Customer Reviews

Turtles, Wolves, and Bears: A Mohawk Family History

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This is a good book if you are looking for early Mohawk genealogy (1700s). However, if you find your ancestors in here, check the authors sources very carefully because I believe she makes a lot of assumptions. There are many interesting stories about Mohawks and people who were involved with them at the time. There are also family trees and much factual historical information. But, as I said earlier, be careful to distinguish facts from assumptions.

Can you imagine my surprise when I thumbed through this jem of a book and found the first chapter was about my oldest known ancestors. How wonderful it is to read about Nicholas, Jacques, Gautsh, Kenutjie, Ostock, Istychosaquacha, Hilletie, and Francois, Van Slye and Bratt. This is my blood and part of who I am. It is the story of very early colonial America and of real people who loved their cultures and whose cultures melded and clashed and survived in the blood of their descendants. Thanks for writing their stories and I can not wait to finish reading the rest of the stories. They are common to America's and Canada's heritage. Kind Regards, Paul Scarseth

On the one hand, this is a thoroughly enjoyable book -- at least, if the reader enjoys both genealogy and Native American history.

However, in spite of the extensive scholarly citations, it does not make use of prior research published in French. As a specific example, the chapter on the Montour family does not even mention:

Vincens, Simone. Madame de Montour et son temps. Montréal: Québec/ Amérique, 1979

or the preceding seminal article by Vincens. This results in the omission of many pertinent members of the family. Thus, at best, the book only provides a starting point for understanding the Mohawk families of the northern New York frontier.