Oronhyatekha
Encyclopedia
Oronhyatekha ("Burning Sky" or "Burning Cloud" in the Mohawk language
Mohawk language
Mohawk is an Iroquoian language spoken by around 2,000 people of the Mohawk nation in the United States and Canada . Mohawk has the largest number of speakers of the Northern Iroquoian languages; today it is the only one with greater than a thousand remaining...

, also carried the baptismal name Peter Martin), was a Mohawk
Mohawk nation
Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...

 physician, scholar, and a unique figure in the history of British colonialism. He was the first known aboriginal Oxford scholar; the second aboriginal medical doctor in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

; a successful CEO of a multinational financial institution; a native statesman; an athlete of international standing; and an outspoken champion of the rights of women, children, and minorities. While all this would be remarkable in any age, that he achieved it during the Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 when racism and assimilation were official state policies, has made him a figure approaching legend in some aboriginal circles.

Biography

Born 10 August 1841 on the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation near Brantford, Ontario
Brantford, Ontario
Brantford is a city located on the Grand River in Southern Ontario, Canada. While geographically surrounded by the County of Brant, the city is politically independent...

, he attended the Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts
Wilbraham, Massachusetts
Wilbraham is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. It is also a suburb of the City of Springfield, Massachusetts and part of the Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,868 at the 2010 census...

. After graduating, he taught for a year among the Indians and then entered Kenyon College
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, founded in 1824 by Bishop Philander Chase of The Episcopal Church, in parallel with the Bexley Hall seminary. It is the oldest private college in Ohio...

.

Oronhyatekha was selected at the age of twenty by the Six Nations Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...

 Confederacy (consisting of the Mohawk, Oneida
Oneida tribe
The Oneida are a Native American/First Nations people and are one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy in the area of upstate New York...

, Onondaga
Onondaga (tribe)
The Onondaga are one of the original five constituent nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Their traditional homeland is in and around Onondaga County, New York...

, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora
Tuscarora (tribe)
The Tuscarora are a Native American people of the Iroquoian-language family, with members in New York, Canada, and North Carolina...

 Nations) to give the welcoming address to the Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...

 during his visit to New World. Prince Edward
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...

 was sufficiently impressed that he urged the young Oronhyatekha to attend the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

. Oronhyatekha matriculated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford
St Edmund Hall, Oxford
St Edmund Hall is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Better known within the University by its nickname, "Teddy Hall", the college has a claim to being "the oldest academical society for the education of undergraduates in any university"...

 in 1861.

In 1863, Oronhyatekha returned to Canada to marry Ellen Hill, and took a medical degree at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

. As his medical practice grew, he also became a figure of increasing importance in Victorian Canada. In 1871, be became a member of Canada's National Rifle Team
National Rifle Team
A National Rifle Team is a traveling competitive marksmanship team from a country. Several countries field a national rifle team, such as Belgium, Canada, Cina, Denmark, Finland, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States....

, and in 1874, was elected the President of the Grand Council of Canadian Chiefs
Assembly of First Nations
The Assembly of First Nations , formerly known as the National Indian Brotherhood, is a body of First Nations leaders in Canada...

, the highest ranking native statesman in North America.

In 1878, he applied to become a member of the Independent Order of Foresters
Fraternal Forestry
The Independent Order of Foresters is a fraternal organization, now based in Toronto, Canada, and operating under the brand Foresters.-History:Foresters traces its origin to a British Friendly Society, a mutual organization caring for the sick...

, a fraternal and financial institution
Friendly society
A friendly society is a mutual association for insurance, pensions or savings and loan-like purposes, or cooperative banking. It is a mutual organization or benefit society composed of a body of people who join together for a common financial or social purpose...

 associated with the Orange Order
Orange Institution
The Orange Institution is a Protestant fraternal organisation based mainly in Northern Ireland and Scotland, though it has lodges throughout the Commonwealth and United States. The Institution was founded in 1796 near the village of Loughgall in County Armagh, Ireland...

. Although the Foresters' statutes explicitly limited its membership to white men and Orangemen
Orangemen
Orangemen can refer:*Historically, to supporters of King William III of Orange.*To members of the modern Orange Institution - a Protestant fraternal organisation.*To the former name of male sports teams of Syracuse University, now called the Orange....

, Oronhyatekha was not only inducted as a member, but rose to become Supreme Chief Ranger of Foresters, the organisation's international CEO, in 1881, a position that he held for a record 26 years. During his tenure, he transformed the order into one of the wealthiest fraternal financial institutions in the Victorian world; today, it counts more than one-million members in North America and the European Union.

While heading the Foresters, he built one of the first North American museums created by a Native individual. It was housed in the Foresters Temple in Toronto, until shortly after his death, and contained natural history artifacts, items from Canadian Native groups, and from cultures around the world. The artifacts were transferred to the Royal Ontario Museum. In the early 2000s, the Royal Ontario Museum and the Woodland Cultural Centre curated a show of his objects entitled Mohawk Ideals: Victorian Values.

He was the Worshipful Master of Richardson Masonic Lodge in Stouffville Ontario in 1894.

Ironically, the one achievement of which Oronhyatekha was most proud was the enterprise his contemporaries regarded as his only significant failure. In 1904, he created an orphanage on the Bay of Quinte
Bay of Quinte
The Bay of Quinte is a long, narrow bay shaped like the letter "Z" on the northern shore of Lake Ontario in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is just west of the head of the Saint Lawrence River that drains the Great Lakes into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...

, Ontario, which was universally seen as extravagant and excessive by Victorian standards. It opened for operations in 1906, and Oronhyatekha described it as his life's crowning achievement. He did not live to see it closed the following year, as he died in 1907.

External links

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