Woodland Indians
The Eastern Woodland Indians mainly consisted of two major regions the Iroquois, which comprised of five tribes and added an additional a sixth later, and the Cherokee. The Indians in the Eastern Woodland nation lived East of the plains and all the way to the coast, Iroquois in North Eastern currently know as the Ohio area and Cherokee South Eastern currently known as the Tennessee and Georgia area. All Indians lived off the lands hunting, gathering, farming, and fishing all to survive.
Men constructed bows and arrows to hunt deer and smaller game, women cultivated garden plots gathering corn, beans, and tobacco. The Seven Years’ War or also know as the French and Indian war, the war was fought between Great Britain and France during the years 1756-1763. Warfare was fought in North Eastern America, involving Indians fighting on both sides aligning beside and against European militias. The outcome entailed the British winning the war and with the assistance of the Indians, the French withdrew and were conquered by British dominance.
The central purpose for the Indians was to safeguard their homeland and preserve the land independent of foreign dominance. This is why the Seven Year’ War was a pivotal point in Indian civilization because they displayed that they could hold their North Eastern Land. War was eminent with the Indians fighting themselves and siding on different sides. The British constituently pushed for expansion invading the lands of the Iroquois. War and diplomacy involved Europeans and Indians engaging in negotiation to achieve peace trade and land through a diplomacy and not war.
War for America the battle between Britain and France continued to propagate because the desire for more land. The Indians became antagonistic in defending their land from foreign invasion. The French assembled resistance with the assistance of Indians in an attempt to push the British out. In the year 1758 the British made peace with the Iroquois Indians. This agreement was made “Why don’t you and the French fight in the old country and on the sea? The Delaware’s asked. “Why do you com to fight on our land?
This makes everybody believe you want only to take and settle the Land( Calloway) Why would the English “Wonder at our joining with the French in the present day war? ” they asked; “were we but sure that you will not take our lands on the Ohio, or the West side of Allegiances hills from us; we could drive away the French when we please” (Calloway) Division between the tribal villages throughout the Seven Years’ War caused blood between the tribal communities. The Eastern Woodland Indians had two types of chief’s village and warrior. Most village chiefs were against war and blood bath and reasoned against fighting.
Warrior’s chiefs had dissimilar viewpoints from the village chief’s, Warriors chiefs over threw decisions made by village chiefs. “Formerly the Warriors were governed by the wisdom of their uncles the Sachems,:” sad an Onondaga chief during the revolution, “but now they take their own way and dispose of themselves without consulting their uncles the Sachemes (Calloway). ” Because of the warrior chiefs motives the Easter woodland were often consider bloodthirsty and savages when referred by the Europeans. The British completed an agreement with the Ohio Indians to protect their land from the French.
The French fell week without the Indians assistance allowing the British to effortlessly overthrow the French. The British won the war in 1763. Due to the fact that the Indians knew that this “war was a contest for Indian land as well as for American independence” most of the Indians sided with the British in hopes to regain their land and freedom (Calloway). Nevertheless, with the threat of war absent, land pioneers and colonizers entered into much of the Iroquois territory, infuriating battles with the Indians. Under the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768, the Iroquois ceded to New York all lands east of a line drawn southward.
Johnson drafted that treaty and gained Iroquois support. I feel that the most pivotal point in the Woodland Indians occurred when they sided with the British and overcame the French and forced them out. If the Indians hadn’t sided with the British the American Revolution couldn’t of transpired.
Works Cited
- Calloway, ed. , The World Turned Upside Down, 133-34. Calloway, Colin G. First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History. Third ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004. Print.
- Pennsylvania Archives, 1st series, 3 (1853), 548-49 Seneca And Onondaga quotes from Calloway, The American Revolution in Indian Country, 7, 59.
