Organized violence to achieve a particular end existed in North America long before the arrival of Europeans, but the colonists introduced new motives for and methods of warfare that resulted, when combined with Native American traditions, in a blend of the two that is distinctly American. During the colonial period wars were fought between different groups of Native Americans, between colonists from European nations and Native Americans, and between rival colonists, although there is a good deal of overlap in these categories.
Conflicts among Native Americans along the East Coast usually did not entail a large loss of life. Instead, small groups might be killed or captured for adoption into tribes. Wars between Native Americans were transformed by the introduction of new weapons, especially firearms. The adoption of the horse by the Plains peoples transformed their ways of war, which would become a major factor as Europeans, and later white Americans, spread west. European colonization also introduced a new motive for inter-Native American warfare—access to trade with the new arrivals.
Wars between colonists and Native Americans tended toward raids and reprisals. Europeans were frustrated by the unwillingness of their foes to stand and fight, while Native Americans were mystified by European concepts of battlefield discipline. The colonists turned to such tactics as the destruction of crops and homes when they could not bring their enemies to battle. As they were often unable or unwilling to differentiate between different groups of Native Americans, they tended to strike whatever group was handy, even if that group was friendly. Native Americans generally came from a raiding tradition of warfare that involved striking at isolated outposts and killing or capturing the entire population. Both sides tended to view the other’s methods as barbaric and inhuman.
Wars were also common among colonists of rival European powers as they struggled to control the Atlantic World. A series of four major struggles between the British and French resulted in the end of French claims to mainland North America. While these wars were closely related to conflicts on the European continent, they assumed a different character. North America was ill suited to European open-field tactics. It lacked many open fields where linear tactics could be applied (the battle on the Plains of Abraham outside Quebec in 1759 is a notable exception). Despite their reluctance to adopt supposedly “barbaric” methods, colonists combined their European traditions with Native American techniques. This blending was aided by the recruiting by both England and France of substantial numbers of Native American allies. The French more often adopted their allies’ tactics, while the English stuck closer to their traditions and used Native Americans as auxiliaries.
Whether involved in the great struggle for continental domination and empire or the smaller but no less violent disputes on the colonial frontier, warfare was an important part of the Native American and colonial experiences.
From these experiences came a blend of European and Native American styles of fighting—a uniquely American way of war.
See also Bacon’s Rebellion; Dutch-Indian Wars; Fort Necessity; eorts; King Philip’s War; Fequot War; Seven Years’ War; War oe Jenkins’ Ear.
Further reading: Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years War and the Fate of the British Empire in North America, 1754-1766 (New York: Knopf, 2000); Robert Utley and Wilcomb Washburn, Indian Wars (New York: American Heritage, 1977).
—Grant Weller
Ward, Nancy (1738?-1824) tribal leader, diplomat Nancy Ward was an influential Cherokee leader. Biographical details are uncertain because of the lack of written records. According to legend, she was born about 1738 at Chota in eastern Tennessee. First named Nan’yehi, she married a Cherokee warrior whom she accompanied to battles. When her husband was killed at the 1755 Battle of Taliwa, Ward seized his gun and forced the enemy to retreat. After that action she was called Ghigau, or “Beloved Woman,” the highest courtesy title given to Cherokee women. In the Cherokee’s matrilineal society Ward gained power, privileges, and responsibilities, including voting rights in the General Council. She married Bryant Ward, a white trader, in the 1750s, but he abandoned her to return to his family in South Carolina.
Serving as an ambassador, Ward negotiated peace with white people who settled on Cherokee lands despite the royal Proclamation of 1763, which recognized Native Americans’ land rights. Ward interceded in 1776, when she learned of Cherokee plans to raid white settlements on the Holston and Watauga Rivers, warning white people and saving a white woman captive. Ward learned to weave cloth and tend livestock, part of the transformation of gender roles among the Cherokee as women began to work cloth while men farmed. The first Cherokee to own cows and slaves, Ward introduced dairy husbandry to supplement their diet.
Ward protected the Cherokee’s interests during peace talks with John Sevier in 1781. Four years later she negotiated on behalf of the Cherokee for the Treaty of Hopewell, the first treaty discussed with representatives of the United States. Aware that white people wanted Cherokee lands, Ward worried about the fate of her tribe. Gradually Native American women’s political power waned, but Ward insisted on voicing her opinions. At the 1808 Women’s Council that she led, Ward emphasized that the Cherokee should not sell more land to whites. Nine years later she advised the Cherokee to wage war to preserve their territory.
After her tribal lands were sold in 1819, Ward relocated to an inn she managed near the Ocoee River. She died in 1824, five years before women were denied voting and office rights by the Cherokee constitution and 14 years before the southern Cherokee were forcibly removed to western reservations.
Further reading: Paula Gunn Allen, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions (Boston: Beacon Press, 1992).
—Elizabeth D. Schafer
World History
