John Montour: Life of a Cultural Go-Between

"John Montour: Life of a Cultural Go-Between

In the stories of Indian-white relations in the colonial era, the Indian headmen and the colonial governors are given a prominent role. And they were key figures. They were the players who signed the treaties, and they were the people who had to persuade their communities to abide by the agreements reached.

But in the shadows behind these chiefs and governors were other individuals who were equally essential to the success of the relationship between these two very different peoples. In eighteenth-century documents, they are called interpreters because they literally translated the speeches of each into the language of the other. But they did much more. They guided colonists to Indian villages and escorted Indian delegations to colonial capitals such as Williamsburg. They carried news from place to place. They would advise both sides of the cultural divide on what would be acceptable to the other. In other words, they were cultural go-betweens, brokers, mediators, and negotiators.1

In the best of times, the cultural go-between was a true bridge between the Indian and colonial worlds. But tension between the two mounted during the 1750s, 1760s, and 1770s. As attitudes of distrust and contempt hardened, the role of the cultural go-between who hoped to keep a foot in both camps grew problematic and perhaps, in the end, even impossible. This is the story of one such go-between. His name was John Montour.
He was born in 1744. His father was Andrew Montour, a well-known metis who had Iroquois and French ancestors. His mother was a Delaware, the granddaughter of Sassoonam.2 Andrew Montour married twice and possibly three times. His was a large family. Late in the Revolutionary War, reports indicated that John was one of seven br"


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