Canaqueese was a Mohawk war chief and intercultural mediator who lived in the 17th century in the Mohawk Valley, an area of central present-day New York state, United States. He was of mixed race, with a Mohawk mother and Dutch father, brought up with and identifying as Mohawk. He was an important intermediary among the French, Dutch, the Algonquian-speaking Mahican (Mohicans), and the Iroquoian-speaking Mohawk peoples. This was especially so during the Beaver Wars, which arose over competition for the lucrative fur trade. He participated in numerous attempts to reach a peace agreement between the Mohawk and the French based in Quebec (or New France).
He was referred to by different names by representatives of the various national groups with whom he interacted. Canaqueese was his Mohawk name. Smits Jan was his Dutch name, one that he was probably given at baptism or while dealing with the Dutch in New Netherland. Smits Jon was an anglicized version of his Dutch name, given to him by the English after they captured New Netherland in 1664 (renaming it New York). "Flemish Bastard" was the name given to him by French Jesuit missionaries, who described him as "an execrable issue of sin, the monstrous offspring of a Dutch Heretic father and a pagan woman."
Background
Since the late 20th century, historians are reassessing the area of the upper Hudson River, Mohawk River and St. Lawrence River as a shifting borderland of alliances and conflicts. There were no national boundaries between the English and French colonies, nor between the territories of the Algonquian-speaking nations along the Hudson and the New England coast, for instance, and the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Certain Native Americans such as Canaqueese played a role with each of the ethnic groups. He always acted to protect the interests of the Mohawk.
Early life
Canaqueese was born in the 17th century near the site of the Dutch frontier village of Schenectady to a Mohawk mother and a Dutch father. In the matrilineal kinship system of the Mohawk, children were considered born into the mother's clan and deriving their status from her family, through which inheritance and property were passed. The mother's eldest brother was more important to the children than their biological father. Canaqueese likely was brought up by his mother with her people and identifying as Mohawk, while learning Dutch and making use of familiarity with Dutch culture.
He was not mentioned in the historical records until 1650, recorded then as leading a band of Mohawk warriors in an attack on the French settlement at Trois Rivières. This was during the First French–Iroquois War (ca. 1650–1667).
Dutch sources do not note his Dutch paternity, which may suggest that he appeared Mohawk in dress and in custom. The Relations of the French Jesuits were the only source that marked him as a person of paternal Dutch descent. Canaqueese probably participated in the Mourning Wars of the late 1640s. In these wars, the Seneca and Mohawk allied to attack, and eventually destroy, the Huron Confederacy of Southern Ontario. There are no records that prove Canaqueese was involved in these wars. But Iroquois warriors were promoted based on merit, and he was referred to as a war chief in the Jesuit Relations that recounted the 1650 Mohawk attack on Trois-Rivières. This suggests that Canaqueese had already proven his skill in previous battles, which would most likely have been the Mourning Wars.
Affiliations
Canaqueese drew from his mixed-race background and learned Dutch to act as an interpreter and courier between both colonial and native groups. In that period and under the Mohawk matrilineal system, he identified with his mother's clan as fully Mohawk. He learned Dutch in addition to Mohawk, in part through the trading of beaver pelts in the summer months with Dutch officials in Fort Orange, Rensslaerswick and Beverwijck.
After the Dutch began to work with Canaqueese, they enlisted him as a courier, carrying letters from Fort Orange to Canada in 1653 to facilitate a peace agreement between the French and Mohawk during the First French–Iroquois War (ca. 1650–1667). The Dutch also recommended Canaqueese to the French as a negotiator, describing him in letters as a "savage much loved by the Mohawk." Canaqueese's biculturalism was an important factor in his role as a mediator. In 1663 he served as a mediator between the Dutch and Algonquian-speaking peoples in the Upper Hudson Valley.
Through his intermediary efforts, Canaqueese also strengthened his status with the Mohawk, as he gained important information on European policies and plans related to his people.