500 Years of Indigenous Resistance, 2nd Edition

GO rD hIll 500 Years of Indigenous resistance

necessary to divide Nova Scotia into three provinces to ease ad-

ministrative problems; New Brunswick, Cape Breton, Nova Sco-

tia...and Ile St.-Jean, soon to be renamed Prince Edward Island.^15

To the south, the rebellious settlers were establishing their newly-created
United States. For the First Nations in this region, the war had been par-
ticularly destructive; the colonial rebels had carried out scorched-earth
campaigns against the Shawnee, Delaware, Cherokee, and the Haudeno-
saunee (who had suffered a split with the Oneidas and Tuscaroras allying
themselves with the revolutionaries). Here again the Royal Proclamation
remained a useful tool in reinforcing the British colonial frontier and
retaining Native allies,

Adherence to the principles of the...Proclamation...remained the

basis of Britain’s Indian policy for more than half a century, and

explains the success of the British in maintaining the Indians as

allies in Britain’s wars in North America... Even when Britain lost

much of its North American territory after 1781, and its Indian

allies lost their traditional lands as a result of their British alli-

ance, the Crown purchased land from the Indians living within

British territory and gave it to their allies who moved north...^16

Having consolidated the Thirteen Colonies along the Atlantic seaboard,
the independent United States quickly set about expanding westward,
launching military campaigns to extend the frontiers of settlement.
One of the first of these campaigns began in 1790 under the order of
President George Washington. Consisting of about 1,100 Pennsylvania,
Virginia, and Kentucky militiamen led by Brigadier General Josiah Har-
mar, the force was quickly defeated by a confederacy of Miami, Shawnee,
Ojibway, Delaware, Potawatomi, and Ottawa warriors led by the Miami
chief Michikinikwa (Little Turtle). A second force was dispatched and
defeated in November, 1791. Finally, in 1794, a large force led by Gen-
eral Anthony Wayne defeated the confederacy, now led by Turkey Foot,
near the shores of Lake Erie. Warriors who survived made their way
to the British Fort Miami garrison. But the British—former allies of
many of the First Nations in the confederacy during the revolutionary
war—refused them shelter, and hundreds were slaughtered at the gates

15. George F. G. Stanley, “As Long as the Sun Shines and the Water Flows: An
    Historical Comment”, ibid. pg. 5–6.


16. John L. Tobias, “Protection, Civilization, Assimilation: An Outline History of
    Canada’s Indian Policy”, ibid. pg. 40.