Yoke, Jehoiakim

last name (variants): Capt. Yoke; Capt. Yokes; Capt. Youks
Other names: Capt.
Nationality

Stockbridge Tribe

Biography

Captain Jehoiakim Yoke is likely a Stockbridge Indian who enlisted with colonial forces during the American Revolution. Yoke rose through the ranks to become the Captain of a company of Indian rangers. It appears that he primarily fought on the war's western front, often against Native Americans loyal to Great Britain, and was a part of the infamous Sullivan Expedition. In response to a number of successful raids by Native allies of the British, George Washington tasked General John Sullivan with destroying Indian villages and decimating Indian food supplies in western New York. By the end of the expedition, General Sullivan’s army had destroyed more than 40 villages. A Captain Jehoiakim Yoke is mentioned in the Revolutionary War writing of David Freemoyer. In Freemoyer’s account, Captain Yoke and Freemoyer’s men were involved in conflicts with Native American troops under the command of the Mohawk leader (and Moor's alumnus) Joseph Brant. In his Revolutionary War journal, Chaplain William Rogers refers to a Captain Jehoiakim, an Indian from Stockbridge. In his entries from June of 1779, Rogers describes an incident where Native allies of the British attempted to reconnoiter the Colonial encampment but were driven away. This Captain Jehoiakim and two other Stockbridge Indians pursued the Native Americans but were unsuccessful in capturing them. William DeLoss Love writes about a Timothy Yokens, who became a captain of a company of Indian rangers. Given the similar descriptions of this Stockbridge Indian captain, it seems that the sources may be referring to the same man, with whom Occom lodged several times in 1786.

Sources

Dann, John C. The Revolution Remembered: Eyewitness Accounts of the War of Independence. Chicago, IL. The University of Chicago Press, 1980. Print; Jones, Electa Fidelia. Stockbridge: Past and Present; Or, Records of Old Mission Station. Springfield, MA: Samuel Bowles and Company, 1854. Web; Love, W. DeLoss. Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England. Boston: The Pilgrim Press, 1899. Print; Rogers, William. “Journal of Rev. William Rogers D. D.” Journals of the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan Against the Six Nations of Indians in 1779. Ed. Frederick Cook. Auburn, NY: Knapp & Thomson, 1887. Web; "The Clinton-Sullivan Campaign of 1779." National Park Service. Web. http://www.nps.gov/fost/learn/historyculture/the-western-expedition-against-the-six-nations-1779.htm.