In the 18th century, Sulpicians strongly encouraged the Mohawk to move to a new settlement west on the Ottawa River, which came to be called Kanesatake. It was their former hunting ground. In 1716 the French Crown granted a large parcel of land to the Mohawk north of the Ottawa River, and a smaller adjacent grant to the Sulpicians. According to Alanis Obomsawin, the Sulpicians had the grant changed so that all the land was in their name, depriving the Mohawk of their own place. A devoutly religious man, Onasakenrat became an ordained minister in 1880, and worked to translate religious works into the Mohawk language. He translated the Gospels (1880) and several hymns. At the time of his sudden death in 1881, he was working on a translation of the remainder of the Bible, having completed up to the Epistle to the Hebrews. An oral account of the night before he died he had attended a ball in Montreal hosted by the Sulpician order, and when he had returned that night Sosé had complained to his wife about feeling ill and died later that morning. Suspiciously a priest had arrived that morning with a horse and sleigh and took Sosé's remains back to Montreal with him.