History 111 - Indians

Native American’s struggles to maintain cultural freedom and the freedom to control their own ancestral lands accelerated in the years immediately before and after the United States established its freedom. From Neolin and Pontiac’s call for war to Montezuma’s pleas for independence, various Indian leaders attempted to find a way to accomplish these goals. But despite the similarity of their goals, their very different methods reflected the very different context of their times. These examples represent more than 150 years of Native American attempts to advocate for their rights and they clearly demonstrate that the differences between their perspectives were greater than their similarities.

During Neolin’s time, various parts of the US had assimilated and made friends with the Indians. The Iroquois and New York formed the league of 5 nations. This group desired land and sovereignty. The New York British Elite leaders and Indians formed the covenant chain, which provided trade, allies, and neighbors. The New York “American” and the Penn “American” (Scot-Irish) frontier settlers considered the Indians to be “savages” and wanted land to settle. The Indians in Delaware and Pennsylvania had largely assimilated and Christianized. The British elite Quaker leaders wanted wealth without exploitation, peace, and religious freedom. In 1701, this group formed a “true friendship” with the Indians, which provided trade, allies, and neighbors for both sides. Within a few decades, tension, violence, and ideas about “race” expanded. The French & Indian war, which began in 1754, went on for 7 years. It was the French versus the British. The Indian nations played a big role, but chose different sides. The British ended up winning this 7 year war. Neolin, a Delaware prophet, had a negative reaction to this victory. He believed in the “Red Race”, which was an Indian alliance. He wanted the Indians to rid themselves of the white peoples’ culture, and achieve this goal by war. He stated “I do not like that you drink until you lose your reason . . . or that you take two wives . . . This land, where you live, I have made for you and not for others . . . You had no need of gun nor powder, nor the rest of their things . . . but as regards those who have come to trouble your country, drive them out, make war on them” (Neolin, 1763). This quote explains Neolin’s dislike of white culture, and also the way the Indians needed to go about getting rid of it.

Tecumseh and Neolin both used war as their method. However, while Neolin’s goal was to purge white settlers, Tecumseh’s goal was to deny treaty validity and regain land. Tecumseh’s traditional upbringing as a warrior during a time when his people still lived free made it possible for him to envision a world separate from whites, and therefore, led his method to be war. At the beginning of the 1790’s, most whites lived on the coast while the Indians controlled