Did the cause a civil war within the Iroquois confederacy?

Viewpoint: Yes. The American Revolution caused unprecedented internal conflict among the Iroquois and reduced the power and prestige of their con- federacy. Viewpoint: No. Although Iroquois warriors fought on opposing sides during the American Revolution, they made efforts to minimize conflict with each other.

The American Revolution (1775-1783) has been described by both con- temporaries and scholars as a civil war, with colonial society divided among Patriots, Loyalists, and neutrals. This division in colonial society was repli- cated in Native American communities residing east of the Mississippi River. Perhaps the best example of this Native American division is the Iroquois confederacy. Consisting of six tribes (Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Tuscarora), the League of the Iroquois controlled a huge area stretching westward from the Catskill Mountains to Lake Erie. During the eighteenth century increasing warfare and disease decreased their numbers from an estimated 16,000 in 1700 to approximately 12,500 on the eve of the Revolution. Despite their declining numbers, the Six Nations were the most advanced and powerful Native American confederacy east of the Mississippi and far outnumbered white settlers in Western New York. However, when England drove the French from North America in 1763, the Iroquois lost much of their political and economic leverage against the English. Still, when vio- lence broke out between America and England in 1775, the Iroquois sought to remain neutral, but they would fight against whoever first encroached upon their lands and trade. Both the British, who expected the conflict to be short, and the Americans, who feared fighting a two-front war in the West and East, urged the Indians to keep their hatchets buried. Yet, as the war spread throughout the Northeast in 1776, both the British and Americans began urg- ing the Iroquois to join them in the conflict. In debating its options, the League of the Iroquois came apart. While outrages precipitated by American revolu- tionaries pushed most Iroquois over to the British side (the Mohawks, Sene- cas, Cayugas, and Onondagas), others (the Oneidas and Tuscaroras), influenced by the American Indian agent Samuel Kirkland, sided with the Patriots. Some historians believe this division within the Six Nations over involve- ment in the American Revolution precipitated a civil war among the Iroquois people. They point out that on many occasions League members fought one another in combat and pillaged each others' villages. Even those few Iroquois who refused to take sides were attacked by both the British and Americans and their Indian allies. However, other historians argue that the Revolution did not precipitate an all-out civil war among the Six Nations. Although many fought on opposing sides, they still conscientiously observed limits in their aggression toward one another by diplomatic "in-the-woods meetings" and by refusing to take each other captive. In short, they assisted the side with which they fought but not at the expense of Iroquois lives. 173 In the end, the American Revolution was a catastrophe for the Iroquois and other Native Americans. Patriot leaders throughout America offered lucrative bounties for Indian scalps. Amer- ican troops invaded Iroquoia, burning villages, killing men, women, and children, and destroying or capturing food supplies. Hundreds starved to death, while many survivors fled to Canada. By the end of the war the Iroquois had lost their power and prestige. At least one-third of their people were dead, and the confederacy's domination of neighboring tribes was shattered. Nor did the (1783) end the war for the Iroquois and other Native Americans who were aban- doned by the British and left at the mercy of land-hungry and vindictive Americans who sought to dispossess all Indians of their lands, no matter what side they had taken during the Revolution. The Iroquois lost most of their tribal lands through treaties (1784 and 1794) and subsequent sales and fraud. A similar fate befell most other tribes residing east of the Mississippi. The American Revolution was, in the words of one group of Native American leaders, "the greatest blow that could have been dealt us."

in terms of perpetual independence. In this sense, the Iroquois functioned as a frustrating and ever-present example of native resistance to Viewpoint: expansionist settlers. Yes. The American Revolution caused unprecedented internal Within a decade, however, the American conflict among the Iroquois and Revolution radically changed this situation. The reduced the power and prestige War for Independence precipitated internal con- flict among members of the Iroquois confeder- of their confederacy. acy on a scale never previously seen. At the same During the colonial period native peoples in time, it reduced Iroquois influence over neigh- North America generally fared poorly in warfare boring Indian peoples, irrevocably transforming involving Europeans. By the outbreak of the power structures and alliance systems from the American Revolution (1775-1783), Indians had Atlantic coast to the Great Lakes. Despite endur- participated, often unwillingly, in at least four ing dozens of previous European conflicts with- major colonial wars and countless smaller con- out destruction, the League of the Iroquois flicts involving French, Dutch, British, and Span- ceased to exist as an influential body because of ish armies since the establishment of Jamestown the war and its ramifications. The American Rev- almost two hundred years before. Intermittent olution served as a catalyst for societal fragmen- localized disputes between natives and colonists tation among the Iroquois peoples. In the words had similar results. Consequently, Indian socie- of historian Colin G. Galloway, "For the Iro- ties, though still prevalent throughout the conti- quois the Revolution was a war in which, in nent's Eastern seaboard, experienced a variety of some cases literally, brother killed brother." devastating losses. In some cases entire villages The discord and divisions caused by the as well as cultural norms and spiritual belief sys- American Revolution are remarkable consider- tems were eliminated. Native communities pre- ing the internal unity enjoyed by the League of cipitously declined, and the ratio of Indian to the Iroquois during previous centuries. Created European peoples in the region dramatically sometime between 1570 and 1600, this confed- shifted. To many European American observers, eracy of six tribes—Mohawks, Senecas, Cayugas, North America's indigenous inhabitants were Onondagas, Oneidas, and Tuscaroras—origi- quickly, and thankfully, receding as an obstruc- nated from a desire by Northeastern native peo- tion to colonial development. ples to end ongoing cycles of clan feuding and A major counterpoint to this theory of intertribal violence. Upon founding the League, Indian retreat manifested itself through the members agreed to renounce such conflicts, group collectively known as the Iroquois. While unify in diplomatic negotiations with outsiders, enduring the same settler-generated difficulties and coordinate military strategies for mutual- as other tribes, the Iroquois stood out in 1775 defense purposes. The confederacy established a because of the continued resilience, unity, and "capital" among the geographically-centered power they exhibited. Few other native peoples Onondaga that served as a home to a ritually enjoyed the relative political, economic, and mili- preserved symbolic fire of unity. Member dele- tary self-sufficiency of this confederacy. Indeed, gates would meet at the site to resolve internal few colonial governments of the time matched grievances and establish pan-tribal policies. the League of the Iroquois in stability. Among These agreements, along with Iroquois practices the assorted peoples inhabiting Northeastern of adoption and military expansion, allowed the North America in the latter half of the eigh- confederacy to spread its influence from New teenth century, the Iroquois surpassed almost all England to the River, incorporating the

174 HISTORY IN DISPUTE, VOLUME 12: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION , Miamis, , Ottawas, Chippe- rebellious colonists. When the Cayugas offered was, Potawatomies, Wyandots, and other native to send a peace mission to the colonists to help peoples into its diplomatic and economic extricate their fellow Iroquois from the alliance, spheres. Though participant groups generally the Oneidas hotly protested and, after three days retained control of their community affairs, dis- of recriminations and debate, told the Cayugas putes did arise among members of the confeder- to go home. Later that summer intraleague ten- acy on several occasions. Nevertheless, until the sions again surfaced, this time involving more American Revolution, most disagreements were confrontational language. During a council resolved within the League and no tribe ever where wartime allegiances were being disputed, chose or was forced to withdraw. , a Mohawk leader, openly called the neutrality-supporting Seneca headman, Such historical realities meant little to , a coward, leading to temporary either the British or rebellious colonists once anarchy and the premature end of the meeting. shots were fired at Lexington and Concord in Rather than reach a compromise, Brant April 1775. Despite early Iroquois proclama- expanded the scope of his insult once the council tions of neutrality in the conflict, both combat- resumed, declaring that all pacifists in the ant groups immediately exerted themselves to League were cowards. Traditional modes of persuade the confederacy to choose sides. Con- ensuring Iroquois harmony ceased to have the tinuous pressure, past grievances, economic customary effect. incentives, and defensive concerns soon pro- voked fissures in Iroquois consensus. Ononda- Verbal disagreement paled in comparison gas began disagreeing with Cayugas, Mohawks to the Iroquois civil war that took place on the argued with Senecas, and, further complicating battlefields. On multiple occasions League allegiances, Oneidas quarreled with Oneidas. A members faced one another in combat with European missionary residing among the Iro- deadly results. At the Battle of Oriskany, New quois at the time noted that a "debate so warm York, on 6 August 1777 the British and their & contention so fierce" had not occurred Mohawk and Seneca supporters clashed with within the confederacy "since the commence- rebellious colonists and their Oneida allies, lead- ment of their union." Though historians still ing to the deaths of more than one hundred Iro- disagree as to exactly why, the symbolic fire of quois warriors. After the battle groups of unity at the capital in Onondaga was extin- Mohawks, outraged at the perceived treachery guished in 1777, providing, at the least, a fore- of their fellow League members, attacked boding sign of danger and disharmony to Oneida villages, in the process burning down members of the League. By the end of the year, lodgings, plowing under crops, and dispersing most Mohawks, Senecas, and Cayugas sup- cattle. Cognizant of the destruction taking place ported the British, the majority of Tuscaroras among the Iroquois, European Americans exac- favored the revolutionaries, and the Oneidas erbated the tensions, many seeing advantages to had split into two factions. Only the Ononda- the confederacy's implosion. Some British and gas desperately tried to follow the original neu- colonial leaders, including Thomas Jefferson, tral stance. Yet, peace had receded as a viable believed that inciting civil disputes among the option. Along with British and Rebel authori- Indians furthered the cause of the Rebels. By ties, Iroquois who had decided to take part in the latter half of 1779 traditional battles and the war began to harangue remaining enclaves guerilla warfare had taken their toll, achieving of neutral Indians within the confederacy, the results many Europeans and Americans insisting that they make a decision and declare desired. Most Mohawk, Onondaga, and Cayuga themselves "for one side or the other." villages had been burned to the ground, and only two remained standing among the Seneca. The growing acrimony within the League Towns left intact, especially those of the Onei- was clearly seen in council meetings, forums tra- das and Tuscaroras, were abandoned by their ditionally used to resolve disputes and maintain inhabitants out of fear of reprisals from refugee peace. At a meeting in the fall of 1775 Iroquois Iroquois. After less than four years of fighting, headmen called for all Indians under the ideological differences among League members League's influence to abstain from participation had resulted in the physical devastation of the in the war. , the leader of the Dela- confederacy's territory. ware tribe, defiantly renounced the League's authority and proclaimed his people's indepen- As the Revolutionary War ended, the bat- dence in terms of the path it chose to take, a bra- tered landscape symbolically reflected the politi- zen disavowal of Iroquois power rarely seen cal disintegration of the confederacy. Survival prior to the American Revolution. During a became the main preoccupation of the Iroquois. council ceremony in March 1777 Cayuga repre- Displaced peoples attempted to subsist in the sentatives berated the Oneidas present for ruins of their destroyed homes or crowd into the destroying Iroquois harmony by supporting the few remaining villages, exhausting the scarce

HISTORY IN DISPUTE, VOLUME 12: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 175 resources. Eventually, many survivors migrated eracy. By 1783 Miamis, Shawnees, Delawares, north into Canada or west into the present-day Potawatomies, Chippewas, and Wyandots had states of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Not determined that they could better control their only did the confederacy itself split but individ- fates in regard to settlers and thus increasingly ual member tribes also fractured. Some Oneidas disavowed Iroquois authority. Eventually, Indi- moved west, others relocated to Canada, and a ans living south of the Great Lakes formed tiny remnant stayed in their ravaged homeland. their own confederacy. While similar in pur- Viewing the Iroquois as defeated and thus con- pose to the League of the Iroquois, the new quered peoples, negotiators of the new United Northwestern confederacy emphasized its inde- States insisted on harsh terms in the postwar pendence and minimal ties to the older entity. peace treaties. Though most Iroquois rejected The contrary goals of the two groups soon this scenario, continued factionalism among became clear. In the new confederacy's negotia- League members undermined a coordinated tions with U.S. officials, the Iroquois tended defense. Still resentful over wartime loyalties, to side with the Americans. Ironically, Brant, confederacy representatives bickered with one the Mohawk leader who had vigorously another instead of presenting a united front, a opposed Rebel forces during the Revolution, situation exploited by U.S. officials. The result at one point counseled the Western tribes to was the signing of a 1784 treaty in which the Iro- consent to U.S. demands. Disgusted by what quois ceded to the most of their they perceived to be wholesale Iroquois acqui- lands in western New York, Pennsylvania, and escence to American wishes, members of the the ill-defined areas south of Lakes Erie, Huron, Northwestern confederacy condemned the and Michigan. Regardless of ongoing native efforts of the older League, throwing their pro- opposition to what many believed were unfair posed treaty documents into the fire and pro- terms, the net effect was the reduction of Iro- claiming Brant and his associates to be quois lands in the United States to several small cowardly. The Western Indians' hostility reservations in Western New York. Even then, toward the Iroquois was so great that negotia- internal Iroquois rivalries generated by the war tors returning to New York believed them- continued to persist. selves fortunate to leave the treaty grounds Dissension among the Iroquois and the without being accosted. Most hurried home, League's inability to counter U.S. expansion stopping only to eat and sleep, out of fear that provoked a rebellion among the various West- warriors from the Northwestern confederacy ern tribes formerly subordinate to the confed- would attack them along the way.

176 HISTORY IN DISPUTE, VOLUME 12: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION Decimated in terms of land and popula- tion, the Iroquois became increasingly margin- alized and resentful. Disputes generated as a result of the American Revolution influenced Viewpoint: Iroquois politics into the nineteenth century. No. Although Iroquois warriors Moderates and civil chiefs lost influence to mil- fought on opposing sides during itants and war leaders. Those involved in treaty the American Revolution, they made negotiations became pariahs in their own com- efforts to minimize conflict with munities. Pro-American leaders such as Corn- each other. planter feared for their lives on a daily basis, The War of American Independence (1775- often refusing to accept meals from former 1783) brought great suffering to Iroquoia. Most Indian allies because of concerns of being poi- Iroquois villages had to be abandoned, and their soned. Geographical separation fostered more inhabitants were forced to flee to wretched refugee disunity. Iroquois refugees who traveled to settlements. Combat fatalities and disease claimed Canada created new communities in environ- hundreds of lives. The end of the conflict brought ments often different from those left behind, in only a humiliating peace settlement in which the terms of topography and subsistence. While United States unilaterally declared the Iroquois a attempts were made to maintain bonds across conquered people and laid claim to most of their national boundaries, old disputes, communica- ancestral territory. Although some of these lands tion problems, and divergent objectives led to were eventually returned, Iroquois political institu- estrangement. Eventually, a loosely connected, tions never recovered fully. The confederacy failed though essentially distinct, new confederacy to reestablish its colonial-era status as a crucial dip- emerged among Iroquois peoples in Canada. lomatic player. Symbolizing the complete severance of old ties, Historians have frequently cited an Iroquois residents of the new settlements ignited their civil war during the Revolution as a critical element own council fire. Contrary to principles estab- of the confederacy's woes. Scholars point to the lished centuries before, a single symbol of extinguished council fire at Onondaga, the Battle unity had been replaced by two fires, each of Oriskany (6 August 1777), and a legacy of divi- opposed by many Iroquois. Summarizing his sion and despair to argue that the Revolutionary views on the decline of traditional bonds, War led the centuries-old confederacy to tear itself growing negative influence of American soci- apart at its seams. ety, and general disillusionment of League members in both the United States and Can- However, labeling the American Revolution ada, the dejected Brant concluded that most an "Iroquois civil war" obscures more than it illu- Iroquois "had sold themselves to the Devil." minates. It fails to take into account fully the politi- cal culture of the Iroquois confederacy and distorts Divisions had existed within the Iroquois an understanding of why the Iroquois fought in confederacy since its inception. Rivalries the war at all. It also conflates the war proper with appeared and receded throughout the years its resolution: had the war ended less decisively, or before 1775. None of these differences precipi- had Great Britain supported its Iroquois allies dur- tated the destruction of the confederacy, how- ing or after the peace negotiations, a prompt recon- ever. The American Revolution, through the ciliation among the various nations would have actions of its participants, geographic location of been likely. Close examination of Iroquois wartime its battles, and concluding peace arrangements, behavior suggests that, while intertribal tensions debilitated Iroquois society on a permanent ran high, they remained under control. The Iro- basis. Factionalism inspired by the conflict suc- quois attempted to avoid direct confrontations ceeded in melding old disputes between mem- with one another on the battlefield. On many occa- bers with new antagonisms within tribes in a sions, when either the British or Americans cap- setting that fostered unprecedented Iroquois-on- tured hostile Iroquois warriors, their Iroquois Iroquois violence of an intensity never witnessed allies sought improved conditions of confinement previously or since. The immediate result was the for the captives, if not their outright release. dismantling of a core early-American institution During the Revolution the Iroquois confeder- and restructuring of native-settler relationships acy split roughly along national lines. While no from the Hudson River to the Great Lakes. Less nation was united in its allegiance, the Mohawks, apparent at the time, but more significant as Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas generally pro- years passed, civil war among the Iroquois dur- vided the Crown with spies, scouts, and fighting ing the Revolutionary War helped diminish the men; the Oneidas and Tuscaroras made themselves coherence and stability of all Native American similarly useful to the Rebels. However, one peoples living in what was then Iroquoia. should not simply assume that because these -DANIEL S. MURPHREE, nations chose different sides that they wished to UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT TYLER fight each other. The pattern of wartime violence

HISTORY IN DISPUTE, VOLUME 12: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 177 This tendency to split into factions was pro- moted by intractable problems such as the steady encroachment of European settlers. As a result, dur- ing the century leading up to the French and TAKE UP THE HATCHET Indian War (1754-1763), fragmentation had become the norm rather than the exception. The At the onset of the Revolutionary War (1775-1783). Crown officials Iroquois had been divided into pro-French, wasted no time in trying to gauge the mood and temper of the Iroquois confederacy. On 24 July 1775. Secretary for the Colonies the Earl of pro-English, and sometimes even neutralist groups. Dartmouth wrote Superintendent of Indian Affairs Colonel Guy Johnson Yet, rather than weaken the confederacy, this pat- the following missive: tern actually strengthened it. As long as both I have already in my letter to you of the 5th instant France and Britain vied for control of the North hinted that the time might possibly come when the King, American continent, they needed Iroquois sup- relying upon the attachment of his faithful allies, the Six port. As long as Iroquois allegiances were divided Nations of Indians, might be under the necessity of call- and shifting, they were able to play the European ing upon them for their aid and assistance in the present powers off one another. The Europeans accord- state of America. ingly expended large quantities of trade goods to The unnatural rebellion now raging there calls for win Iroquois allies and had to think twice before every effort to suppress it, and the intelligence His Maj- attacking Iroquois foes. In sum, the Six Nations esty has received of the Rebels having excited the Indi- turned the dictum of "united we stand, divided we ans to take a part, and of their having actually engaged a fall" on its head and prospered. Thus, the signifi- body of them in arms to support their rebellion, justifies cance of a division among the Iroquois in the the resolution His Majesty has taken of requiring the American Revolution should not appear as evi- assistance of his faithful adherents the Six Nations. dence in itself of a fatal cleavage. It is therefore His Majesty's pleasure that you do After 1775, as the dispute between Great Brit- lose no time in taking such steps as may induce them to ain and the colonists turned into open war, neutral- take up the hatchet against His Majesty's rebellious sub- ity was the official confederacy policy. The jects in America, and to engage them in His Majesty's Revolution was a conflict among whites, a "family service upon such plan as shall be suggested to you by quarrel," and the Iroquois saw no place for them- General Gage to whom this letter is sent accompanied selves in it. Uppermost in the minds of all Iroquois with a large assortment of goods for presents to them was the preservation of their sovereignty and their upon this important occasion. homelands. Their own family was not quarreling, Whether the engaging the Six Nations to take up at least not yet. arms in defense of His Majesty's Government is most However, geography influenced the various likely to be effected by separate negotiation with the nations' perceptions of the developing conflict. chiefs or in a general council assembled for that pur- The Westernmost nations, the Senecas and Cayu- pose, must be left to your judgement, but at all events as gas, were physically much closer to other Indian it is a service of very great importance, you will not fail to nations such as the Chippewas, and the British exert every effort that may tend to accomplish it, and to stronghold at Niagara, than to colonial population use the utmost diligence and activity in the execution of centers. From this vantage point, they saw fewer the orders I have now the honor to transmit to you. reasons to jettison the common wisdom that the Source: E. B. O'Callaghan, ed.. Documents Relative to the Colo- Crown would be able to subdue the colonists, nial History ol the State of New-York, 15 volumes (Albany: Weed. Parsons. 1853-1887), Vlll:596. whom the Iroquois perceived as land hungry and violent. At the other end of Iroquois territory were the Mohawks. They had already lost their land, and now a decisive British victory appeared to be their was clear: Iroquois warriors were far more likely to only chance to regain any part of it. Moreover, as attack non-Indian targets than Indian ones. was the case with the Senecas, Great Britain main- tained an important center of imperial administra- Because the Iroquois polity functioned on the basis of consensus and lacked coercive power, divi- tion in their midst. Thus, much of the information they received was mediated by sources biased sions within the confederacy or within individual toward Great Britain. Not least of these sources was nations were not uncommon. Speakers at Iroquois councils declaimed the merits of their positions Mohawk war chief Joseph Brant. He had family and attempted to persuade others to follow. ties to British officials and had recently visited Brit- ain and met the King. Brant had been deeply Between speeches at the council fire and lobbying impressed by what he had seen and returned with behind the scenes, something approximating a con- sensus usually emerged. However, Iroquois leaders the conviction that the world's most powerful nation could not be defeated by such lowly upstarts lacked the authority to demand acquiescence. All parties ultimately reserved the right to act as they as the American colonists. saw fit. If no agreement was reached, the passage of The Oneidas and Tuscaroras, by contrast, time would prove whose policy worked best. lived on the front line of white settlement. Sheer

178 HISTORY IN DISPUTE, VOLUME 12: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION proximity made them acutely aware of Rebel poten- tions, those limits were respected for the duration tial and their own villages' vulnerability. Nearby of the conflict. Patriot communities made little secret of their sus- Rather than seeking out one another for retri- picions about their Indian neighbors as well as bution, the Iroquois avoided hostile encounters. At their willingness to take action against them. If the battles of Freeman's Farm (19 September there were violence, the Oneida and Tuscarora vil- 1777) and Bemis Heights (7 October 1777), the lages were clearly in harm's way, so these two tribes Indian allies of Britain were nowhere to be seen. were under considerable pressure to avert any The Oneidas and Tuscaroras sent men to assist action that would antagonize the Patriots. Their American forces in 1778, but mostly to the South principal source of information was a Presbyterian where they were unlikely to encounter other Iro- missionary who was an active supporter of the quois. In April 1779 when Colonel Goose Van Rebel cause. For their part, the Onondagas were Schaick set off to march on the main Onondaga vil- somewhat insulated from both sides. Neutrality ini- lage, he avoided recruiting Oneidas or even reveal- tially appeared viable to them, and that tendency ing his plans to them. Most significantly, when was reinforced by their position as the confeder- Major General John Sullivan marched deeper into acy's central nation, its nominal leader and media- Iroquoia that summer in order to attack the Sene- tor, and keeper of the symbolic council fire. cas and Cayugas, he was angered by the limited Throughout 1776 and early 1777 Rebels and Oneida support. Tories both cajoled and threatened the Iroquois. Iroquois warriors were not inclined to fight Pressure mounted from both sides for their assis- when they encountered one another by happen- tance. In early 1777 the central council fire of the stance, either. When Iroquois on opposing sides confederacy was declared to have been extin- of the war did cross paths, their interactions were, guished. While this event has been interpreted by if not friendly, at least tacitly cooperative. Both some historians as an expression of mutual hostility British and American scouting and raiding parties among the Six Nations, it was in fact more immedi- on the frontier usually included Indians for their ately an act of mourning prompted by an outbreak tracking skills and geographical knowledge. To of smallpox that decimated the Onondaga tribe. the eternal exasperation of white officers, when- The decision not to rekindle the fire acknowledged ever such parties took captives, the Indian prison- the tensions that wracked the confederacy and ers exhibited an uncanny ability to escape. This interfered with the proper condoling spirit. Keep- situation was, of course, not always the case. ing the council fire out was a way to avoid conflict, When one of the handful of Oneidas who assisted to permit all nations to proceed as they felt neces- Sullivan on his expedition was captured, he was sary. It was far short of a declaration of civil war. not only killed but also hacked into pieces by The Battle of Oriskany in Upstate New York other Iroquois. However, this fate was perhaps posed a far greater challenge to inter-Iroquois rela- preferable to that faced by two of his non-Indian tions. Postwar Seneca testimony suggests that their companions, who were tortured before being warriors showed up in order to appease the British killed. Another member of the party, a Stock- who supplied them with guns and clothes. They bridge Indian from New England, was allowed to had not expected to be involved in fighting at all, flee unharmed because, as one of the Indians and only Brant's prodding overcame their reluc- present allegedly said, "they were at war with the tance. Whatever their motivation, thirty-odd Sene- whites only, and not with the Indians." cas died in the engagement, and some of these If a state of civil war existed among the Iro- losses presumably came at the hands of the sixty quois, it would seem they would have pursued Oneidas who were part of the Rebel force. opportunities to strike at one another even as the Did the fighting at Oriskany herald a fratri- Anglo-American war wound down in the New cidal Iroquois war? Had events gathered such York theater. Yet, when Brant plotted a direct strike momentum that they precipitated a civil war even if to punish the Oneidas, he had to keep arrange- one had not previously existed? The actions under- ments generally secret from other Indians, and the taken in Oriskany's aftermath suggest that the bat- plan ultimately languished as a result of their lack tle engendered mutual hostility but also that of support. retaliation would remain within clearly demarcated The manner in which the war ended wrought bounds. In order to redress the spiritual power the most lasting divisions among the Iroquois. deficit caused by the deaths, the Senecas exe- Despite the fact that Britain had been served ably cuted their prisoners, but none of the prisoners by its Iroquois allies, the Crown ignored their inter- were Indians. The Oneidas looted a Mohawk ests at the treaty negotiations. Britain conceded its town, and the British-allied Indians responded claims to lands south of the St. Lawrence and Great in kind. These actions defined the limits of Iro- Lakes from the Atlantic to the Mississippi—includ- quois action against their fellows: threats could be ing all of Iroquoia. No provisions were made or made, property could be destroyed, but no more sought for the Iroquois's peaceable possession of Iroquois lives would be taken. With few excep- their lands. For their part, the Iroquois considered

HISTORY IN DISPUTE, VOLUME 12: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 179 the British position fatuous and selfish: the Crown the fateful realization that neither path led to an had ceded lands it had no power to cede. They acceptable destination. asked why they should be expected to abide by a -KARIM M. TIRO, treaty to which they had not been a party. In the XAVIER UNIVERSITY absence of British support, however, the hostile Iroquois were not in a position to resist the Ameri- can pretension that they had been "conquered." When the U.S. government sent commissioners to References sign a treaty with the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix, New York, in 1784, the terms were both harsh and Colin G. Calloway, The American Revolution in nonnegotiable. The delegates from the hostile Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in nations pleaded their lack of authority to redraw Native American Communities (Cambridge new boundaries as demanded by the United States & New York: Cambridge University Press, but were forced to sign anyway. 1995). The Oneidas and Tuscaroras who had sided Calloway, "The Continuing Revolution in with the Patriots had no more power at their dis- Indian Country," in Native Americans and posal than the others. While the federal commis- the Early Republic, edited by Frederick E. sioners at Fort Stanwix spoke to them in polite Hoxie, Ronald Hoffman, and Peter J. and even laudatory tones, the Oneidas's inability Albert (Charlottesville: University Press of to temper the harsh tenor of the proceedings por- Virginia, 1999), pp. 3-36. tended future impotence. Although the Oneidas Calloway, First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of took a forward role in most postwar negotiations American Indian History (Boston: Bedford/ between the Six Nations and the United States, St. Martin's Press, 1999). they were not able to effect any change in the fed- eral government's policy. Indeed, their powerless- Barbara Graymont, The Iroquois in the American ness was exemplified by the speed with which Revolution (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse Univer- New York State dispossessed them of the bulk of sity Press, 1972). their lands, most of which was gone by the end of Francis Jennings, The Founders of America: From the decade. the Earliest Migrations to the Present (New The Revolutionary War had given way to a York: Norton, 1993). harsh new reality. The services of Iroquois hunters Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, and warriors were no longer in demand, and the 34 volumes (Washington, B.C.: U.S. Gov- United States was fully committed to a course of ernment Printing Office, 1904-1937). rapid Westward expansion that threatened the ancestral Iroquois homeland by allowing tens of Isabel Kelsay, Joseph Brant, 1743-1807: Man of thousands of whites to settle there. Among the Iro- Two Worlds (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse Uni- quois disagreements flared anew over how to versity Press, 1984). respond to the situation, exacerbating old divi- David Levinson, "An Explanation of the sions. Unlike most of the colonial period two pow- Oneida-Colonist Alliance in the American ers no longer vied for their assistance. Now the Revolution," Ethnohistory, 23 (1976): 265- Iroquois dealt with only one nation—the United 289. States—and that nation was interested in their land, not their help. In the absence of any competition E. B. O'Callaghan, ed., The Documentary History for their support, their division ceased to yield any of the State of New-York, 4 volumes (Albany: benefit. Some members of all the Iroquois nations Weed, Parsons, 1850-1851). decamped for Canada. The Senecas split over how The Papers of Sir William Johnson, edited by far to accommodate the Americans, and similar James Sullivan and others, 14 volumes divisions occurred among other nations as well. (Albany: University of the State of New Competing council fires burned, one on each side York, 1921-1965). of the border, but neither was able to exert the Walter Pilkington, ed., The Journals of Samuel authority of the old one at Onondaga. Kirkland (Clinton, N.Y.: Hamilton Col- The American Revolution had forced each of lege, 1980). the Six Nations to choose sides. During the course Karim M. Tiro, "A 'Civil' War? Rethinking Iro- of the conflict the Iroquois fought hard and sacri- quois Participation in the American Revolu- ficed much to promote their respective allies' suc- tion," Explorations in Early American cess while avoiding killing one another. Each acted Culture, 4 (2000): 148-165. under the belief that the path it chose—that of the Crown or that of the Patriots—was the wiser of the Anthony F. C. Wallace, The Death and Rebirth of two available. What they were not prepared for was the Seneca (New York: Knopf, 1969).

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