An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States Ortiz

70 An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

You sell it to our young men and give it [to] them, many

times; they get very drunk with it [and] this is the very cause

that they oftentimes commit those crimes that is offensive to

you and us and all through the effect of that drink. It is also

very bad for our people, for it rots their guts and causes our

men to get very sick and many of our people has lately died by

the effects of that strong drink, and I heartily wish you would

do something to prevent your people from daring to sell or

give them any of that strong drink, upon any consideration

whatever, for that will be a great means of our being free from

being accused of those crimes that is committed by our young

men and will prevent many of the abuses that is done by them

through the effect of that strong drink. 37

King Hagler continued to petition for years for an embargo on liquor

without succeeding.

Britain's victory at the end of the French and Indian War in 1763

led to English domination of world trade, sea power, and colonial

holdings for a century and a half.38 In the Treaty of Paris (1763)

France ceded Canada and all claims east of the Mississippi to Brit­

ain. In the course of the war, Anglo settlers had gained strength in

numbers and security in relation to Indigenous peoples just outside

the British-occupied colonies. Even there, significant numbers of set­

tlers had squatted on Indigenous lands beyond the colonies' putative

boundaries, reaching into the Ohio Va lley region. To the settlers'

dismay, soon after the Treaty of Paris was signed, King George III

issued a proclamation that prohibited British settlement west of the

Allegheny-Appalachian mountain ?arrier, ordering those who had

settled there to relinquish their claims and move back east of the

line. However, British authorities did not commit enough troops to

the frontier to enforce the edict effectively. As a result, thousands

more settlers poured over the mountains and squatted on Indig­

enous lands.

By the early 1770s, terror against Indigenous people on the part

of Anglo settlers increased in all the colonies, and speculation in

western lands was rampant. In the southern colonies especially,

farmers who had lost their land in competition with larger, more