MOHAWK LEADER THEYANOGUIN (“KING HENDRICK”) PROPOSES THE “ALBANY PLAN”
A man of distinction in both Native and English upper circles, Theyanoguin, known as “King Hendrick,” led a delegation of chiefs from the Iroquois Confederation to address a meeting in Albany Congress seeking to bring about better relations with the Native American tribes and common defensive measures against the French threat from Canada. Delegates did not have the goal of union but were persuaded by Theyanoguin, serving as Speaker for the Mohawk Council. He was openly critical of the British and intimated that the Mohawk would not ally with them unless they formed a union, such as existed within the Iroquois Six Nations Confederacy. The Albany Congress accepted a proposed plan for union and selected Benjamin Franklin to prepare a complete draft of the plan. The plan Franklin drafted would become known as the “Albany Plan” and would be a foundation for what we now know as the United States of America. Theyanoguin died at the Battle of Lake George in 1755.
Source: Johansen, Bruce Elliott, Barbara Alice Mann, ed., Encyclopedia of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy), (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2000), pp. 158, 159. Retrieved 7/5/2019, https://books.google.com/books?id=zibNDBchPkMC&pg=PA157&lpg=PA157&dq=bruce+elliot+johannsen+%26+king+hendrick&source=bl&ots=3boIfwZgX1&sig=ACfU3U14AjQ97y8Md5-LFksRAgTE0R_ADw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi7xMCHhZ7jAhVBwFkKHaxADq0Q6AEwEHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=bruce%20elliot%20johannsen%20%26%20king%20hendrick&f=false
Engraving: Author unknown, circa 1755. John Carter Brown Library. Public Domain in U.S.: Pre 1/1/1925. Public Domain elsewhere where copyright term is author’s life plus 100 years or less.