Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pieth Ton King of the Maquas

Creator

John Verelst John Simon

Place

[London]

Date

[1710]; 1701-1750

Notes

Portrait of Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pieth Ton in war attire holding a musket. Artifacts include belt, porcupine-quilled shot pouch, powderhorn, hatchet or tomahawk, and moccasins. Animals include a bear and man chasing a deer on foot.

Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pieth Ton, baptised as Brant, was a member of the Bear clan of the Mohawk. He was one of the four sachem of the Five Nation Iroquois Confederacy who traveled to England to ask for assistance against the French and the grandfather of Chief Joseph Brant. Queen Anne commissioned Jan [or John] Verelst, a Dutch painter, to paint the portraits of the "Four Indian Kings." The folded shot pouch is the earliest known depiction of a shot pouch and indicates the importance of firearms in Iroquois culture. The scene behind him recalls his offer to Queen Anne to run a deer to death. The original painting is in the National Archives of Canada.

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En710 V492s