[siebert] loyalists AND SIX NATION INDIANS 121 



Simcoe assumed the lieutenant governorship he easily became con- 

 vinced of the danger of allowing the Indians to alienate any part 

 of their grant, and opposed Brant's policy with vigor. ^ 



After numerous councils and conferences on the subject the Gover- 

 nor went to the Grand River in 1795, attended by his councillors, 

 and there listened to an elaborate speech by the Mohawk Chief, 

 after which he promised to forward the speech to Sir Guy Carleton 

 and confirmed such sales as had been previously made by the Indians. 

 In October, 1796, another hearing took place before Colonel Daniel 

 Claus, the deputy superintendent of Indian Affairs, at Niagara, but 

 without winning Claus to the support of Brant's plan. Then, the 

 Chieftain submitted the matter to Simcoe's successor, Peter Russell, 

 who sanctioned the sales already made, and stipulated that the lands 

 then sold, or promised, should be surrendered to the government, 

 which would issue grants to the purchasers, the payments to be re- 

 ceived by trustees for the benefit of the Indians. These trustees 

 were also to foreclose mortgages in case of default, and the mortgaged 

 lands were to revert to the red men. When, however, the government 

 failed to keep this agreement. Brant laid the case before the British 

 ministers.^ 



It was at this juncture that the Chief of the Mohawks was 

 accused of peculation, and a council held among the Senecas at 

 Bufïalo Creek by which he was declared deposed from the headship 

 of the Six Nations. As the other Mohawk chiefs did not attend this 

 council, the tribe being represented by only a few malcontents, the 

 action taken was regarded as illegal, and so declared at a later council 

 convened at Niagara in 1804. Thus, Brant remained at the head of 

 both his own nation and the confederacy until his death in November 

 24, 1807. The famous warrior's closing years were spent in a com- 

 modious house, which he had built on a tract of land (a gift from the 

 King) at the head of Lake Ontario, directly north of the beach dividing 

 the lake from the waters of Burlington Bay. He was buried beside 

 the church he had erected at the Mohawk village on the Grand 

 River. ^ 



As Brant was an educated man and had long been a member of 

 the Episcopal church, his concern for the welfare of his people did not 

 restrict itself merely to the promotion of their material interests, 

 but extended also to the advancement of religion and education 

 among them. The building of a church, a schoolhouse, and a grist 

 mill at New Oswego was almost the first thing he asked of the pro- 



1 Stone, Life of Brant, II, 281-283, 287-289, 397, 398. 



2 Ibid., 399, 400, 403. 



3 Stone, Life of Brant, II, 409, 423, 424, 498, 499. 



