entry for DECEMBER 24, 1814), a British army com-
manded by General Sir Edward Pakenham attacks
American forces led by General Andrew Jackson at
New Orleans. Jackson scores a major defeat: more
than 2,000 British soldiers (including Pakenham)
are killed, while the American casualties number
only 13. The battle makes a war hero of Jackson,
already revered as an Indian fighter (see entry for
MARCH 27, 1814), thus easing his path to the
White House. After his election to the presidency,
Jackson will become the foremost advocate of re-
moving eastern tribes to western lands (see entry for
MAY 28, 1830).
1816The Society of Red Men is founded.
Non-Indians veterans of the War of 1812 (see entry
for JUNE 19, 1812) establish the Society of Red
Men, a benevolent society that offers relief to wid-
ows and orphans of men killed in battle. Modeled
on the Freemasons, the organization features secret
rituals referred to as “Indian mysteries.” Among
them is an elaborate initiation rite, after which new
members are given “Indian” names, such as Black
Wampum and Split Log.
William Clark opens his Indian
Museum.
The governor of the Missouri Territory, William
Clark, builds a wing onto his house in St. Louis
to display his collection of more than 200 objects
made and used by western Indians. He obtained
these items from the Indians he encountered
while heading the Lewis and Clark Expedition
(see entry for MAY 14, 1804) and from Indian del-
egations and fur traders he met when serving as
superintendent of Indian affairs. Intended to in-
form the public about Indian life, Clark’s museum
will become a popular tourist attraction hailed by
a St. Louis visitor’s guide as “the most complete
Museum of Indian curiosities to be met with any-
where in the United States.”
June 19The Métis declare victory in the Battle of
Seven Oaks.
In 1812 the Hudson’s Bay Company provided a
small land grant to a group of Scottish farmers
in Canada’s Red River Colony. Ever since, the
Métis—a group of people of mixed Indian and
European ancestry with a distinct culture—have
resented the presence of these settlers. The esca-
lating tension between the groups is encouraged
by Hudson’s Bay’s rival, the North West Company
(see entry for 1784), which provides arms to the
Red River Métis.
Violence breaks out when 60 starving Métis,
led by North West Company employee Cuthbert
Grant, attack a Hudson’s Bay Company brigade
carrying a supply of pemmican (cakes made of
dried meat and fruit) and ransack a Hudson’s Bay
post. At an area called Seven Oaks, the marauding
Métis confront the governor of Red River and an
army of 21 settlers. In the ensuing battle, all but
three of the whites are killed; the Métis suffer only
one casualty. Their success in the battle increases
the Métis’s sense of themselves as a separate, sover-
eign nation and establishes Grant as an important
Métis leader.SummerAmerican troops attack the Seminole
settlement at Prospect Bluff.
Led by Andrew Jackson, volunteer troops attack an
old British fort at Prospect Bluff in Spanish Florida.
The United States wants the fort sacked because it has
become a refuge for runaway African-American slaves
from Georgia and from North and South Carolina.
The community centered around the fort is also the
home of many Seminole, including Chief Neamathla,
whom the soldiers execute. Many other Indians and
slaves are killed, and all of the surrounding farms are
destroyed. The attack, illegal under international law,
will spark a series of Seminole retaliatory raids on
American settlements, sparking in turn what will be-
come known as the First Seminole War.