Andrew Montour

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Andrew Montour (c.1700–1774), of both Native American and European ancestry, was one of the most important interpreters and negotiators in the Virginia and Pennsylvania backcountry in the 1750s and 1760s.

Andrew, whose Native American name was Sattelihu (SAT-tel-ee-hyoo), was the son of a French mother and an Oneida Indian father. His father was Carondawanna ("Big Tree"), a famous war chief of the Oneidas, while his mother Elizabeth Catherine Montour spoke several languages and often served as an interpreter between Europeans and the local tribes. Supposedly her influence among the Native Americans was so great, and so hostile to the French, that the Governor of Canada repeatedly endeavored to persuade her or bribe her to withdraw from the area and go to Canada.

Montour inherited his mother’s gift for languages. He spoke French, English, Lenape, Shawnee and the Iroquoian languages. Comfortable with both Native Americans and Europeans, he made a good living as a translator for both settlers and local tribes. In 1742 when Count Zinzendorf met Montour he wrote that Montour looked "decidedly European, and had his face not been encircled with a broad band of paint we would have thought he was one."

Throughout the French and Indian War Montour sided with the British and often worked for the colonial governments, particularly those of Pennsylvania and Virginia. He was with George Washington before the battle at Fort Necessity, and was also one of the few Native Americans to travel with Edward Braddock. So strong was his influence with tribes in the Ohio River Valley that the French put a bounty on his head.

Andrew had a number of children, whom he hoped would also live in both white and Native American worlds. His son John Montour followed in his footsteps and became a well-known negotiator, translator and go-between.