Johnson’s baronet status afforded him huge land tracts upon which he built several large estates; his lands and his large extended family included many Mohawks and played significant roles in the course of John Deserontyon’s life.

The year after he took Fort Niagara, Johnson joined Sir Jeffrey Amherst at Montreal for the final defeat of the French in 1760, a battle at which Deserontyon was present as a teenager. Johnson had been the natives’ ‘Sole Agent and Superintendent and Their Affairs’ and had assembled more than 600 Iroquois to assist in his campaign. With Johnson, Deserontyon was witnessing the very finest in colonial leadership and compassion. For example, Johnson saw that prisoners were properly shod and clothed for their long journeys while in his custody.

Less compassionate was Sir Jeffery Amherst whose impeccable military reputation was later tarnished by his correspondence supporting the use of ‘biological warfare’ during the Pontiac rebellion of 1763. Pontiac was an Ottawa chief with French sympathies who led an uprising against the British after the French governor general, Marquis de Vaudreuil, surrendered Quebec. The Native Americans had enjoyed prosperous trade and friendly relations with the French and were angered by Amherst's decision to discontinue the custom of providing gifts and supplies in exchange for native friendship and assistance. Amherst’s indifference was evident in his writings in which he suggested blankets riddled with smallpox be distributed to the natives as a way of helping put down the rebellion.

Johnson initiated parlays to negotiate a settlement with Pontiac and did so with the help of his Iroquois circle including Deserontyon and older Mohawk leaders many of whom helped tutor Sir William’s son John and his nephew Guy in the art of native negotiation. Pontiac had persuaded the Chippewas, Delawares, Shawnees and Senecas to attack British forts with a vengeance and many whites were either brutally killed or captured. Johnson and his entourage held two peace settlement discussions with the ‘Six Nations’ during 1763 and the following year held a parlay with 1400 natives at Fort Niagara.

(015) It was under the command of Sir William Johnson that Deserontyon learned the nuances of cultural interpretation between his own Mohawk people and white colonials. Photo: Mark Jodoin