Fish Carrier (Ojageght)

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Fish Carrier (or "Ojageght", which translates to English as "he is carrying a fish by the forehead strap") was an Iroquois chief from the Cayuga people. He supported the Patriot cause in the American Revolution, participating in the Wyoming Valley Massacre and Cherry Valley Massacre on the Patriot side, as well as the Battle of Newtown in 1779.[1][2]

Service in the Revolutionary War[]

During the Revolutionary War Fish Carrier worked to reduce tensions between the Senecas and Oneidas tribes who supported British and American forces respectively. Fish Carrier was one of the signatories of the witnessed by Samuel Denny Street under Timothy Pickering and received a silver medal from George Washington and a parcel of land in 1792.[3][4] Details of the negotiations were published in The American Museum.[4] He was present at the council that decided the Canandaigua Treaty.[1] He was an adviser to Red Jacket during the council at Buffalo Creek in 1791.[5]

After the war[]

Anna Shepard Perkins, in Early Times on the Susquehanna, writes about Fish Carrier at a ceremony to adopt Robert Morris into the Senecas following his acquisition of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase. The ceremony became tense following dances and songs of battles between the Senecas and the Oneidas, and knives were drawn. Fish Carrier stood up, "striking the post with violence", and shouted "You are all a parcel of boys; when you have all attained my age, and performed the warlike deeds that I have performed, you may boast what you have done; not till then!"[6]

In 1807, his name appears as Hojawgata. It was later preserved amongst Canadian Cayugas.

Family[]

Fish Carrier had three children, a daughter and two sons. The ethnographer Lewis H. Morgan bought a conch shell breastplate for $5 from Peter Fish Carrier, Fish Carrier's son.[7]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Bruce Elliott Johansen; Barbara Alice Mann (2000). Encyclopedia of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy). Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 97–. ISBN 978-0-313-30880-2.
  2. ^ New York State Historical Association, ed. (1940). New York City Guide. p. 56.
  3. ^ Frederick Webb Hodge (July 2003). Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico Volume 3/4 N-S. Digital Scanning Inc. pp. 112–. ISBN 978-1-58218-750-1.
  4. ^ a b The American museum or universal magazine: containing essays on agriculture, commerce, manufactures, politics, morals and manners. 1792. pp. 245–.
  5. ^ Christopher Densmore (1 April 1999). Red Jacket: Iroquois Diplomat and Orator. Syracuse University Press. pp. 29–. ISBN 978-0-8156-0548-5.
  6. ^ "Early Times on the Susquehanna". Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice. Joyce Tice. Archived from the original on 2008-06-22. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  7. ^ Elisabeth Tooker (1994). Lewis H. Morgan on Iroquois Material Culture. University of Arizona Press. pp. 141–. ISBN 978-0-8165-1462-5.
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