Who is Tanaghrisson?

The short answer; A Seneca Half-King of the Iroquois Confederacy, allied to the English in 1754

Why is he historically important?

On May 28, 1754 Tanaghrisson and his men led Lt. George Washington and his forty men from Virginia fighting for the English to a French camp of about 30 soldiers at a glen in the Ohio Valley (in western Pennsylvania.)

It was early in the morning, Washington and Tanaghrisson had the camp surrounded. Washington’s men fired into the camp. The French tried to retreat but were blocked by the Tanaghrisson’s men. Fourteen French were hit, three English were wounded and one killed. The French Ensign in charge, Joseph Culon de Villiers de Jumonville, was among the wounded.

Jumonville told Washington his mission was peaceful and had a letter he was to deliver telling the English to withdraw from French territory.

Washington needed to have the letter translated and while he was doing so, Tanaghrisson and his men hacked all but one of the wounded French soldiers to death. Tanaghrisson smashed open Jumonville’s head and pulled out his brains running them between his hands as if he were washing them.

Washington, seeing this slaughter and unable to stop it, ordered his men to protect the rest of the French soldiers and take them out of the glen so they would not be killed. Meanwhile, Tanaghrisson’s men then scalped and maimed the bodies of the dead Frenchmen.

This slaughter is largely considered to be the start of the Seven Years War.

I’m trying to imagine how this incident shaped the young Washington’s opinion of the Iroquois for the rest of his life and what effect it had on his decisions regarding them during the Revolutionary War.