His Majesty's Indian Allies: British Indian Policy in the Defence of Canada 1774-1815

295 Pages·1996·17.87 MB·English

by  Robert Allen

His Majesty's
Indian Allies
British Indian Policy in
The Defence of Canada, 1774-1815
Robert S. Allen
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His Majesty's
Indian Allies
British Indian Policy in
The Defence of Canada, 1774-1815
Robert S. Allen
Dundurn Press
Toronto & Oxford
1992
© Copyright Robert S. Allen, 1993
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise (except brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of
Dundurn Press Limited. Permission to photocopy should be requested from the Canadian
Reprography Collective.
Editing: Diane Mew
Printing and Binding: Gagne Printing Ltd., Louiseville, Quebec, Canada
Dundurn Press wishes to acknowledge the generous assistance and ongoing support of The
Canada Council, The Book Publishing Industry Development Program of the Department of
Communications, The Ontario Arts Council, The Ontario Heritage Foundation and the
Ontario Publishing Centre of the Ministry of Culture and Communications.
Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in the text, including
the illustrations. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to
rectify any reference or credit in subsequent editions.
J.Kirk Howard, Publisher
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Allen, Robert S.
His Majesty's Indian allies
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-55002-175-3 (bound). - ISBN 1-55002-184-2 (pbk.)
1. Indians of North America - Canada - Government relations - To 1830.* 2. Indians of North
America - Government relations - To 1789. 3. Indian of North America - Wars - 1750-1815.
4. Great Britain. British Indian Dept. - History. I. Title.
E92.A58 1992 323.1'197071 C92-095300-X
Dundurn Press Limited Dundurn Distribution Limited
2181 Queen Street East, Suite 310, 73 Lime Walk
Toronto, Ontario Headington, Oxford
M4E 1E5 England
Canada 0X3 7AD
CONTENTS
Preface 7
PART ONE: British-Indian Relations in Colonial America to 1774
1 Forging the Chain of Friendship 12
2 Sir William Johnson and the Indian Department 22
PART TWO: Rebellion and Resistance, 1774-1796
5 The American Rebellion and the Frontier 40
4 The Struggle for the Ohio Valley 57
PART THREE: In the Defence of Canada, 1796-1815
5 Renewing the Chain of Friendship 88
6 The War of 1812: Michilimackinac and Upper Canada 123
7 The War of 1812: The Northwest 149
PART FOUR: Government-Indian Relations in the Post-1815 Years:
Canada and the United States
8 From Warriors to Wards 168
9 Epilogue: Recasting the Chain of Friendship 195
Appendices 211
Notes 227
Bibliography 270
Index 289
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PREFACE
H
his study was initiated several years ago as a doctoral dis-
sertation at the University of Wales (Aberystwyth). Its aim
was to redress or balance the historiographical ledger per-
taining to the events of 1774 to 1815 on the Great Lakes frontier
by focusing on the "old" province of Quebec. Sources for this peri-
od, both printed and unpublished, are numerous, with new stud-
ies continually appearing. But apart from the writings of A.L. Burt
some fifty years ago, most notably his The United States, Great
Britain and British North America, and the more recent scholarship
of such historians as Jack Sosin, Reginald Horsman, and George
F.G. Stanley, the majority of scholars engaged in this subject tend
to concentrate on such themes as American Indians, the fur trade,
United States Indian policy, military campaigns, American west-
ward expansion, and Anglo-American diplomatic relations. The
constant among them is their failure to assess in any great detail
the central importance for Great Britain during these critical four
decades of preserving and defending Canada. The analysis which
follows therefore is not a retelling of events, but a reinterpretation
of the strategies and policies devised by crown officials to secure,
largely through the military use and assistance of Indian allies,
the survival of Canada, and thus the continuation of a British
political and economic influence and empire in North America.
Within the text, three points relating to definition or terminolo-
gy require brief explanations. First, the territorial limits of Canada
as defined in the documents between the years 1774 to 1815
meant and included in general terms only the lands which now
8 His MAJESTY'S INDIAN ALLIES
constitute the southern portions of the provinces of Quebec
(including the Eastern Townships) and Ontario from the Gulf of
St. Lawrence to Montreal, and west along the north shores of the
upper St. Lawrence, Lake Ontario and Lake Erie to the Detroit
River. The northern limits were vaguely defined, but stopped at
Rupert's Land, a vast area which by royal charter in 1670 granted
the Hudson's Bay Company the exclusive trading rights and own-
ership to all the lands drained by the rivers flowing into James
Bay and Hudson Bay. For the purposes of this study, therefore,
Canada excludes the present Atlantic provinces, the prairie
provinces, British Columbia, and the North.
Second, for general clarity and easier identification, Indian trib-
al names and personalities have been anglicized. For instance,
Ojibwa and Six Nations Confederacy of Iroquois rather than
Anishnabwe and Ho-de-no-sau-nee or their derivatives will be
used. As for the names of prominent Indian leaders, wherever
possible when first introduced, the person will be identified by
the anglicized name followed in brackets by a form of the real or
traditional name. Thereafter, only the anglicized version will be
employed. Thus, Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) or Black Hawk
(Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak) will be referred to thereafter as Joseph
Brant or Black Hawk.
Third, the expression in common usage during the period of
this study to identify a person from Scotland was Scotch, and
since even Robbie Burns applied the term to his countrymen, I
have chosen to use Scotch in the text rather than the later and
now more popular English affectation of Scots or Scottish.
During the research and preparation of this study, I received
every courtesy and assistance from my colleagues in Ottawa at the
Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, the staffs of
several archives, museums, and libraries in Canada, the United
States, and Great Britain, and from friends. To all these people I
extend my sincere thanks and deep sense of gratitude. In particu-
lar, at Indian Affairs, I would like to thank Dr. Katie Cook, ex-
director of the Corporate Policy Branch, and Lizzie Fraikin, ex-
director of the Comprehensive Claims Branch, for supporting me
in this undertaking. Also at Indian Affairs, thanks are due to John
F. Leslie and Jack Stagg for valuable comments made on draft
chapters; to Helene Lanthier, Susan Mongrain, Julia Finn, and
Karla Weys of the departmental library for always responding in
an efficient and good-natured fashion to numerous requests and
queries over the years; and to my colleagues at the Claims and
Historical Research Centre for covering for me.
PREFACE 9
In Canada and the United States, I acknowledge and thank the
staffs at the National Archives of Canada (Ottawa), and especially
David Hume, Lisa Patterson, and Mary Jane Commanda, all
experts on Records Relating to Indian Affairs; and to the Ontario
Archives (Toronto), the Metropolitan Toronto Library, the McCord
Museum Archives (Montreal), Harry Bosveld at Fort Maiden
National Historic Park (Amherstburg), and Carl Benn at Old Fort
York (Toronto). My appreciation is also extended to the staffs at
the National Archives (Washington, DC), the Library of Congress
(Washington, DC), the Detroit Public Library (Burton Historical
Collection) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (Washington, DC).
In Great Britain the primary documentation germane to this
study is rich and voluminous, and I profited immeasurably from
my research efforts in both London and Wales. In this regard my
appreciation and thanks are extended to the staffs at the British
Library (Department of Manuscripts), especially for the abun-
dance of Additional Manuscripts made available from the
Haldimand Collection, the Public Record Office (Kew) where the
little-used Audit Office "Declared Accounts" of senior officials in
the British Indian Department in North America were canvassed,
the House of Lords Record Office which provided relatively
untapped information through a series of Main Papers detailing
the Burgoyne and St. Leger campaigns of 1777, the National
Register of Archives and the Historical Manuscripts Commission,
the Institute of Historical Research, the National Army Museum
and the library of the Royal Commonwealth Society.
In Wales the staff at the Welch Regiment Museum (Cardiff)
greatly facilitated my research endeavours by allowing me unlim-
ited access to materials, of which a rare, hand-written account of
the War of 1812 entitled "The War in Canada" proved especially
valuable. At Aberystwyth, the National Library of Wales houses
among its collections the Tredegar Park Muniments, of which the
John Bradstreet Papers were found to be a useful source of infor-
mation; and at the Hugh Owen Library of the University of Wales,
Mrs. Chadwick and Mr. Brinkley provided reference assistance
and showed me every kindness, for which I extend personal
thanks.
In the preparation of the maps and in the gathering and selec-
tion of the illustrations and appendices, I received the assistance
and advice of a number of people. To Ronald French (Okwaho), a
skilled cartographer who drew the maps and printed the place
names, all of which were devised by the author and relate solely
to the events detailed in this study, my grateful thanks. I would
also like to thank the Picture Division of the National Archives of