Te Kooti (1830?-1893), a warrior chief, was one of the greatest of the Māori leaders during the New Zealand Wars. In 1865, police and soldiers pursuing members of the rebel Hauhau movement arrested him because they suspected that he was a Hauhau spy. Without giving him a trial, the government exiled him to the Chatham Islands, an island group about 450 miles (725 kilometers) east of New Zealand.
In exile with many other Hauhau rebels, Te Kooti plotted revenge for what he considered his unjust imprisonment. He also became the prophet of a Māori religious movement known as Ringatū. In 1868, he and a number of fellow prisoners overpowered their guards and captured the schooner Rifleman, which had carried supplies to the Chatham Islands. Te Kooti and the other rebels then forced the ship’s crew to sail to the North Island of New Zealand, where they hoped to return to their homes in peace. But after Te Kooti landed in the Poverty Bay area, government soldiers tried to capture him. He and his followers then raided settlements in the Bay of Plenty district, killing 32 Europeans and about 40 Māori in one raid alone.
The government offered a large reward for Te Kooti’s capture. But he escaped to the safety of the King Country, an area held largely by the Māori. Te Kooti was granted a pardon in 1883. In the final 20 years of his life, he devoted himself to the teachings of the Gospel and the law.
Te Kooti was born about 1830 near Gisborne, on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. He died on April 17, 1893, in New Zealand.
