"The American Revolution in Indian Country" by Col
Uploaded by srheric on Apr 23, 2007
"The American Revolution in Indian Country" by Colin Calloway
Colin Calloway’s book The American Revolution in Indian Country looks at a wide range of Indians living in North America during the revolutionary war. Calloway covers the Indian experiences of eight Indian communities and how they struggle to keep their heritage amongst the war torn landscape of North America. Calloway further exemplifies how the American Revolution not only pitted Indians against Europeans (and vice versa), but how the Revolution forced Indians to fight amongst themselves. To do so, Calloway sorted through various British, American, Spanish and Canadian records to tell his story. This story, unlike previous writings on the subject, is not centered on how or why Indians participated as allies or enemies to the colonialist. Rather, it focuses on what decisions each of the eight different groups made to try to keep their autonomy.
Calloway argues that American Indian culture is a total way of life, not just a shallow set of customs and dress. Yet, the American Indian cultural system is ever changing because of the different Indian groups adaptation to the environment as well as the influence of other cultures. This fortifies why Calloway studied eight individual groups instead of generalizing all Indians as one group. Between the eight American Indian groups, there is too much diversity that it is impossible to generalize. Each group has different ways of thinking, beliefs, values, customs, etc. With these various influences shaping each group, they will go about keeping their independence differently.
The eight groups that Calloway focused his attention on varied between one another. The eight Indian communities that Calloway covers are the Odanek, Niagara, Stockbridge, Oquaga, Maquachake, Chota, Tchoukafala and the Cuscowilla. All eight of these groups went about maintaining their identity different than the others during the American Revolution. These differences are summarized by three choices- siding with the British or Colonialist or staying neutral. Whatever side they picked (or did not pick by staying neutral) they all had the same end result. For that each group lost lands to Europeans. What is most overlooked, in Calloway’s opinion, is not the fact of who won or loss. Rather that all eight of these groups were mimicking their colonial counterparts by fighting for their freedom. Yet, this ideal of...