Mohawk – Wyandot Ancestry of Lt. John Young's ... - Davidkfaux.org

moved away in April 1817 (Indian Affairs, RG10 Series, Vol. 120, 8 November 1843, p.4834). An Indian Department document specifically stated that sometime before 27November 1818, Francis Cotter had “gone to Detroit” (Indian Affairs, RG10 Series, Vol.790, p. 7048). He settled among the Wyandots (Hurons) at Amherstberg, AnderdonTownship, Ontario where his son Nicholas was baptized in 1822. Family records givethe name of the wife of Francis Cotter as Catherine Brown, a Wyandot of the Turtle Clan.His first son Francis Jr. was said to have been born in 1813 in “Toronto” (which to theOklahoma informant may have been a generic statement for “Canada”). However the1843 Wyandot rolls of those moving to Kansas shows Francis Cotter Jr. to be under age25, so likely born in Anderdon Township. The Cotters were also involved in one way oranother with the Wyandot Upper Sandusky settlement (for example Francis was amember of a six man firing squad who executed a convicted murderer in thatcommunity); and perhaps the Honey Creek Mohawk settlement at Sandusky, notedearlier, which was established between about 1815 and 1817, associated with both theSenecas and Wyandots (Sturtevant, 1978), as well as his apparent relatives the Brants.All of these were in the Detroit area.It is clearly established that in 1836 all of the Cotter family were residents ofAmherstburg when on 23 September 1836 “F. Cotter” signed a deed which alienated thenorth and south thirds of the Anderdon Reserve. On 26 September 1836 a group of seven“Warriors” of the Wyandot, not present during the first signing, which included AnthonyCotter, Nicholas Cotter and Francis Cotter, signified their approval of the deal (these andsimilar documents are found on the Wyandotte-nation.org website).It may be instructive to look for a reason as to why the Cotter family were able to transfertheir allegiance from the Mohawks to the Wyandot so quickly. One could infer thatFrancis Cotter, although at one time an Upper Mohawk chief, had an ancestral connectionto the Wyandot, but his name Tahatonne presumably reverted to a non-chiefly name. It ispossible that his mother, as was the case with many Mohawks in the mid to late 18 thCentury, spent her early years in the “Old Northwest”. We will see that the proposedfather of Margaret, the mother of Francis Cotter, was an ambassador to the Huron /Wyandot of the Detroit and Sandusky areas.There is no evidence that Francis Cotter Sr. was ever a chief of the Wyandot. In effect hegave up a role as a principal chief of the Six Nations to become a “rank and file” memberof the Wyandot. He and his family joined the majority of Wyandot, and migrated toKansas in July 1843 with many of their fellow tribal members from Upper Sandusky,settling on the Wyandotte Purchase in Kansas where Cotter died 29 September 1852(William Walker Jr. Diary).As noted above, doubtless upon departure from the Grand River (or perhaps before)Cotter would have been "dehorned" (a form of impeachment), or he voluntarily turned inhis wampum credentials - his chiefship removed and given to an available candidate fromwithin the matrilineal family. Since his name was not among the 9 inherited league titlesamong the Mohawk, it appears that “resigning from this role as a principal chief did notmean relinquishing his given name. Tahatonne never appears later among the list of35