Oronhyatekha (baptised Peter Martin) was born at Six Nations in 1841 and accomplished many things during his lifetime. Oronhyatekha was a Mohawk, and his name means Burning Cloud or Burning Sky in the Mohawk language.
"He was the first known Aboriginal Oxford scholar; the second Aboriginal medical doctor in Canada; a successful CEO of a multinational financial institution; a native statesman; an athlete of international standing; and an outspoken champion of the rights of women, children, and minorities. While all this would be remarkable in any age, that he achieved it during the Victorian era when racism and assimilation were official state policies, has made him a figure approaching legend in some Aboriginal circles.
Born 10 August 1841 on the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation near Brantford, Ontario, Oronhyatekha was selected at the age of twenty by the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy (consisting of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora Nations) to give the welcoming address to the Prince of Wales during his visit to New World.
Prince Edward was sufficiently impressed that he urged the young Oronhyatekha to attend the University of Oxford. Oronhyatekha matriculated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford in 1861.
In 1863, Oronhyatekha returned to Canada to marry Ellen Hill, and took a medical degree at the University of Toronto.
As his medical practice grew, he also became a figure of increasing importance in Victorian Canada. In 1871, be became a member of Canada's National Rifle Team, and in 1874, was elected the President of the Grand Council of Canadian Chiefs, the highest ranking native statesman in North America.
In 1878, he applied to become a member of the Independent Order of Foresters, a fraternal and financial institution associated with the Orange Order. Although the Foresters' statutes explicitly limited its membership to white men and Orangemen, Oronhyatekha was not only inducted as a member, but rose to become Supreme Chief Ranger of Foresters, the organisation's international CEO, in 1881, a position that he held for a record 26 years. During his tenure, he transformed the order into one of the wealthiest fraternal financial institutions in the Victorian world; today, it counts more than one-million members in North America and the European Union.
While heading the Foresters, he built one of the first North American museums created by a Native individual. It was housed in the Foresters Temple in Toronto, until shortly after his death, and contained natural history artifacts, items from Canadian Native groups, and from cultures around the world. The artifacts were transferred to the Royal Ontario Museum. In the early 2000s, the Royal Ontario Museum and the Woodland Cultural Centre curated a show of his objects entitled Mohawk Ideals: Victorian Values.
He was the Worshipful Master of Richardson Masonic Lodge in Stouffville Ontario in 1894.
Ironically, the one achievement of which Oronhyatekha was most proud was the enterprise his contemporaries regarded as his only significant failure. In 1904, he created an orphanage on the Bay of Quinte, Ontario, which was universally seen as extravagant and excessive by Victorian standards. It opened for operations in 1906, and Oronhyatekha described it as his life's crowning achievement. He did not live to see it closed the following year, as he died in 1907."
source: (
visit link)
The plaque reads:
"Oronhyatekha
(Burning Cloud)
10 August 1841 - 3 March 1907
Physician, philanthropist, mason, fraternalist and collector, Oronhyatekha, (baptised Peter Martin) was born at the Grand River Reserve near Brantford. In 1860 he presented the Mohawk address to the visiting Prince Of Wales and met Sir Henry Acland, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, who invited him to study there. Following his return to Canada in 1863, he married Ellen Hill, a great-granddaughter of Joseph Brant, and in 1867 completed his medical studies in Toronto. Oronhyatekha practised in Frankford, Stratford and London where he joined the Independent Order Of Foresters, a Family Fraternal Benefit Society, in 1878. Elected the first Supreme Chief Ranger in 1881, he guided the rise of the I.O.F. with vision and energy. From 1896, 'Dr. O.' lived near here on Carlton Street and at his death lay in state at Massey Hall. His collection of artifacts and curios was subsequently donated to the Royal Ontario Museum.
Toronto Historical Board, 1995"
Source: (
visit link)
You will find this black oval plaque, on a stand, in the garden to the right of the path, at the northeast corner of Allan Gardens, which is on the southwest corner of Carlton and Sherbourne Streets.