View source for Ots-Toch

{{Infobox person
| name          = Ots-Toch
| image         = <!-- filename only, no "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and no enclosing [[brackets]] -->
| alt           = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
| caption       =
| birth_name    = <!-- only use if different from name -->
| birth_date    = about 1600
| birth_place   = [[Canajoharie (village), New York|Canajoharie, New York]]
| death_date    = 1646
| death_place   =
| nationality   = [[Mohawk people]]
| other_names   =
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}}
'''Ots-Toch''' (1600–c. 1640) was a [[Mohawk people|Mohawk]] woman from [[Canajoharie (village), New York|Canajoharie, New York]].  She married an early Dutch colonist, and her children became interpreters between the Mohawk nation and [[New Netherland]].
== Name ==
As with so much of her life, the source for this name is unknown; contemporary records of New Netherland do not mention it. The name does not appear on paper until the 1800s, causing some to suspect that it is traditional rather than historical. As a matter of convenience, it is sometimes used by people who doubt is historicity.
== Personal life ==
Ots-Toch was born in or about 1600 near [[Canajoharie (village), New York|Canajoharie, New York]], though according to some assessments of her life story, she was born considerably earlier.{{cn|date=October 2021}} She married Dutch settler Cornelise Antonnisen Van Slyke and founded the Van Slyke family in [[New Netherland]]. She was married sometime around 1620 and died in 1646. Ots-Toch and Cornelise had at least 3 children who survived to adulthood and served as interpreters between the Mohawk nation and the Dutch, including Jacques Cornelius Van Slyck (Itsychosaquachka), Marten Maurice van Slyck, and Hillitie.<ref name=Métis>{{cite web |title=The Mystery and Legacy of Ots-Toch |date=May 2017 |publisher=Ontario Métis Family Records Center |url=https://www.omfrc.org/2017/05/mystery-legacy-ots-toch/ |accessdate=23 Sep 2019 }}</ref>
== Family ==
Little is known of Ots-Toch, although she is indirectly referenced in many histories of early New York. For example, her daughter, Hillitie, chose to live with the Dutch,<ref name=Bielinski>{{cite web |last=Bielinski |first=Stefan |url=http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/bios/vs/hivslyck.html#sources |title=Hilletie Van Slyck Van Olinda |website=People of Colonial Albany |publisher=[[New York State Museum]] |accessdate=14 November 2013}}</ref> but served as an official Mohawk interpreter.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pearson |first=Jonathan. |title=A history of the [[Schenectady, New York|Schenectady]] Patent in Dutch and English Times; being contributions towards a History of the Lower Mohawk Valley. |location=Albany, NY |year=1883}}</ref>{{rp|342}} Ots-Toch had at least three other children with Cornelise Van Slyke, and may have had more children by a Mohawk father.<ref name=Biasca>{{cite web |last=Biasca |first=Cynthia Brott |url=http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Stu/kluther/kinetis/myth1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020111051915/http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Stu/kluther/kinetis/myth1.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=11 January 2002 |title=Jacques Hertel and the Indian Princesses |accessdate=14 November 2013}}</ref>{{rp|4}} Cornelise Van Slyke lived with the Mohawk according to matrilineal tradition, and he was chosen as an official delegate of New Netherlands to the Mohawk.<ref name=Schulze>{{cite web |title=Cornelis Antonissen Van Slyke from Breukelen and his Mohawk wife Ots-Toch |first=Lorine McGinnis |last=Schulze |publisher=Tijdschrift Historische Kring Breukelen |volume=12 |number=1 |year=1997 |format=PDF |language=Dutch |url=https://dspace.library.uu.nl/bitstream/handle/1874/215491/THKB_1997-01_2.pdf?sequence=1 |accessdate=23 September 2019}}</ref> Their children also became interpreters for the Mohawk.
Some variants of Ots-Toch's legend claim that her father was French, Jaques Hertel. It should be noted, however, that the fullest early record of her says that her daughter Hilletie and her son Jacques Van Slyck were "half-breeds", indicating mixed race, and there is no indication that Hilletie's staunchly anti-Christian mother was daughter of a French Catholic.{{r|Biasca|pp=1-2}} This record, from a 1680 interview with Hilletie, appears in the "Journal of Jasper Danckaerts."  That journal and other records from her lifetime do not mention her name, which does not appear in accounts before the 19th century, leading some historians to question its authenticity. On the other hand, the Mohawk name of her son Jacques was documented by the Dutch during his lifetime.
== Legacy ==
In local lore, Ots-Toch is often compared to [[Pocahontas]], another 17th century Native American who married a European colonist. But Pocahontas eventually moved to Great Britain and converted to [[Christianity]], whereas Ots-Toch remained with the Mohawk and is reported to have rejected European religion.<ref name=Métis /> <ref>{{cite web |title=The Journal of Jasper Danckaerts, 1679-80 |url=http://exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov//albany/art/danckaerts.html#201.8 |accessdate=23 Sep 2019 |publisher=[[New York State Museum]] }}</ref>{{r|Biasca|p=2}}
Like many of the people living in and around New Netherland, her life was scarcely documented, with not so much as a mention of her name. Most of what has been written about her is conjectural and based on oral tradition. If the name Ots-Toch is traditional rather than historical, one possible inspiration for it was the Mohawk god, Otskon (Ots-kon), who was mercurial in temperament, just as she was.
<!-- Hiding this poem; see Talk
**According to url=https://www.omfrc.org/2017/05/mystery-legacy-ots-toch, this "song" is highly questionable.  It has been called into question since if first appeared in this article 8 years ago, and no citation has ever been provided.  I have commented it out for now.  See [[Talk:Ots-Toch#Deleted%20section]]
Ots-Toch, who was married at the age of 15 to Cornelisse Van Slyke, is reported to have written this song as a young woman, sometime after the Dutch arrived. Though perhaps not considered politically correct in modern-day vernacular, the song she sang to her children, which was passed down through generations to her descendants, goes as follows:{{Citation needed|date=January 2019}}
O'er the dark woods and forest wild
My father in his wild nature smiled
with tomahawk and bended bow
to slay the reindeer and buffalo
My brother in his bark canoe
across the lake so gaily flew
to catch the whitefish in the lake
and shoot the wild ducks in the brake
my mother in her wigwam sat
with copious work and curious chat
and I poor little Indian maid
with acorn shells and wildflowers played
and I beside my mother all day
to weave the splintered baskets gay
to pound the samp and tan the skins
and mend my fathers moccasins
I could not read, I could not sew
my Saviors name I did not know
till white man to the forest came
and taught poor Indian Jesus name
He built a church and school house near
with Holy hymns and wildwood cheer
Now I can read, now I can sew
My Saviors name I'm taught to know
Now my Redeemer I implore
God bless the white man forever more."
-->
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
==Sources==
*{{cite web |last=Bielinski |first=Stefan  |url=http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/bios/vs/hivslyck.html#sources |title=Hilletie Van Slyck Van Olinda |website=People of Colonial Albany |publisher=[[New York State Museum]] |accessdate=14 November 2013}}
*{{cite web |last=Biasca |first=Cynthia Brott |url=http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Stu/kluther/kinetis/myth1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020111051915/http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Stu/kluther/kinetis/myth1.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=11 January 2002 |title=Jacques Hertel and the Indian Princesses |accessdate=14 November 2013}}
*{{cite web |last=Gade |first=Dianne |title=Who Was Ots-Toch? |url=http://gremsdoolittlelibrary.blogspot.com/2011/06/who-was-ots-toch.html |date=7 June 2011 |accessdate=14 November 2013}}
*{{cite book |last=Pearson |first=Jonathan.  |title=A history of the [[Schenectady, New York|Schenectady]] Patent in Dutch and English Times; being contributions towards a History of the Lower Mohawk Valley.  |location=Albany, NY  |year=1883}}
[[Category:American Mohawk people]]
[[Category:17th-century Native American women]]
[[Category:17th-century American women]]
[[Category:17th-century Native Americans]]
[[Category:People from Canajoharie, New York]]
==External links==
*[https://bradt1632.weebly.com/jacques-hertel.html Jacques Hertel in Legend and History]
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:People from New Netherland]]