Here from the Start

“The Mohawks have on all occasions shown their zeal and loyalty to the Great King; yet they have been very badly treated by his people.”

Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea): Mohawk warrior, tribal leader, and diplomat most notable for his alliance with the British during the American Revolution
 

As Europeans strove to gain more land and control on the American continent in the colonial period, Native Americans found ways to resist these European efforts — through diplomacy, war, or alliances — but struggled amidst new diseases, the slave trade, advanced weaponry, and a constant influx of European colonists. And as European nations rushed to stake their claims on already-inhabited land in the Americas, Native American nations carefully allied themselves with the European power they believed would give their people the best circumstances. For instance, during the French and Indian War of 1754-1763, the Iroquois Confederacy allied with the English while the Algonquian-speaking tribes joined forces with the French and the Spanish. Regardless of the English victory, aggression against Native Americans continued as Europeans continued to flock to the continent. And as neighboring tribes had been pitted against each other through their claimed alliances with Europeans, rifts were built that kept tribes from uniting to halt the European advance.

And when American colonists rose up against the British Crown during the Revolutionary War, this conflict not only determined the future of the colonies — but also the future of the native peoples who lived in and around them. Again, tribes would be drawn into the conflict, forced to make difficult decisions about how and when to offer their support.

"I am Shawnee! I am a warrior! My forefathers were warriors. From them I took only my birth into this world. From my tribe I take nothing. I am the maker of my own destiny!"

Tecumseh: Shawnee warrior chief who organized a Native American confederacy in an effort to stymy settlement in the Northwest Territory, as well as a British ally during the War of 1812
 

Native Americans played a major role in the War of 1812. Tribes aligned with both sides of the conflict, although the majority allied themselves with the British over the Americans. Native American forces fought on the frontier and along the Gulf Coast during the war, with many also swept into battle by tribal wars that took place simultaneously. Impactful Indigenous leaders included Tecumseh, a Shawnee Chief who supported the British during the war and organized a confederation of tribes in the Great Lakes region, known as Tecumseh’s Confederacy, to resist ongoing encroachment on their lands by white settlers. Tecumseh was killed at the Battle of the Thames, which led to the subsequent downfall of his Confederacy. Like Tecumseh, Black Hawk —a Sauk Chief — supported the British as he feared the growing influx of settlers into Sauk territory. During the war, Black Hawk fought against American frontiersmen — continuing in the task even after the war ended. To protect his people, he organized a new confederacy, bringing forth the Black Hawk War of 1832.

With the end of the War of 1812, many tribes could no longer look to Great Britain to shield them from the flood of white settlers headed west. Settlers came in droves by the Erie Canal or through the Cumberland Gap. The next seventy-five years saw a rapid decline in the Native Americans' way of life, even for those tribes like the Cherokee or Choctaw that had adopted not only materials goods brought by white settlers, but also beliefs and other ways of life. Manifest Destiny ultimately ruled the day as treaties and military force dictated tribal migration — and removal — north of the Ohio River.

“The sky has been dark ever since the war began. We want to take good tidings home to our people, that they may sleep in peace.”

Black Kettle: Cheyenne chief who was committed to peace, attended several councils, and even maintained a determination for peace after the tragedy he experienced because of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864
 

Not only a divisive conflict between the Union and the Confederacy, the Civil War also severed Native American nations, communities, and families, as it extended into the western frontier. Approximately 20,000 Native American soldiers partook in the war, and on both sides. At first, many native nations in the west’s “Indian Territory” signed treaties with the Confederacy, but many tribes also had great sympathy for the cause of abolition and favored sovereign independence from the country and its chaotic conflict. As the war continued, three Indian Home Guard regiments surfaced in support of the Union and with eyes toward protecting their tribal communities. As was the case with the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, the Civil War yet again drove Native Americans to fight against each other on the basis of their allegiances.

Whatever reason drove native soldiers into the fold of war — whether it was to support or fight slavery, to defend tribal sovereignty and to protect family and community — the conflict didn’t help the Native American nations involved. It took tribal tensions to an all-time high while destroying land that the U.S. government had relocated natives to decades earlier, molding a sad, impoverished future for many Native Americans out west.