American revolutionaries called him Monster Brant, yet Joseph Brant, or Thayendanegea, translated the Gospel of Mark into Mohawk, wore a Masonic apron and lived in a mansion with fine china. This episode explores how Brant, born in 1743, rose to power through a bilingual education and family ties to Sir William Johnson, bypassing traditional hereditary leadership.

Brant traveled to London in 1775, met King George III and allied the Mohawk with Britain to protect their land from colonial expansion. He led Brant’s Volunteers in raids across the New York frontier, then faced betrayal in the Treaty of Paris. On the Grand River in Ontario he built an economic strategy of leasing land to settlers, while confronting internal opposition, the death of his son Isaac and his own ownership of enslaved people.

• How his mother’s ginseng trade and his sister Molly’s union with William Johnson shaped his rise
• Why Brant saw neutrality as an illusion and chose the British Crown
• The Monster Brant propaganda and the Freemason captive he spared
• The Haldimand Proclamation and his plan for an economically independent Mohawk state
• The contradictions of his legacy and his final plea to help his people