Joseph Onasakenrat

The bishop threatened to excommunicate anyone involved in the petition, prompting Onasakenrat, along with most of the Mohawk community, to leave the Catholic Church that winter and convert to Methodism.

[citation needed] On February 18, 1869, the chief confronted the Sulpicians again, challenging their authority over the land by cutting down a large elm tree without permission.

One week later, backed by an armed band of forty men, Onasakenrat demanded that the Sulpicians leave Oka within eight days.

In 1877, Onasakenrat was charged after the Catholic Church in Oka was destroyed by fire in the early morning of June 14.

At the time of his sudden death at Oka in 7 Feb. 1881 at age 35, he was working on a translation of the remainder of the Bible, having completed up to the Epistle to the Hebrews.