The Seven Year's War And The American Revolution

The Eastern Woodland Indians The Eastern Woodland Indians was comprised mainly of two major regions the Iroquois and the Cherokee. These Indians lived from the East of the plains down to the coast. Iroquois region was in the North Eastern known today as the vicinity of Ohio and the Cherokee region was in the Southeastern known today as the Georgia and Tennessee vicinity. The Indians dwelt off lands gathering, farming, hunting, and fishing for survival. While men created bows and arrows for hunting, the women gathered corns, beans, tobacco and urbane garden plots. The Seven Years’ War also referred to as the French and the Indian War was battled between France and the Great Britain within the span of 1756-1763. The battlefield was in North
Eastern America and involved the Indians fighting on both faces as they aligned themselves side to side as well as against the European powers. In the end, the British won the war with the reinforced help from the Indians, the French, upon British supremacy, retreated, and since they were defeated. The main objective for the Indians involvement was to safeguard their lands and push away foreign invading powers from off their lands. This clearly reveals the reason why the Seven Years’ War was pivotal moment particularly for the Indian civilization since they showed that they could hold lands in the North Eastern area.
This is especially true for the eastern Woodland Indians.
During the Seven Year’s War and the American Revolution, the Indians were limited by choice to be proponents of one side. This brought about divisions among the Indian tribes. Whatever the case, the Indians gained no freedom or rights from neither the American Revolution nor the Seven Years of War.
As Colloway (p.152) puts it, “Some tribes split into factions over issues of peace, war, and alliance with competing European powers.” Caught in the middle of such war, the Eastern Woodland Indians had limited options and faced severe internal and external aggressive forces.
Being caught up in the Seven Years of War, both the Indians and the French war provoked the Eastern Indians “fighting on both sides besides European armies, as well as fighting against European armies invading Indian country” (Colloway, p. 145). At that time, the Indians faced different waves and forces that pushed and pulled them to opposite sides for no apparent reasons. It is quite unfortunate that upon Britain’s triumph of the Seven Years’ of War, the Indians were left with nothing much to benefit from the
war. Sadly enough, after winning the war, most officials from the British regiment viewed the Indians as nothing but a defeated people and saw no substantial reasons to drain their depleted treasury by rewarding them with gifts (Colloway, p.
155). Worse still, a commander from the British army had the audacity to send to the Indians blankets infected with smallpox. Moreover, the Indians suffered a vast loss of their already developed lands after the war was over to European settlers. This only triggered further conflict among the Eastern Indians themselves. The war tone Indian land consequently led to the American Revolution. Based on the preconceived notion that consumed the Indians into believing that the war was an heightened contest for both the Indians and the Americans to gain independence, majority of them sidelined with the British militia in the hope of regaining their lost land and freedom. Apparently this was not any close to the result they so hoped for. The hash consequences brought about by the Revolution only introduced much suffering and civil war among the Indians themselves (Colloway, p,
158). The Indian and French war was impetuous through a cycle of disputes over land ownership rights particularly in the upper Ohio Valley. In 1754, a handful force from the French and Indians garrison on a voyage down the wide Allegheny River, with new French governor’s orders to allege this valued region for France, stumble upon a small battalion near Ohio forks. This area was a tactical spot for both the British who eagerly pined for new territories to expand their colonies and the French whose ambitions was to find unrestricted entrée between the Mississippi river and their settlements in North America along the great lakes. The two forces coveted the productive fur deal with the Eastern Indians across the Allegheny Mountains. The war became imminent as the Indians fought against each other although sidelining with different powers. In the meantime, the British amassed themselves to constituently push for expansion as they invaded the Iroquois lands. The war and the mediations involved Europeans and the Indians engaging in dialogues to reach peace trade and land via negotiations and not war. The American War involved an acute battle between France and British as they continued to disseminate because of their thirst for more land. This only awakened the Indians hostile forces in their attempt to safeguard their land from invasion by the foreign powers. On the other hand, the French gathered opposition with the Indians assistance as they attempted to push out the British forces.