Catharine was the daughter of George Croghan,[1] a deputy agent in the British Indian Department.
[2] In the matrilineal society of the Haudenosaunee, this made Catharine a Yakoyaner (Clan Mother), and gave her the right to nominate the Tekarihogen, the most important civil chief of the Mohawk.
[3] During the American Revolutionary War, many Mohawks sought refuge at the British post of Niagara to escape U.S. destruction of Haudenosaunee villages.
Following the British defeat in the war, Catharine and Joseph Brant relocated with many other Indigenous families to a new homeland on the Grand River in the Province of Quebec.
Until the end of her life, she was an influential leader among the Six Nations and a staunch advocate for the maintenance of their longstanding traditions in the midst of settler society.