Native Life: War and Trade Along the Great Warpath

The system of Indian trails that made up the Great Warpath and similar roads served two vital purposes, facilitating trade and communication between tribes and the movement of combatants and prisoners during times of war.  We'll get to captives in a later blog, because it's a more complicated subject.  Today, let's stick with trade and the wars it inevitably brought with it, both between competing tribes and between European settlers often pitting tribe against tribe to gain the advantages in trade with one or the other Native nation. 

Europeans and Natives soon realized in their early contacts that they each had something to offer.  Natives were adept at hunting beaver and other furs that traders prized.  And Natives discovered that European goods made their lives easier.  Guns and lead to make ammunition were the hottest commodity.  But Natives were also interested in cooking pots and sewing notions such as needles and thimbles.  Beads were popular, as were mirrors and European cosmetics to use for paint.  Bolts of cloth to make shirts and dresses also came in handy, as did leather to make the soles of moccasins and sturdy straps for bags.  Occasionally, already made items such as shirts and/or officer's coats were welcome.  Last and not least, there was whiskey.  Whiskey is another touchy subject, both then and now, so we'll save that for later. 

Trading took place in several venues.  Some traders established posts at military installations or outlying settlements.  The Natives and other traders came there to conduct their business.  Other traders, such as Simon Girty's father, used pack animals to haul their goods into the wilderness and come back with loads of fur.  These traders had to be adept at understanding Native needs and culture, a well as a working knowledge of a Native language, or at least the sign language used by Natives when they couldn't communicate.  Traders also had to know their way around the country and they used the trails for this purposes.  If a trader did not possess these skills, he could rely on either friendly Natives, or on men who had grown up as captives or adoptees within various tribes to provide these services. 

While the Natives prized guns above all other trading items, the Europeans prized beaver pelts to make the fashionable hats of the period.  From 1628-1701, warriors of the powerful Iroquois Confederacy, backed by the French, faced off against a number of smaller Iroquoian and Algonquian-speaking tribes in the Great Lakes region.  These smaller tribes were backed by English and Dutch colonial authorities.  While the Iroquois were bent on expanding and consolidating their power by conquering and absorbing or driving out the other tribes, the Europeans were keen to protect their fur-trading rights with their respective Native allies.  The series of conflicts making up the Beaver Wars continued for decades, with the French and Iroquois emerging the victors.

But not for long.  As the Beaver Wars wound down, another series of battles would keep the trails busy.  History books mention one French and Indian War.  In fact there were four.  Their Colonial names are as follows: King William's War (War of the League of Augsburg 1688-1697); Queen Anne's War (War of the Spanish Succession 1702-1713); King George's War (War of the Austrian Succession, 1744-1748); and the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War, 1754-1763).  Far away from America and unbeknownst to the Natives or Settlers, decisions about royal succession, domination of territory, and sea power rocked Europe.  These conflicts then spilled over into North America, were French, English and Dutch colonials battled for control of the continent, again taking advantage of Native tribal rivals to pit Natives against one another.  If that sounds cynical, it's because it was.  Colonial commanders knew that Natives made excellent scouts and forward skirmishers.  They also knew that untested troops and militias were afraid of Native warriors in battle.  Native war parties could, and sometimes did, turn the outcomes of battles just by being at the right place at the right time.  Through these wars, the English ultimately prevailed, pushing the Dutch off the Continent and forcing the French to cede major portions of their holdings in North America.

But the Great War Path would be busy with action of another sort soon enough.  Settlers often used portions of the path as routes to new and forbidden homelands within the Appalachian Mountain System.  The route over the Cumberland Gap in Tennessee is one such example.  During the Revolutionary War, in 1779, General John Sullivan used a portion of the Great Warpath to launch punitive raids against the Mohawks and other Six Nations tribes for their part in supporting the British during the Revolution.  After the Revolution, Settlers continued their relentless push of Native peoples out of the Eastern United States.  The Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee fled to Canada.  The Shawnee and other peoples migrated to the Ohio River Valley, where they had again been promised a home.  The Great Warpath and the other trials became roads or fell into disuse, only to be rediscovered later, such as the trails preserved at Warriors Path State Park, and Cumberland Gap National Historic Park in Tennessee.