Tanacharison
| Tanacharison or Tanaghrisson | |
|---|---|
| Seneca tribe leader | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | c. 1700 Near Buffalo, New York |
| Died | October 7, 1754 Paxtang, PA |
| Cause of death | pneumonia |
| Known for | Fought in French and Indian War |
| Nickname(s) | Half King |
Tanacharison or Tanaghrisson (c. 1700 – 4 October 1754) was a Native American leader who played a pivotal role in the beginning of the French and Indian War. He was known to European-Americans as the Half King, a title also used to describe several other historically important Native American leaders. His name has been spelled in a variety of ways.
Little is known of Tanacharison's early life. He may have been born into the Catawba tribe about 1700 near what is now Buffalo, New York. As a child, he was taken captive by the French and later adopted into the Seneca tribe, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. He would later claim that the French boiled and ate his father. His early years were spent on the southeastern shore of Lake Erie in what is now western New York state.
Tanacharison first appears in historical records in 1747, living in Logstown (near present Ambridge, Pennsylvania), a multi-ethnic village about 20 miles (30 kilometers) downstream from the forks of the Ohio River. Those Iroquois who had migrated to the Ohio Country were generally known as "Mingos", and Tanacharison emerged as a Mingo leader at this time. He also represented the Six Nations at the 1752 Treaty of Logstown, where he was referred to as "Thonariss, called by the English the half King". At this treaty, he speaks on behalf of the Six Nations' Grand Council, but also makes clear that the Council's ratification was required, in accordance with the Iroquois system of government.
According to the traditional interpretation, the Grand Council had named Tanacharison as leader or "half-king" (a sort of viceroy) to conduct diplomacy with other tribes, and to act as spokesman to the British on their behalf. However, some modern historians have doubted this interpretation, asserting that Tanacharison was merely a village leader, whose actual authority extended no further than his own village. In this view, the title "half king" was probably a British invention, and his "subsequent lofty historical role as a Six Nations 'regent' or 'viceroy' in the Ohio Country was the product of later generations of scholars."
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