Pride and Dignity

Excerpts from the Exhibition: Joseph Brant Monument

Monument for a Loyalist Mohawk Leader

The Joseph Brant Monument was erected by the city of Brantford, Ontario, in recognition of loyalist Mohawk leader, Joseph Brant who fought on the side of the British during the Revolutionary War. In 1784, following the War, Joseph Brant led some 1,843 Iroquois Loyalists from New York State to the land granted them in Ontario by Sir Frederick Haldimand as restitution for their losses in the war. Today, the Six Nations Reserve is located just outside of Brantford.

When I came across this photograph of the monument, I felt it marked an important point in history but I was also interested in the activities that took place in 1886. One year before the official unveiling of the monument, the Aboriginal people who took part in the Riel Rebellion were put on trial, convicted, and then hanged or sent to prison. But the Blackfoot and Cree chiefs who refused to participate in the Rebellion were brought east for the official unveiling of the Brant Memorial one year later. During my research, I also came across a series of six portraits of Six Nations chiefs who posed for figures at the base of the monument. I was finding an interesting confluence of events taking place around this monument. A modern view of the monument provided by Mohawk photographer Shelly Niro, who lives and works in Brantford, completes an interesting juncture in time. Shelly has posed her three sisters in front of the monument.

Jeffrey M. Thomas, Onondaga - Iroquois
Guest Curator

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