OK, thank you for that.
Having just recently read "Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America" by Michael A. McDonnell (a great read!), I'd like to add a little Native context to what you've said. At the end of the American Revolutionary War, the British "gave" the Ohio Valley to the Americans, without consulting any of the indigenous peoples. For some time it had been native territory, free of colonial (pre-"American") settlers. When settler encroachments started, indigenous people resisted firmly, resulting in an agreement (forgot the date and name of the agreement, but I could find it) that settlers would remove themselves from the area, which they did. At the end of the Revolutionary War, the indigenous people felt deeply betrayed by the British and naturally resisted American settlers by raiding them. They had never ceded sovereignty to the British or French——on the contrary, Europeans had always been allowed into the upper Great Lakes and Ohio Valley area only by the good graces of the natives——so it was shocking and unacceptable for them to find their lands "given" by the British to the Americans. They eventually were forced to abandon the fight (with the exception of the Anishinabeq centred at Michilimackinac) because of the overwhelming numbers of American settlers, supported by powerful armies, flooding into the area. So I wouldn't make too much of the idea that the British were behind the resistance of the indigenous nations.
Are you saying that the "Pawnees" mentioned in the movie, which puzzled me- are the same as the Shawnees that you describe?
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dannieboy20906
8 years ago
There have been a few recent additions to scholarship on the War of 1812 in recent years. Histories from tribal people and Canada are becoming more popular in America, though I remain an ardent patriot and staunch American Chauvinist. ;) Still, I try not to let that blind me to other points of view.
No, I did not mean to further confuse Shawnees and Pawnees. They are definitely different tribes and I hope I did not confuse them. The experience of the various tribes in the Ohio Valley were similar to other tribes east of the Mississippi River in the United States. Many of them were forced to choose sides, or elected to do so in the Seven Years War, the American Revolution, and the War of 1812. It usually made things worse for them in the long run no matter which side they chose.
The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.
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