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MADAME MONTOUR, Captive, Indian Interpretess , Pennsylvania
Posted by Miriam Reyburn-Steele <mrsteele@gate.net> on Sun, 12 Nov 2000
Surname: MONTOUR, COUC, CARANDOWANA, HUNTER, GORDON
Indians in Pennsylvania, by Paul A. W. Wallace, p 175.MADAME MOUNTOUR. A woman of French and Indian descent, who did much to brighten the chain of friendship between the Iroquois and the English. Some of her Indian descendants in Pennsylvania preserved the name MONTOUR, the French speech, and the manners of this distinguished matron of their lineage. She was reputed to be the daughter (born about 1684) of a governor of Canada and to have been taken prisoner by Iroquois warriors when she was about ten years old. There is evidence that she was brought up in the family of "Louis COUC surnommé MONTOUR", whose home was at Three Rivers. Her first husband is said to have been a Seneca named Roland MONTOUR. Her second husband is known to have been Oneida chief, CARANDOWANA or "Big Tree", who took the name Robert HUNTER in compliment to the Governor of New York.
In 1711 she was interpreter at a conference in Albany between the Iroquois and the governor of New York, and the next year she used her infulence to prevent the Iroquois from joining the Tuscaroras in the war against North Carolina. In 1727 she was the "Interpretess" at a conference in Philadelphia between the Iroquois and Governor Patrick GORDON. She lived for a time in the west, but after 1727 her home was on the West Branch of the Susquehanna at Otstonwakin (Montoursville). Her last days were spent in the Allegheny-Ohio country, where she died about 1752. Several of her children obtained distinction, especially Andrew and Margaret.
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