Canojaharie (1723-1789) was the chief of the Huron-Wyandot until his death in 1789. A traditional enemy of the Iroquois Confederacy, he spent his years as chief fighting them and maintaining independence from the United States. He was succeeded as chief by Shakopee.
Biography[]
Canojaharie was born in 1723 in Fort Sault Ste. Marie in the Huron Territory, now a part of Canada. Canojaharie was a war leader of the Huron-Wyandot tribe during their war with Great Britain in the 1750s and during their war against the United States in the 1770s, and became the "Minister" (leader) of the Huron tribe at one point. Canojaharie had a captured wife with him, and he was known to be odd and a tyrant. Chief Canojaharie sided with Great Britain during its war against the patriots during the American Revolutionary War, leading raids on the frontier against the patriot settlers; the Wyandots were involved in fighting the Americans in the Ohio Country and in New York. In 1783 he achieved a goal by capturing the rival Iroquois Confederacy's village of Fallen Timbers in the Ohio Territory, but he died of old age in 1789 at the age of 66. Shakopee became the new chief after his death.