
* List of Illustrations * Map: The Mohawk Valley and Environs, 1670--1755 * Map: The Hendricks' Wider World * Timeline of Events in the Lives of the Two Hendricks * Introduction: Fame and Obscurity *1. New Birth * Land of Shadows * The French Ascendancy * Covenant Chain * Protestant Mohawks * Woeful War * The Albany Swindle * Hendrick's Nadir * Neutrality *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 *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 *4. Apotheosis * Politics, Prisoners, and the Imperial Matrix * 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 * Notes * Acknowledgments * Index

About the Author :
Eric Hinderaker is Professor of History at the University of Utah.

Review :
Hinderaker utilizes creative and in-depth research to construct a biography of two Mohawk leaders whose actions were dictated not by British interests but by those of the Mohawks and other members of the Iroquois Confederacy during an era when the Iroquois were the linchpin between New France and Great Britain...Highly recommended as both a historical work and an outstanding example for historiographers in writing ethnohistory. -- John Burch Library Journal (starred review) 20091101