1.12: Pontiac and the war against British Imperialism

He led his forces against the mighty British military, captured their forts, forced them to surrender...and ultimately lost the war that bears his name.  Odawa Chief Pontiac, an Anishinaabeg of the western Great Lakes, fought a war against the British after the latter presumed that the North American theater of the Seven Years' War had drawn to a close.   The events, and results, of Pontiac's actions caused  British officials to reconsider their perceptions of this portion of their growing empire that they often took for granted...and would set in motion a series of decisions that would lead to the loss of this territory,   This episode of History: Beyond the Textbook, the final episode of season one, focuses on Pontiac: his background, actions, and motivations for partaking in another in a series of attempts by Indigenous forces to fight back against European colonizers. 

Key People
Pontiac, Odawa Sachem and war leader
Neolin, Lenape prophet
Jeffrey Amherst, British military officer

Key Events
French and Indian War
Pontiac's War
Royal Proclamation of 1763

The third season of History: Beyond the Textbook focuses on the stories of individuals who shaped "America's Crucial Years" of 1783-1790, and runs from October 8-December 24. Catch up on Season One, "America's Colonial Era," and Season Two, "America's Revolution," wherever you listen to your podcasts!

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Transcript

It’s hard to blame the British for feeling a bit smug in February of 1763: they had just signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the global extension of the French and Indian War known as the Seven Years’ War…you know, that conflict we started learning about last episode.  Sure, England had to “give back” some of the territories that they had gained, so Cuba and the Philippines were returned to Spain, and France would retain their Caribbean possessions.  Strange to think that this was common during wars among European nations, but that’s how it was in the 1700’s.  However, England gained key territories on the Indian subcontinent, along with the vast majority of France’s previous land claims in North America.  This meant that, according to information gained by viewing maps that were drawn up in places like London and Paris, all of North America, from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River, was believed to belong to Great Britain.  This surely pleased the young monarch, King George III, who sought to begin his reign on a positive note.  However, as was often the case during this time period, little to no consideration was given to the Indigenous occupants of this large swath of territory…not the Shawnee, the Delaware, the Anishinaabeg, Ojibwe, Odawa, or even the Haudenosaunee, whose decision to ally with Great Britain and break their neutrality towards the end of the war helped swing the balance of power in favor of Great Britain.  So it came as a massive shock when reports began to trickle into London that the fighting in North America, a theater that was considered to be dormant, intensified in the early 1760’s.  The instigator: Pontiac, an Odawa man who followed in the footsteps of previous Indigenous tacticians not only in what he sought to accomplish, but in how his European enemies came to view him.  Yet this war will take on a different tone, both in the message that the initial leader preaches and also the results that the aftermath will yield.  This time, the resulting war will no longer continue to involve two European powers that rival Indigenous nations can play off against one another to gain whatever they want; only the British will be left standing, and their colonial subjects will begin to give them more problems than they anticipated.  All thanks to the actions of this one man.  In our final episode of our first season of History: Beyond the Textbook, we explore Pontiac, the presumed Odawa overlord of what the English called “Pontiac’s War.”

Act I: Shifting Policy

In our last episode, we explored the early years of the French and Indian War through the lens of Virginian George Washington.  In this episode, we’ll seek to understand the events that occurred at the end of this war, but also how these events shaped, and shifted, British policy with regard to Indigenous North Americans.  This season, we have centered four episodes on Indigenous leaders: Opechancanough, Uncas, Chief Canaqueese, and Po’Pay.  All took part in driving conflict in some way: Opechancanough against the English in Virginia, Po’Pay against the Spanish in the Southwest, Chief Cnaqueese against whomever the enemy was at the time, and Uncas with the English in an attempt to marginalize his enemies.  We’ll spotlight the Odawa Chief Pontiac in this light: a man who wages war against an imperial European power to allow his people to continue living their way of life.  Unlike Opechancanough and Po’Pay, authorities across the Atlantic were paying closer attention to these lands by the mid-1700’s and news of Pontiac’s actions, and those of other Indigenous leaders, would draw the attention of King George III and his Parliament.  Pontiac truly draws a bridge between the colonial world and its complex policies surrounding Indigenous relations, and the emerging American nation that will develop in its wake.

As always, we’ll set the stage for Pontiac’s War, sometimes referred to as “Pontiac’s Rebellion.”  Even though the “Half-King” Tanaghrisson sparked the war in the presence of Washington, the Haudenosaunee formally pursued the neutral policy that went back to the Grade Peace of Montreal in 1701.  The aforementioned Tanaghrisson notwithstanding, the Mohawks were the only Haudenosaunee who were vaguely interested in allying with, or even helping, the British, and Seneca warriors even directly assisted the French.  This changed in the late 1750’s and early 1760’s when Haudenosaunee leaders became disturbed by reports that resistance to their supremacy in their lands, the Ohio River Valley, was intensifying.  Therefore, British military might would potentially keep those subordinate nations in order, so an alliance was forged.  This possibly short-term arrangement would carry long-term consequences once the French were vanquished following the end of hostilities, but the Haudenosaunee always shifted their politics to suit their needs, and this was another in a long line of pragmatic decisions.

So we have a formal alliance between the British and the Haudenosaunee, which altered relations in the Great Lakes region and Ohio River Valley.  The other event which serves as appropriate context for Pontiac’s actions occurred in South Carolina when the Cherokees engaged in an open war against British forces.  The Cherokee had enjoyed a relatively peaceful coexistence with colonials for the previous three decades and were reliable trade partners in an exchange among equals.  The problems began when backcountry settlers murdered at least 30 Cherokees who had returned from a northern expedition to, of all things, present themselves as potential British allies.  The antagonism continued when the returning survivors discovered that colonial hunters had been poaching much-needed game that would sustain the Cherokees through the winter.  Furthermore, the envoys sent to negotiate a solution with South Carolina’s governor and request ammunition for their fall and winter hunts were imprisoned.  These envoys were among the most moderate of the Cherokee leaders, almost guaranteeing that the most hawkish would be left to push for violent confrontation.  The ensuing war included a Cherokee siege of an English military fort and several battles along the way.  However, it was a sign of things to come as several unexpected lessons were revealed.  Indigenous nations that waged war against the English stood to lose mightily in terms of manpower, the loss of European trade goods via suspended trade, and the loss of regional autonomy and influence since rival nations would be willing to allow them to suffer.  The most important consequence was trade-related, but involved broader implications: following the end of this war, British officer Jeffery Amherst, the same man who would authorize the distribution of smallpox-infected blankets to his Indigenous enemies, forbade English businessmen from traveling to Native villages for trading purposes, putting the onus on the Natives themselves to haul their materials to these forts of exchange.  The number, and type, of goods that could be traded was also severely restricted.  Aside from stymying economic growth and hindering cultural cooperation, the message that Indigenous nations received was clear: the English, if left in charge, would not allow them to live their lives as they saw fit.  And without the French to act as a counterweight, it appeared as though this would be the reality.

Act II: Unifying Ideologies

The concept of Native unity as a means of resisting European hegemony goes back at least to the aftermath of the Pequot War when the Narragansett Sachem Mianatonomi attempted to build support for the concept, although it ultimately failed.  However, in observing the brutal lessons learned from the Cherokee War, the nations of the north began to prepare for their own war, albeit with a fair amount of discretion.  Part of the immediate concern was the complete lack of regard that General Amherst showed for Indigenous life and traditions; he would not release Odawa prisoners of war, and refused to engage in the ceremonial gift-giving that was so crucial to Native-European relations.  This led to meetings between Odawa leader Pontiac and at least half a dozen additional nations, such as the Shawnee, Potawatomi and Ojibwe.  Since this is when Pontiac enters the scene, it’s worth taking a moment to explore his origins (also, that’s usually what this part of the show is devoted to).  Pontiac was born…at some point in the first two decades of the 1700’s, although we’re not quite sure when.  His parents were…well, again, we can’t exactly say for certain, and even though several theories exist with respect to his official lineage, he was identified as an Odawa, an Anishinaabag whose land bordered the western Great Lakes, his entire life.  He emerges in the historical record as a war leader who allied with the French against a Huron trader who allowed the British to build a fort near Lake Erie, and the French were more than willing to partake in any and all ceremonies like gift-giving to continue their lucrative trade.  This occurred in the late 1740’s, so by this time Pontiac had clearly established himself as an excellent fighter and leader worth following.  It is also believed that Pontiac actively assisted French forces during the bulk of the French and Indian War.  However, the political reality of no longer playing two European imperial powers against each other, along with the aforementioned policies employed by General Amherst, forced Pontiac’s hand.

As he attended council after council and attempted to rally additional forces to his cause, Pontiac revived Mianotomo’s concept of unity, but took it a step further in calling on a shared kinship between those of the Great Lakes region.  Neolin, a Lenape prophet, had also been advocating a message of unity using a new kind of logic.  Neolin preached that the Creator had given him explicit instructions on how to eliminate white settlers from Indigenous lands.  This required the shunning of European trade and weapons, complete abstention from alcohol, and the total dissolution of any interactions with Europeans.  He spoke of extreme measures to put a halt to the loss of wild game and the spread of epidemic diseases that the Creator had inflicted upon them as punishment for straying from their traditional ways.  This meant that a new world would emerge without the temptations and destructions that could be traced to Europeans.  This comprised a significant portion of Pontiac’s message to the councils that he held: he essentially shamed the leaders of the Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Wyandots, among others, because he reasoned that they had become so dependent on foreign goods that they were too scared to fight.  Once the ideas of Neolin spread, assisted by the persuasive stylings of Pontiac, it was time to put these ideologies into practice.

It's important to understand that the commanders of these isolated British forts knew that something was afoot, and they realized that they needed to prepare for conflict.  By 1763, most of the moderate leaders with whom these commanders were used to dealing had lost their influence within their nations, and the militarism espoused by Pontiac was carrying the day.  However, their warnings to their superiors and pleas for additional supplies and provisions fell on deaf ears, as even General Amherst dismissed such intelligence as mere folly.  He certainly should have listened…on May 7, Pontiac and over 450 warriors attacked Fort Detroit (and left the French settlement outside the fort alone), but the initial assault stalled.  So two days later, Pontiac’s forces decided that a siege was the next best tactic, and they prevented any significant resupply efforts from reaching the fort for the next two months (although the siege would drag on longer).  Similar to the actions of Po’Pay in the Southwest, Pontiac also sent runners to inform allied allied nations that the time for action was now, but instead of using beads as his symbol, war belts were distributed.  This triggered a wave of attacks on British frontier positions, with only Forts Pitt, Detroit, and Niagara officially remaining in British hands; only the distant Fort Edward Augustus, on the site of modern-day Green Bay, Wisconsin, was surrendered peacefully with all occupants permitted safe passage east.  This definitely wasn’t the case at Fort Michilimackinac at the crucial chokepoint of Lakes Huron and Michigan, where a group of Ojibwe men played lacrosse outside the gates to lull the defenders into a false sense of security.  When signaled, not only did these men attack, but the Ojibwe who had previously entered the fort under peaceful pretenses began to kill those on the inside.  This attack, along with the others that occurred along the Great Lakes, appeared to be orchestrated by Pontiac, whose military influence among his Indigenous allies was approaching its zenith.

Act III: Reacting to Pontiac

Given that the previous act included what we know about Pontiac’s early life, as well as his role in starting a war with England, this act will examine Pontiac’s shifting role in the conflict that bears his moniker, but also how British officials and colonial residents reacted to this conflict.  We already know that Forts Pitt, Niagara, and Detroit were the lone British forts that held out against a coordinated effort to push the Brits out of the eastern Great Lakes region, maybe beyond.  These three forts contained the largest stores of ammunition, and the Cherokee War demonstrated that the ability of Native Americans to wage war rested on their ability to acquire European weapons, as Pontiac had astutely alluded to.  Amherst couldn’t even bring himself to acknowledge Pontiac’s role in masterminding the war that put British possessions in such a rough spot as he lay blame on the French for allegedly pulling the strings.  He did, however, engage in biological warfare, which we mentioned near the end of Act One.  Fort Pitt remained under siege into summer of 1763, and Amherst sent a letter to a fellow British commander looking to relieve the fort imploring him to “use every stratagem in our Power to Reduce them,” which involved distributing smallpox blankets to their enemies.  The justification: Indigenous combatants often killed their prisoners of war, so this was viewed as no different.  The French had the reputation of allowing Indigenous nations to retain their ways so long as trade goods continued to flow; the British wanted the land, sans any non-English inhabitants, and appeared to be willing to use any tactic necessary to obtain it. 

However, the British government presented a radically different vision of “land rights” to the outside world.  Keep in mind that the North American theater of the Seven Years’ War, which is basically the global offshoot of the French and Indian War, was considered closed as of 1760 when British forces conquered Quebec, so news of the Pontiac-led war took Parliament by surprise.  The Treaty of Paris that ended the conflict was supposed to have transferred all of France’s North American territory to Great Britain, but the reports of renewed violence threw this belief into doubt.  A solution was proposed in October 1763 when Parliament issued the Royal Proclamation, sometimes called the Proclamation of 1763.  The short version is that all eastern lands, using the Appalachian Mountains as a western border, would be considered fair game with regard to English colonization and would enjoy the benefits of English law and governance.  Lands stretching from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River were reserved for the express use of Native Americans.  According to this law, no Europeans (so, Englishmen) would be allowed to settle in this region, and those already living there were to vacate the premises ASAP.  Land surveyors would not be allowed to operate in this region, and colonial governments would not be allowed to grant lands in said region (although the Crown reserved the right to grant land to those who served his Majesty in the French and Indian War).  On the surface, it appeared to be a ploy to “live and let live,” to respect Indigenous land holdings and avoid further conflict such as that instigated by Pontiac.  The unintended consequence was that Indigenous nations were potentially going to be cut off from the now decades-old cross-cultural trade that sustained their societies, given that formal trade was now severely restricted.  It was also a signal that, since the British were publically dictating the terms of land usage, they would consider the Indigenous occupants of this land as subjects, rather than partners or allies.

At the same time as the publication of this Royal Proclamation, Pontiac’s forces lifted their now 5-month long siege of Fort Detroit.  His forces were beginning to falter and lose interest, and he decided that October 10 was when he would make his offer of peace and withdraw, not knowing that food supplies at Detroit were dangerously low.  However, the Odawa Sachem wasn’t finished, and he spent the following month moving his operations south into what was called Illinois Country.  It was here that the French were still operating under pre-Treaty of Paris conditions: trading and gift-giving with Indigenous nations, indirectly supporting Pontiac’s war effort.  Therefore, Pontiac spent May and June 1764 capturing fort after fort, but unfortunately for him, this war was dragging on longer than anyone anticipated or wanted.  This was especially true of the Indigenous nations of the Ohio River Valley whose lands lay at the heart of this global conflict.  They wanted peace, and a coalition known as the Wabash Confederacy even asked Pontiac to represent them in peace talks with the British.  So here’s an individual that spent years building support for violent resistance to British rule and occupation of their Indigenous lands, but now is emerging in the role of peacemaker.  This chameleonesqe shift may be viewed through the context of either a pragmatic leader who could accurately “Read the room,” or that of a flip-flopper who was shifting his opinion with the changing tides in order to retain his influence.  And he was falling out of favor with some of his former allies, as demonstrated by his absence at a proposed peace conference at Fort Niagara in July 1764.  Over two-thousand former Indigenous combatants attended, eager to resume trade and resurrect the gift-giving that the French had taken so seriously (which the British were in fact reinstating).  Pontiac’s lack of attendance suggests that, despite the wishes of some and the perceptions of the British, he wasn’t as powerful as he thought he was.

Act IV: Demise and Lessons

So if his own followers were seemingly abandoning him, why is Pontiac remembered as the “leader” of this war, and why did the British continue to deal with him when his influence was declining?  WEll, the British were carrying on a time-honored tradition of identifying the individual whose name and actions appeared to be the most prominent at the outset of a conflict and treating them as the sole “leader,” even though there usually wasn’t a clear hierarchy once the fighting was underway.  The English did this during “King Philip’s War,” the Spanish did this with what was often called “Po’Pay’s Rebellion,” and now “Pontiac’s War” was a more current example of exacerbating this trend.  British leaders came to recognize his role in instigating conflict and building up a powerful coalition, so their desire to deal directly with Pontiac not only added to his esteem among Indigenous nations, but also bred serious resentment given that the power the English afforded him breached traditional norms and protocols regarding who could hold such influence.  This is a pattern that we will see emerge and harden as English, and eventually, American, leaders shall seek to deal with Native Americans in one way or another: identify whomever they think the leader is, or identify whomever they believe will engage in negotiations deemed “agreeable” to said leaders, and go from there.  Pontiac appeared at Fort Erie one year following his Fort Niagara no-show to negotiate with the British, who still appeared to view him as “the guy.”  One of the initial rallying cries of his coalition had been the return of the French as the dominant force in the Ohio River Valley and the eastern Great Lakes; as late as 1764 many in Pontiac’s coalition fought to make this a reality, but even Pontiac was forced to acquiesce to the new reality that the British would remain in these areas for the long-term.  The statement he made reasoned,”I this day take you by the hand in the name of all Nations which I will acquaint.”  He also requested that the British not “claim” the actual land, similar to the situation that the French had abided by.  Unfortunately, here is where we see that Pontiac had lost whatever ability he may have possessed to “read the room:’ the Royal Proclamation already made it clear that England considered the land theirs to control and dictate, and there was no way Pontiac’s wishes would ever be followed.

With his vision all but dead, Pontiac grew frustrated by his now-diminished role in dealing with the English.  He had truly believed that, given his acceptance of the English king as the new “Great Father,” he would gain an exalted place within Odawa, and greater Indigenous, society.  The gifts that he expected from the British never materialized, and this was humiliating; he failed to grasp that the British dealt with him so that he would cease his violent operations, no more, no less.  He even stabbed an Illini Sachem at a 1766 peace conference in frustration of his new status, further alienating him from friend and foe alike.  The end officially came in 1769 when Pontiac was stabbed in the back by a Peoria Sachem, which came after this Sachem had brutally clubbed him.  So ended the life of a man that, for a short time, forced the British to reconsider their position with regard to their newly acquired North American empire.  He used his charisma, poise, and military skill to wage war on the mighty British, and continue to set in motion a chain of events that would eventually topple Britain’s ability to rule the region they had just gained in conquest.  Unfortunately, the loss of British rule that lingered on the horizon, or at least their physical presence, would mean that in the long-term, the attitudes of backcountry farmers who suffered the most during the French and Indian War would be most prominent in shaping frontier policy: fight the enemy, eliminate them if possible, and invite more settlers to move on in.

So this brings us to the end of episode 12, and thus the conclusion of season one of History: Beyond the Textbook.  We’ve examined the efforts of three European powers, Spain, England, and France, to spread their influence on the North American continent, as well as the efforts of the Indigenous nations they encountered to resist these incursions and carry on as they had for time immemorial.  Spain ended up focusing on their more lucrative Central and South American possessions, and France stuck mostly to the St. Lawrence Valley and the promise of the fur trade, so the English took the lead in colonizing eastern North American for a variety of economic and religious reasons.  They encountered nations such as Opechancanough’s Pumunkey, Massasoit’s Wampanoag, Uncas’s Mohegan, and the mighty Haudenosaunee to which Mohawk Chief Canaqueese belonged.  All of these nations faced challenges as they dealt with an increasing influx of settlers on their lands: trade was often a unifying action, but this would eventually prove insufficient as the desire to gain precious fertile lands soon engulfed the wishes of the settlers.  Conflict was a near constant occurrence during this time, often between Indigenous nations and colonial government forces, but we’ve certainly seen that alliances were fluid and were forged and shifted based on the desires and circumstances of each individual nation.  When all was said and done, Britain remained the dominant presence east of the Mississippi River, Spain had a presence to the west, and each would struggle to maintain their perceived authority in their North American territories: Pontiac’s War at the culmination of the French and Indian War demonstrated this for Great Britain.  Yes, they “won” the war, but issues keeping the peace beyond the Appalachian Mountains, as well as simmering problems in their settlements on the Atlantic coast, will demand constant attention and legislation.  The fallout of the French and Indian War will bridge the gap between the colonial era and the coming American Revolution, which we’ll explore during our next season.

At this point, I truly want to provide a big “thank you” to those who have helped History: Beyond the Textbook a reality, like our group of testers who provided extraordinary feedback on those early episodes, Riley Guyette for serving as editor, sound mixer, and producer of the podcast, and Molly Mattke for serving as executive producer and sounding board for ideas. But most of all, I want to thank you, the audience, for listening to the podcast, subscribing to it, maybe leaving that positive review or rating, and telling your family and friends about it.  We do this for you: to educate, inform, and entertain.  So thank you so much for listening, hopefully you can send us a message at hbttpodcast@gmail.com and give us some feedback, and we hope you’ll join us on February 27l, 2024, as we begin season two with a two parter to begin learning about why the North American colonies broke free from Great Britain and formed the United States of America.