Mohawk Bible History (3)

Mohawk Bible History (3)

**List: Mohawk Ministry
the Bible ( the Bible )
Mohawk...
MOHAWK.
"I.--GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT AND STATISTICS.
MOHAWK, an Iroquois language, was spoken by the most powerful people of the confederation of
the Five Nations. This confederacy is sometimes called "The Six Nations," the Tuscaroras of North
Carolina having eventually joined it; but it originally included only the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the
Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas. They resided on the Mohawk River and the lakes which
still bear their name, and extended their conquests to the Mississippi, and beyond the St. Lawrence.
Greater indications of courage, energy, and intelligence, have been manifested by these six nations than
by any other race of North America. They were far inferior in numbers to the Algonquin tribes, yet
always appear to have maintained an ascendancy over them, as well as over all the neighbouring nations.
They espoused the cause of the British against the French during the war between the two powers;
and by their single prowess they counterbalanced the advantages derived by the French from the
alliance of the other Indian nations. In the war of independence, they still remained faithful to
Britain; and on account of the part they had taken in that struggle, the Mohawks were compelled, in
1780, to abandon their lands, and take refuge in Canada, where they remain to this day. The remnant
of this warlike and once formidable confederacy cannot now exceed 7000 souls ; whereas, in the
beginning of the seventeenth century, the six nations numbered 40,000 individuals: this astonishing
decrease in numbers is the result of the destructive wars in which they were perpetually involved.
The languages respectively vernacular to each of these six nations are all of the Iroquois stock,
and so closely resemble each other, that the Mohawk version of the Scriptures is said to be intelligible
to the whole confederacy, and likewise to the Hurons or Wyandots, the southern branch of the Iroquois
family.
II.--VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THIS LANGUAGE.
In the year 1700, the Rev. Mr. Freeman, an exemplary Calvinist minister in New York, devoted
himself to the spiritual instruction of the Mohawks, and translated the Gospel of St. Matthew, and
several chapters of the Old and New Testaments, into their language. These translations he presented
to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Farts, who caused some of the chapters
to be printed, with a portion of the Liturgy of the Church of England, which had been translated into
Mohawk by their my., Mr. Andrews: the edition was printed at New York in 1714. The same
portions of Scripture were reprinted with the Liturgy, in New York, in 1769; but Mr. Freeman's
complete version of the Gospel of St. Matthew is said still to remain in MS.
In 1787 another translation of this Gospel was made by Joseph Brant, a Mohawk by birth, called
by his people Tarenyawagon. This singular man had been educated at one of the American colleges,
and held a commission as captain in the British army: it has been said of him, that "if he became
a savage in battle, and exhibited the peculiar subtlety, cruelty, and power of Indian deception while
on the war path, he had the power to sink into a philosophic calm in his study." His version of
St. Matthew was printed, in 1787, in London, with a third edition of the Liturgy in Mohawk: the
expenses were defrayed by the English Government. Another edition of this version was published at
New York in 1829, by the New York District Bible Society, in which the Mohawk and English
versions are printed on opposite columns: by means of this arrangement, it is clearly seen how much
the English excels the Mohawk language in point of brevity. At the close of the volume is a collec-
tion of sentences, selected and translated by Brant, from various parts of the Scriptures, and designed
for practical instruction. The judgment evinced by Brant in this selection proves that he was theo-
retically acquainted with the main doctrines of Christianity.
The next portion of the Scriptures translated into Mohawk was the Gospel of St. John. The
translator, who also ranked as captain in the British army, was known to Europeans under the English
name of John Norton. He was a Cherokee by birth, but in his infancy had been naturalised among
the Mohawks, so that the language of his adopted nation (of which he was afterwards elected a chief)
was his vernacular tongue. He visited England for the purpose of obtaining a confirmation of the
grants under which the Mohawks obtained the Great River settlement; and about the same period,
his mind being directed to the spiritual and moral improvement of his people, he commenced a trans-
lation of the Gospel of St. John into Mohawk. He drew his translation from the English version, for he
had from childhood been familiarly acquainted with the English language, and had served as interpreter
to the British army. In 1804 his work was completed, and an edition of 2000 copies was published,
with the English version in parallel columns, by the British and Foreign Bible Society. These copies
were forwarded for distribution to different stations in Upper Canada, and in the Ohio and Oneida
country. Another edition was published by the American Bible Society in 1818, the correctness of
the version having been attested by the interpreters in the Indian villages.
An intelligent Mohawk chief, named A. Hill, was engaged, during the year 1826 and two
following years, in a translation of the Four Gospels; and a princess of the same nation, well qualified
for the work, undertook the translation of the Acts. No printed edition, however, appears to have
been issued of any further portion of Scripture till 1832, when 1000 copies of the three Epistles of
St. John (translated by the Rev. Mr. Williams) were ordered to be printed by the American Bible
Society, as soon as evidence could be obtained as to the correctness of the translation. During the
same year Hill's version of the Gospel of St. Luke was committed to the press, after having been sub-
mitted to the correction of J. A. Wilkes, jun., of Grand River, Canada West. The edition was printed
in parallel columns with the English version, at the expense of the Young Men's Bible Society,
Methodist church, New York. The same Society published, in 1835, at New York, a version of the
Acts and of the Epistle to the Romans, translated by Hill, and corrected by Wm. Hess and
J. A. Wilkes, jun. In 1835 the Epistle to the Galatians, and in 1836 the Epistles to the Philippians,
Colossians, Thessalonians, and to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, were published by the same Society:
the translation was executed by Hess, an educated Mohawk, and corrected by Wilkes. The Mohawks
are thus in possession of nearly all the books of the New Testament; and it is to be hoped that
a complete edition of the entire Scriptures will soon be bestowed upon them. A Mohawk version
of Isaiah has also been printed; the Pentateuch and Psalms are stated to have been translated into the
same language, but have not yet been printed.
III.--RESULTS OF THE DISSEMINATION OF THIS VERSION.
As to the effects produced by the perusal of the Mohawk translations, we have the following
testimony from the Rev. Mr. Ryerson, of Canada:--"The portion of the Scriptures that has
been given to the Mohawks has made them, in many respects, a people prepared for the Lord. When
the mies. preached the Gospel of Christ to them, they found several of them in the same
interesting state of mind as Peter found Cornelius; and considerable numbers gave evidence of their
having become real Christians." And it has been stated, as a pleasing instance of the prompt and
independent spirit of these children of the forest, that, when the version of St. John's Gospel was first
introduced among them, the Mohawks at Caughnawaga village, in Lower Canada, being members of
the Church of Rome, convened a council of their chiefs, to deliberate upon the propriety of receiving
the Scriptures, and unanimously resolved, that all their people should be left at liberty to accept of
the Gospel."--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition) Samuel Bagster [Info only]

MOHAWK--1860 S. Bagster [Info only: n.d. John 1:1-14 unknown.]

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