TEYOHAQUEANDE (Deiaquande, Diaquande, Teiyoquande, Tiahogwando, Tüyaguande), Onondaga warrior and sachem; fl. 1756–83.

Teyohaqueande, a chief warrior of the Onondagas, was among a delegation sent to Montreal by the Six Nations in the summer of 1756. The group conferred with Governor Vaudreuil [Rigaud], and Teyohaqueande took the opportunity of the journey and his four weeks in Montreal to gather intelligence which he subsequently reported to Sir William Johnson, the British superintendent of northern Indians. He was in Canada again the following year.

In the summer of 1759, when many warriors from the Six Nations joined Johnson in attacking the French in the Niagara region, Teyohaqueande was on an expedition against the Catawbas. When he returned he met Johnson at Oswego (N.Y.), where Brigadier-General Gage was considering an attack against La Galette (near Ogdensburg, N.Y.), the next obstacle on the route to Montreal. On 6 Sept. 1759 Teyohaqueande set off for his village, intending to return in six days with his warriors. While he was at home one of his children died but he cut short his mourning to arrive at Oswego before the end of the month. After much uncertainty the British decided to postpone the attack until the next year, and most of the Six Nations returned to their villages. When forces re-gathered at Oswego in the summer of 1760 Teyohaqueande was present and, unlike many of his people who returned home after Fort Lévis fell, he accompanied Amherst and Johnson to Montreal.

In March 1761, bereaved by numerous deaths in his family, Teyohaqueande returned the insignia of office, a medal and a flag, which he had been awarded when Johnson recognized him as a sachem. The superintendent sent them back to him with a message of consolation and a request that Teyohaqueande retain his leadership. The sachem resumed his responsibilities and carried them through the difficult post-war years. He was present at Johnson Hall (Johnstown, N.Y.) in March 1763 for discussions concerning the murder of two members of a British trading party in Seneca country. Johnson was attempting to get the Six Nations to turn over the murderers so that British justice could be administered, but they argued “that it was better to Accomodate Matters already bad enough, than to shed further Blood thereon.” At this meeting the Onondagas announced the appointment of Teyohaqueande and five others to share the responsibilities of the older sachems for the management of the confederacy. The next year they informed Johnson of the selection of Teyohaqueande and Onughranorum “to assist in their Councils.” The gravity of the appointment was signified by the powerful traditional symbol of two wampum strings.

On 28 April 1765 Teyohaqueande spoke on behalf of those Six Nations warriors who had accompanied John Bradstreet the previous summer on his expedition against Pontiac*’s supporters. Bradstreet, he claimed, had “let them Suffer greatly for want of the necessarys they expected . . . [and] a Drunken Man would have spoke & acted better than he did.” The warriors wished compensation for their mistreatment. He spoke again in July at the signing of treaties between the British and the Shawnees, Delawares, and Mingos. He warned these tribes (over whom the confederacy exercised some authority) that the agreements must not be broken, for “the Supreme Being whose Worshiper & Servant our Great King & Father is can punish you, because all these promises & engagements have been entered upon before Him . . . .”

In the autumn of 1767, after more deaths in his family and the death of Karaghiagigo, an important Onondaga warrior, Teyohaqueande returned his insignia of office to Johnson. Bereavement was not his sole reason. The loss of Karaghiagigo had left the Onondagas divided, and Teyohaqueande was at the head of one faction. The lines of division are not certain, but it appears that Teyohaqueande was doubtful whether his people would ever obtain redress of their grievances against the British. Once again Johnson reassured him. In the following year he was present at the negotiation of the treaty of Fort Stanwix, which established a line demarcating the Indian domain. Early on the opening morning of a major conference at German Flats (near the mouth of West Canada Creek, N.Y.) in 1770, however, the Bunt [Hotsinoñhyahtaˀ] and the speaker of the Six Nations informed Johnson that Teyohaqueande had again “refused to attend to business” and had “encamped with another Nation.” As he was the head warrior of the Onondagas, his behaviour would impede the proceedings, and they asked the superintendent to persuade him to return. Johnson did so after some discussion with him. In 1773 he went on behalf of Johnson to investigate the murder of some Canadian traders which had occurred in Seneca country. He returned in time to attend a conference at Johnson Hall in January 1774 called to deal with the hostilities between the whites and the Shawnees.

Teyohaqueande spoke at a gathering of September 1774 at Johnson Hall, voicing regrets at Johnson’s death that summer and welcoming his successor, Guy Johnson. The account of the meeting describes Teyohaqueande as “a Chief who had long enjoyed Sir William’s particular confidence.” His alignment with the British and the Johnsons endured. He attended meetings in 1775 at which the Americans attempted to secure the neutrality of the Six Nations in the coming struggle. Replying to the American commissioners, he raised the Wyoming valley question, a land controversy long a source of grievance to the Iroquois [see Karaghtadie*]. In January 1777 he was among the Oneidas with a message from the British agent John Butler, summoning them to Fort Niagara (near Youngstown, N.Y.). The Oneidas refused to go. Most of them, like most of the Tuscaroras, favoured the Americans during the war. Majorities of other nations of the confederacy allied themselves with the British and suffered devastating raids on their settlements. Teyohaqueande spent six weeks of the summer of 1779 in Quebec as part of an attempt to get more assistance from the British. Governor Haldimand, who addressed the delegation on 20 August, dismissed Iroquois apprehensions of a major American attack on their villages, but as he spoke a rebel army under John Sullivan was marching into Indian country. Diplomatic missions during the rest of the war took Teyohaqueande on various journeys, but his headquarters were at Niagara with the thousands of Iroquois refugees. Haldimand was appalled at the expense of aiding the homeless families and was constantly pressing for more to be done to make them self-supporting. Groups of them were sent out to sow corn to reduce the demand for provisions; in May 1781 Teyohaqueande was listed as the chief of 277 Onondagas gone to Buffalo Creek, N.Y., to plant. In July 1783 he attended a conference at Niagara where Sir John Johnson*, superintendent general of Indian affairs, assured the Iroquois that the peace agreement between the British and Americans was not intended to deprive the Six Nations of their lands. He must have listened with a sceptical ear.

in collaboration

BL, Add. mss 21767, ff.181, 264. PAC, MG 19, F1, 3, p.249; 25, p.169. Johnson papers (Sullivan et al.). NYCD (O’Callaghan and Fernow). Graymont, Iroquois. L. H. Morgan, League of the Ho-dé-no-saunee, or Iroquois (new ed., 2v., New York, 1901; repr. 2v. in 1, 1922). S. F. Wise, “The American revolution and Indian history,” Character and circumstance: essays in honour of Donald Grant Creighton, ed. J. S. Moir (Toronto, 1970), 182–200.