This reading discusses the details of the historical question: what is the actual length of time the Seven Years’ War could really be said to have lasted for the Indians? The end of the war between France and Britain in the 1760s by no means marked the beginning of peace times for the Indians. Overall, the Indians of the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes region spent almost sixty years fighting to protect their lands and their way of life. The Indians fought throughout the 1760s and 1770s, as well as during the battles which continued through The American Revolution, and on up until the end of the War of 1812. One of the crucial reasons behind why the Indians felt they must continue to fight and protect their tribes, was the lack of physical gifts and treaties offered to the Indians by the British. In Indian culture, gifts represented the solidifying of important relationships, and symbolized respect and honor. One British military leader, Major General Jeffery Amherst, thought that frequently exchanging gifts with the Indians showed weakness, and was a sign of paying homage to a people who he thought inferior to the British. This kind of thinking, along with a Delaware Indian leader Neolin’s spiritual message to the Indians to strengthen and uphold their cultural ways, led to warfare in 1763 during Pontiac’s Rebellion. This was the start of a long period of continued fighting between the Indians and the British.
Questions
1) If Major General Jeffery Amherst had felt differently about the exchange of physical gifts with the Indians, and had made more of an effort to establish an honorable relationship with the Indians through gift exchange, would this have ended the warfare much earlier on, and perhaps prevented Pontiac’s Rebellion from ever happening?
2) What does it reveal about the Indians of the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes region that the exchange of gifts was such a crucial part of their culture and belief system, that they would take offense to the lack of gifts being offered, or to the discarding of the gifts the Indians themselves offered to British military leaders?
3) What is the significance of General Amherst’s decision to finally offer up a “gift” of two blankets and a handkerchief which may have been infected with smallpox to the Delaware Indians?
