The Native Americans are not organized into nation-states in the
Western European model, but they do constitute independent, self-ruling,
forces in control of geographic territory and natural resources. These
tribes are outside the territorial and political control of either the
United States government or the individual state governments and
must be dealt with by the United States government as foreign powers.
Numerous letters and documents from the colonial period, the Revolutionary War period, and the early years of the new republic refer to the native American tribes as "nations," and there appears to be a clear intent to negotiate with them and deal with them as nations.
Most of the eastern tribes side with the French in the French and
Indian War, known in Europe as the Seven Years War, one of several wars
that occur during more than a hundred years of hostility between France
and Great Britain from 1688 to 1815. During the colonial period, the French treat the Native Amaricans with some degree of respect, deal with them as equals, and initiate social relations with them, including marriage into the tribes. The Brttish take a more superior attitude toward the Native Amaricans. Some Brittish military leaders take a particularly harsh stand regarding relations with the Indians. Colonial Europeans are interested in settling in territory occupied by the Indians, and the alliance between the British and the colonists also encourages the Indians to be anti-British.
Following the defeat of the
combined French and Indian forces by the British and English colonial forces
in 1763, the Indians of the Northwest Territories around the Great Lakes stage a rebellion against British rule. The rebellion is fueled by a nativist backlash against European culture, by resentment of harsh British treatment, and by hopes that the French will return if the rebellion is successful. Pontiac's
Rebellion of 1763 is unsuccessful, but it does convince Britain of the
difficulty of maintaining peace with the Indians and of maintaining even
nominal political and military control over the Native Americans.
Britain uses the threat of Indian uprising as justification for maintaining
the British army in the colonies, in spite of colonial objections.
Most colonial objections concern the cost of maintaining the army. Great
Britain also limits colonial settlement to the area east of the Appalachian
Mountain chain in order to limit direct confrontations between colonists
and the Native Americans. When the colonists push westward over British objections, the British move to empower the Native Americans to take up arms against the colonists. At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the British commander at Fort Detroit actually offers a bounty for the scalps of colonists killed in the Northwest Territory.
The decision to limit westward settlement is especially burdensome
on the colonists. The mercantilist economic system under which the
colonists are expected to operate requires colonists to harvest and sell
raw materials to England for a price below their real market value and
to purchase from England finished consumer goods for a price higher than
their market value. The colonists are prohibited from selling raw
materials to any nation other than England or from buying finished goods
from any nation other than England; the colonists are also prohibited from
using the raw materials to manufacture finished consumer goods in the colonies.
The mercantilist economic system is tolerable so long as the colonists
can obtain raw materials, including fish, timber and furs, "free” from
Mother Nature or so long as the colonists have access to inexpensive land
on which to grow crops for export and domestic consumption. British restrictions
on westward migration require colonists to begin to purchase land from
one another, rather than homesteading "free" land in the frontier.
Colonists are also cut off from rich fur trapping grounds, now controlled
by the Indians with the consent of the British. The colonists' profit margins and profit potential
begin to decline and they begin to chafe under the economic injustices
of mercantilism. Colonists also become increasingly hostile toward the
Native Americans, who are seen as an obstacle to each colonist's personal
financial advancement. Any slight provocation by the Indians is used as
an excuse to eradicate some of the troublesome nuisance.
During the American Revolution, many Indian tribes side with the
British and conduct raids on colonist settlements. Native Americans
apparently become convinced removing the colonists would be a step toward
restoring their lands; British trade goods provide an additional
incentive to action. Following the American Revolution, the U.S.
government continues to have problems with the Indians, with some of those
problems instigated by the British. One tribe
posing a significant challenge in the western frontier is the Ohio Indians.
The British retain control of many western and northwestern frontier military posts
after the conclusion of the American Revolution and encourage the surrounding
Indian tribes to continue attacks on any new settlers. The British and
Canadians send supplies to the Indians, promise military support, and promise
to build and maintain a string of defense fortifications manned by British
troops in American territory to serve as a defense against U.S. military
incursions and retaliatory strikes into Indian territory.
An American expedition in 1790 is defeated by the Indians.
"Mad Anthony" Wayne leads a second expedition in 1794 and routs the
Indians. British support for their Indian allies proves to be minimal.
The Indians continue to maintain their alliances with the British, however,
and continue their attacks on settlers as large numbers of Americans push westward beyond
the Appalachian range into the Ohio River and Tennessee River basins.
An Indian build-up of armed strength under Chief Tecumseh is cut
short by a surprise military confrontation in 1811. The Governor
of the Indiana Territory, future U. S. President William Henry Harrison,
surprises and defeats the Indians in the Battle of Tippecanoe. The
"war hawks" in the U. S. Congress-- Henry Clay, John Calhoun, and others--
cite this Indian build-up, and the British role in it, as one of the several
reasons for declaring war with Britain in 1812.
In the South, the problem is the Creek tribe. During the 1700s, the
Creeks are allied with the Spanish who supply the Indians with weapons
and with fair and honest alliances. During the late 1700s and early
1800s, American diplomatic efforts are successful in maintaining peace
with the Creek tribe. The Spanish, as allies of the French and enemies of the British, are occasional supporters of the American colonists, the American revolutionaries, and the American settlers who are challenging the British in the western and northwestern lands. Native Americans allied with the Spanish remain largely anti-British, at least until the War of 1812.
During the early years of the War of 1812, the British appear headed
for a victory. Many Indian tribes see the American defeats,
lose respect for the United States, and make alliances with the British;
the Ohios and the Creeks are two of those tribes. Andrew Jackson
leads a successful expedition against the Creek Indians in 1814, culminating
in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. Jackson's victory brings an end
to Indian power in the South and an end to Indian resistance to American
expansion in the South. In the final treaty of peace with the Indians,
the Creeks cede most of their lands to the United States. With
the Creeks defeated, Andrew Jackson concentrates his forces at New Orleans
and defeats the invading British forces in a major one-sided victory.
Following their defeat at New Orleans, the British, and some of their Creek
allies, retreat to East Florida, build a fort on the Appalachicola River,
and build a quick alliance with the Creeks and the Seminole Indians in
hope of reclaiming some of the territory the Creeks lost to the Americans
in the War of 1812. The Treaty of Ghent ending the War of 1812 actually
requires America to restore some of the lands ceded by the Creeks in their
earlier defeat. Later, in 1815, Britain withdraws its forces from Florida
and severs its alliances with the Indians, leaving the Indians on their own to deal with the Americans.
The Indian tribes allied with the British in the War of 1812 negotiate
a series of treaties with the United States government soon after the conclusion
of the war. The Sioux and the Ohio Indians cede vast territories
from the Appalachian mountains to the Great Lakes. The Chickasaw Indians
cede areas between the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers. The Creeks
have already ceded vast territories in the South.
In 1819, the U.S. mounts a military expedition against the Seminole
Indians in Florida. The Seminoles are killing and scalping settlers
in the areas claimed by the U.S. in its treaties with Spain and with the
Creeks. The Seminole Indian War continues for many years with neither
side achieving a absolute victory. Andrew Jackson, the American commander,
is able to achieve effective military control over most of the territory
of Florida with the Seminoles relegated to the Everglade Swamp.
Relations between the Native Americans and the U. S. government in Washington, D.C. continue to remain hostile throughout the Nineteenth Century as the Indians oppose the movement of settlers westward and as several Indian tribes side with the Confederacy against the Federal forces. Following the Civil War, the U. S. government concentrates its military attentions on campaigns against the Indian nations. A combination of treaty negotiations and warfare is used to gradually reduce all Native American tribal nations into submission and dependency.
In contemporary society it is in vogue to bemoan the treatment of the Native Americans by the Colonial governments and by the American administrations of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Critics of past treatment of Native Americans must remember that the Indians have consistently sided with the enemies of the European Americans and have consistently been on the defeated side in confrontations with those enemies. Those who are defeated must expect to cede territory, to suffer displacement, and to experience the wrath of the victorious. The French, British, Spanish, and Mexicans all cede territory and suffer consequences for defeat; it should not be any different with the Indian nations.
