Fish Carrier or "Ojageght," which translates to English as "he is carrying a fish by the forehead strap," was an

Iroquois The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...

chief of the

Cayuga Cayuga often refers to: * Cayuga people, a native tribe to North America, part of the Iroquois Confederacy * Cayuga language, the language of the Cayuga Cayuga may also refer to: Places Canada *Cayuga, Ontario United States * Cayuga, Illinois ...

people. He supported the British during the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

, participating in the

Battle of Wyoming The Battle of Wyoming, also known as the Wyoming Massacre, was a military engagement during the American Revolutionary War between Patriot militia and a force of Loyalist soldiers and Iroquois warriors. The battle took place in the Wyoming Val ...

in 1778 and the

Battle of Newtown The Battle of Newtown (August 29, 1779) was the only major battle of the Sullivan Expedition, an armed offensive led by Major General John Sullivan that was ordered by George Washington to end the threat of the Iroquois who had sided with the Br ...

in 1779.

American Revolutionary War

Although the ''Encyclopedia of Native American Biography'' states that Fish Carrier “supported the patriot cause,” historians Barbara Graymont and Max Mintz both record that Fish Carrier was allied with the British, and led the Cayuga contingent against the Americans at the Battle of Wyoming and the Battle of Newtown. At a council held at Irondequoit in July 1777, the Cayuga and

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People, fictional characters and language * Seneca (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname : :* Seneca the Elder (c. 54 BC – c. AD 39), a Roman rhetorician, writer and father ...

had abandoned their neutrality and had "taken up the hatchet" against the Americans. Fish Carrier accepted the war belt on behalf of the Cayuga, and likely participated in the

Siege of Fort Stanwix The siege of Fort Stanwix (also known as Fort Schuyler) began on August 2, 1777, and ended on August 22, 1777. Fort Stanwix, at the western end of the Mohawk River Valley, was a primary defense point for the Continental Army against the British ...

and the

Battle of Oriskany The Battle of Oriskany ( or ) was a major engagement of the Saratoga campaign during the American Revolutionary War. On August 6, 1777, an American column of Tryon County militia and Oneida people, Oneidas marching to relieve the siege of Fort ...

later that summer. While a small group of

Oneida Oneida may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Oneida people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy * Oneida language * Oneida Indian Nation, based in New York * Oneida N ...

led by Han Yost Thahoswagwat supported the Americans during the

Sullivan Expedition The 1779 Sullivan Expedition (also known as the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition, the Sullivan Campaign, and the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign) was a United States military campaign under the command of General John Sullivan (general), John Sullivan duri ...

, this was not the case for the Cayuga whose villages were destroyed in September 1779. The Cayuga fled to

Fort Niagara Fort Niagara, also known as Old Fort Niagara, is a fortification originally built by New France to protect its interests in North America, specifically control of access between the Niagara River and Lake Ontario, the easternmost of the Great L ...

and the following spring moved to Buffalo Creek. Fish Carrier participated in a number of raids in 1780 including the August 1780 raid on the

Canajoharie Canajoharie (), also known as the "Upper Castle", was the name of one of two major towns of the Mohawk nation in 1738. The community stretched for a mile and a half along the southern bank of the Mohawk River, from a village known as ''Dekanohag ...

district led by Joseph Brant. Fifty-three houses were burned as well as barns, a gristmill, a church, and two small forts.

Postwar

Most of the Cayuga, including Fish Carrier, remained at Buffalo Creek after the war, while a few hundred settled on the Grand River on land granted to the Iroquois in 1784 by

Frederick Haldimand Sir Frederick Haldimand, KB (born François Louis Frédéric Haldimand; 11 August 1718 – 5 June 1791) was a Swiss military officer best known for his service in the British Army in North America during the Seven Years' War and the America ...

, Governor of the

Province of Quebec Quebec is Canada's largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, New Brunswick to the southeast and a coastal border ...

. A faction of the Cayuga led by Steel Trap, however, returned to the

Cayuga Lake Cayuga Lake (, or ) is the longest of central New York's glacial Finger Lakes, and is the second largest in surface area (marginally smaller than Seneca Lake) and second largest in volume. It is just under long. Its average width is , and i ...

region and in February 1789 negotiated a treaty with Governor George Clinton of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. Steel Trap ceded most of the Cayuga's traditional territory except for roughly 64,000 acres at the north end of Cayuga Lake. Although Fish Carrier did not attend the negotiations or sign the treaty, one square mile was reserved for his use. In June 1790, Fish Carrier met with Governor Clinton at

Fort Stanwix Fort Stanwix was a colonial fort whose construction commenced on August 26, 1758, under the direction of British General John Stanwix, at the location of present-day Rome, New York, but was not completed until about 1762. The bastion fort was bui ...

and ratified the 1789 Treaty. Fish Carrier attended meetings between Indian Commissioner

Timothy Pickering Timothy Pickering (July 17, 1745January 29, 1829) was the third United States Secretary of State, serving under Presidents George Washington and John Adams. He also represented Massachusetts in both houses of United States Congress, Congress as ...

and representatives of the Iroquois at Tioga Point in November 1790 and at Painted Post (Newtown) in July 1791. He was an advisor to

Red Jacket Red Jacket (known as ''Otetiani'' lways Readyref name=parkerxxiii>Parker 1952, Preface p. xxiii. in his youth and ''Sagoyewatha'' eeper Awake''Sa-go-ye-wa-tha'' as an adult because of his oratorical skills) ( – January 20, 1830) was a Senec ...

during the meeting at Buffalo in April 1791 with Colonel Thomas Proctor.Campisi, J., & Starna, W. A. (1995)
"On the Road to Canandaigua: The Treaty of 1794"
''American Indian Quarterly'', 19(4), 467–490. In March 1792, Fish Carrier was with a delegation of

and Cayuga that met with

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

in Philadelphia. Fish Carrier, Red Jacket,

Cornplanter John Abeel III (–February 18, 1836) known as Gaiänt'wakê (''Gyantwachia'' – "the planter") or Kaiiontwa'kon (''Kaintwakon'' – "By What One Plants") in the Seneca language and thus generally known as Cornplanter, was a Dutch- Seneca ch ...

, Blacksnake and two others were presented with large oval silver peace medals. Fish Carrier was one of the signatories of the November 1794

Treaty of Canandaigua The Treaty of Canandaigua (or Konondaigua, as spelled in the treaty itself), also known as the Pickering Treaty and the Calico Treaty, is a treaty signed after the American Revolutionary War between the Grand Council of the Six Nations and Presi ...

that established perpetual “peace and friendship” between the Iroquois and the United States, and acknowledged the sovereignty of the Iroquois within their lands. Fish Carrier worked to reduce tensions between the Senecas and the Onedias who had supported British and American forces respectively. Julia Anna Perkins, in ''Early Times on the Susquehanna'', writes about Fish Carrier at a ceremony to adopt

Robert Morris Robert or Bob Morris may refer to: :''Ordered chronologically within each section.'' Politics and the law * Robert Hunter Morris (1700–1764), lieutenant governor of Colonial Pennsylvania * Robert Morris (financier) (1734–1806), one of the Foun ...

into the Senecas following Morris's acquisition of much of the earlier

Phelps and Gorham Purchase The Phelps and Gorham Purchase was the sale, in 1788, of a portion of a large tract of land in western New York State owned by the Seneca nation of the Iroquois Confederacy to a syndicate of land developers led by Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gor ...

. 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!"

Name

Fish Carrier’s name in Cayuga is transcribed as “Oo-jau-gent-a” on the Treaty of Canandaigua, as “Ogageghte” on a document dated August 1789. as “Ho-ja-ga-ta” by ethnologist

Lewis H. Morgan Lewis Henry Morgan (November 21, 1818 – December 17, 1881) was a pioneering American anthropologist and social theorist who worked as a railroad lawyer. He is best known for his work on kinship and social structure, his theories of social e ...

. and as "Ojageght" in the ''Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico.''

Family

Fish Carrier had three children, a daughter and two sons. After Fish Carrier's death at Buffalo Creek, his family moved to the

Six Nations of the Grand River Six Nations (or Six Nations of the Grand River) is demographically the largest First Nations reserve in Canada. As of the end of 2017, it has a total of 27,276 members, 12,848 of whom live on the reserve. The six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy ...

reserve in

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada () was a Province, part of The Canadas, British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the Province of Queb ...

(Ontario). Morgan visited the reserve in 1850 and purchased a conch shell breastplate that had belonged to Fish Carrier for five dollars from Peter Fish Carrier, Fish Carrier's son.

References

{{Reflist Cayuga people Native American people in the American Revolution