Ots-Toch

Ots-Toch (1600–c. 1640) was a Mohawk woman from Canajoharie, New York.
Name.
The source for this name is unknown; contemporary records of New Netherland do not mention it.
Personal life.
Ots-Toch was born in 1600 near Canajoharie, New York. She married Dutch settler Cornelise Antonnisen Van Slyke and founded the Van Slyke family in New Netherland. She was married sometime around 1620 and died in 1646. Ots-Toch and Cornelise had at least 3 children who survived to adulthood and served as interpreters between the Mohawk nation and the Dutch, including Jacques Cornelius Van Slyck (Itsychosaquachka), Marten Maurice van Slyck, and Hillitie.
Family.
Little is known of Ots-Toch, although she is indirectly referenced in many histories of early New York. For example, her daughter, Hillitie, chose to live with the Dutch, but served as an official Mohawk interpreter. Ots-Toch had at least three other children with Cornelise Van Slyke, and may have had more children by a Mohawk father. Cornelise Van Slyke lived with the Mohawk according to matrilineal tradition, and he was chosen as an official delegate of New Netherlands to the Mohawk. Their children also became interpreters for the Mohawk.
Some variants of Ots-Toch's legend claim that her father was French, Jaques Hertel. It should be noted, however, that the fullest early record of her says that her daughter Hilletie and her son Jacques Van Slyck were "half-breeds", indicating mixed race, but there is no indication that Hilletie's staunchly anti-Christian mother was daughter of a French Catholic. This record, from a 1680 interview with Hilletie, appears in the "Journal of Jasper Danckaerts." That journal and other records from her lifetime do not mention her name. She is not mentioned by name in writing until the 1800s, causing some researchers to question its reliability.
Legacy.
In local lore, Ots-Toch is often compared to Pocahontas, another 17th century Native American who married a European colonist. But Pocahontas eventually moved to Great Britain and converted to Christianity, whereas Ots-Toch remained with the Mohawk and is reported to have rejected European religion. 