Historical talk focuses on enigmatic Iroquois

NARROWSBURG, NY — The Tusten Historical Society will celebrate Archives Month with an open house on Sunday, October 25 at 2:00 p.m. at the Tusten-Cochecton Branch of the Western Sullivan Public Library. Frank Salvati of Port Jervis, NY, a passionate student of the Indian Wars, especially in Northeastern America, will speak on “Joseph Brant, the Iroquois and the American Revolution.”

Brant, son of a Mohawk chief and a woman of mixed English and Indian descent, was designated War Chief of the Six Nations of the Iroquois. As a young man he visited England, later becoming a captain in the British military. He led the British forces in the Battle of Minisink, defeating the American forces there, continuing fearsome raids northward along the Delaware to join other British troops at Susquehanna. The Minisink Battleground Park, located just north of Barryville, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, commemorates this historic event. Lt. Col. Benjamin Tusten, for whom the Tusten settlement was named, lost his life with the American forces in this battle, where as a physician he had set up a crude field hospital to treat the wounded.