Kate+Langdon+Iroquois+Confederacy+Topic+2

Name: Kate Langdon Country: Joseph Brant Committee: Iroquois Confederacy High School: Arundel High School Date: 5 January 2012

Topic II: War on the New York Frontier

The New York Frontier served as the foremost battleground for the American Revolutionary War and, coincidentally, was home to a majority of the Iroquois population, which primarily resided in the New York, Quebec, and Ontario regions. Therefore, the Native Americans made essentially all of their physical war contributions in this crucial theater, after the individual decisions of the Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca tribes to join the conflict in support of the Crown were finalized. This dispute concerning neutrality in the American Revolutionary War considerably fractured the seasoned Iroquois Confederacy, which spent a substantial amount of time deliberating over whether neutrality was effective, let alone possible. Several tribal leaders, such as the staunch Joseph Brant, argued that impartiality was not an option, thus initiating a new debate about which side, the British or the English, the tribes should support and to what extent should assistance be delivered. It was this issue that warped the Confederacy of the past, marking a new age of challenges and fundamentals.

While the Native Americans had remained neutral at the onset of the war in April 1775 with the Battles of Lexington and Concord, by the time of the Battle of Saratoga in the fall of 1777, they had joined the fight. Cleverly designed as a British tactic to contain the revolution in Massachusetts and separate the rebellious settlers of New England from the remaining colonies, communication errors devastated the campaign, resulting in the surrender of seven thousand English troops, as well as the admittance of the French to the war on the side of the colonists. Even earlier in this campaign, at the Battle of Oriskany, the British and the Iroquois had been forced to abandon their albeit somewhat effective attack on the American fort at Stanwix. This particular battle spurred the Oneida tribe to support the colonists' cause, leading the Iroquois Confederacy to deliver a bloody hatchet to this defecting nation and thusly signifying the disenchantment of the once dominant alliance. As the war raged on, the Loyalist Native Americans launched unrelenting raids on colonist settlements, destroying forts, seizing materials, burning entire towns, and evacuating whole populations from areas such as Cobleskill, Lycoming County, Wyoming Valley, the German Flatts, Cherry Hill, and most of upstate New York along Lake Champlain. The Battle of Wyoming and the Cherry Hill Massacre exceptionally infuriated the Americans, as the Iroquois tortured and murdered hundreds of civilians, including women and children, in each engagement. In 1779, at the Battle of Minisink, an American ambush plot was crushed by Brant, largely due to the Iroquois' unrivaled prowess of hand to hand combat. It would seem that the raids of the British and the Indians could not be stopped; that is, until, the debut of the Sullivan Campaign, an American strategy that employed 3,200 troops for the purpose of obliterating Loyalist troops by mercilessly razing all Iroquois villages (and food supplies) and decimating all opposing populations. The Continental Army dispatched an overwhelming number of troops, who, through massive victories in places like Newtown, leveled over forty Iroquois villages. Neighboring Native Americans fled to Canada seeking British protection, but a bulk of them died of starvation or hypothermia in the harsh winter. Despite these unexpected gruesome conditions, the Indians have still refused to surrender.

As the most influential Mohawk chief throughout the entire revolution, I have come to accept defeat. We have fought heroically for the good of all our people. Those who died shall be eternally remembered for their bravery and courage; they certainly did not pass in vain, either, as this is not the end. We may have lost the war, but we still retain our dignity, culture, and history. The Americans will attempt to subjugate us, but we must stand strong. They will venture to seize our lands, and, unless they are willing to respect and adhere to our own values, we will endeavor to make a new home for the Loyalist Confederacy members, in a new land distant from their covetous eyes. I will strive to protect those Haudenosaunee who placed their trust in me and boldly supported the British. Our former brethren that traitorously defected to aid the colonists will not be easily forgiven, nor will those who selfishly and disgracefully hid from the conflict by assuming an immature vow of neutrality.

Now, more than ever, is the time to stand by our British allies. With the imminent loss of the war, our people must unite in the face of defeat, directly beside our foreign friends. While they have, indeed, been stripped of their authority over their American children, they have not been slain. They continue to survive across the Atlantic Ocean, and just to the north of our native lands in Canada. Their presence will continue to be felt, and we must pursue our diplomatic relations, for our compensation from the British is long overdue. The Confederacy must look to this ally and request lands, in addition to protection, in their Canadian territories, where our families can relocate and live in peace, free of any oppression from the Americans.

I place much hope and respect in my fellow loyal Haudenosaunee leaders, and I am interested in contemplating any possible resolutions they have contrived. Our plights are one, and I believe that, together, the unwavering men who remained faithful to the British cause can develop a progressive policy for the preservation of our shared sacred culture.