Joe Pye Weed

Joseph Shauquethqueat—or Joe Pye—needs a Hollywood movie

The story of Joseph Shauquethqueat is an incredible American narrative, complete with wars, broken promises, heartbreaking migrations, and George Washington. (We’ll give a quick overview here, then I promise back to planting tips.)

Let’s meet Joe.

Joseph Shauquethqueat was born in 1722. (‘Pye’ is a colonist shorthand for Shauquethqueat—many within the Mohican community had Anglicized last names often used when signing documents.)

While he was young, Shauquethqueat’s Mohican community moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts when the government gave the land as “a reward for the Mohicans’ service on the British colonists’ side in intercolonial conflicts with the French.” You might remember the “French and Indian War” from middle school social studies.

The Stockbridge land gift was a sham. White settlers encroached on the land, while racist laws made it impossible for Indigenous community members to protect their ownership or even own businesses.

In 1777, Shauquethqueat became Chief Sachem of the Stockbridge Mohicans. During his time as leader, he asked the Massachusetts government to protect what they had been given: “[w]e and our fathers had once been the rightful possessor of all your Country,” he wrote in one letter. 

The letters didn’t matter. “In 1785, the Stockbridge Mohicans, impoverished and having succumbed to pressures to sell much of their land in Massachusetts or surrender it in settlement of debts, and with their civil rights in Stockbridge being eroded as the white population increased, began an exodus to what is now part of Madison and Oneida counties, New York.”

Shauquethqueat didn’t trust the government for this second move. The land in New York was given by the Oneida tribe.

Then George Washington—yes, that George Washington—appears

Picking up and moving an entire community is a miracle, especially one with a target on its back. Native Americans were consistently attacked and murdered.

Shauquethqueat needed a way to move the community safely. On July 2, 1783, Shauquethqueat wrote to a white leader asking for protection: George Washington. Washington wrote back that the Mohicans had “remained firmly attached to us, [and had] fought and bled by our side…consider them as friends and subjects to the United States of America.” The letter helped deliver safe passage to New York, a tiny bit of light against generations of violence and disenfranchisement. 

So, how did the plant get named for ‘Joe Pye’?

The Joe Pye Weed plant is known within Indigenous communities for helping ease fevers. It became a medicine that European colonists depended on. Stories tell of Native Americans saving white settlers from death by introducing its medicinal properties.

This medicinal plant needed a memorable and trustworthy name.

The name Joe Pye Weed came from white settlers, who used a name they knew and respected for a plant they depended on. Plant Joe Pye Weed immediately and honor this great man’s valor, vision, and leadership alongside Native Americans’ incredible knowledge of our living world. (For other movie-worthy plant name backstories, read about Pawpaw trees and Boneset.)

Now that we know a little about the name and the history of Joe Pye, let’s talk about how to plant the flower.