Great Warriors Path

The Great Warriors Path refers to the network of paths used by Native war and trading parties before and during the early stages of European colonization of America.  The path was a network of well-defined trails that led from what is now Upstate New York through the Appalachian Mountain system and into Alabama.  In the years 1622-1858, this path and other sites throughout what is now the Eastern United States would see much history in terms of trade and conflict between Natives and European Americans. 

The focus of this blog is the conflict between Native and European settlers for the land that is now the United States east of the Mississippi River, and including the Great Lakes Region of Canada.  Conflict between the two groups started soon after settlers set foot in the Cape Cod area of Massachusetts and continued until the Third Seminole War in 1858.  During that time, entire tribes of men, women and children would be decimated by disease, hunger, displacement and war.  Some nations went extinct entirely.  Others, such as the Seminoles and the Eastern Band Cherokee, managed to hold on to remnants of their land.  The height of Native displacement from these lands occurred between 1755, with the beginning of the Seven Years'/French and Indian War, to 1842, the end of the Second Seminole War. 

This climactic period in history saw such key battles as the Siege of Quebec, the seizure of Fort Carillon/Fort Ticonderoga, the American Revolution, the Battle of Fallen Timbers, the War of 1812, the Battle of New Orleans, and the death of one and capture of another of the most skilled Native leaders ever to face United States forces--Tucumseh and Osceola respectively.  This was the age of Robert Rogers, Joseph Brant, Simon Girty, Red Jacket, Chief, Logan, Daniel Boone, Andrew Jackson, Dragging Canoe, John Ross, Zachary Taylor and Davy Crockett, just to name a few.  It has been immortalized in the novels of James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, such as Last of the Mohicans.  Fans of the game Assassin's Creed III will recognize this era, as well. 

For the past two hundred years and more, this period of history has been recounted from the viewpoint of the victors.  Indian fighters such as George Rogers Clark are the heroes.  Native leaders such as Joseph Brant and Half King are the savages.  White men who sided with the Natives, such as Simon Girty, were reviled as traitors, while leaders who rose up for their people made convenient celebrities and mascots in later years.  Women's narratives on either side, with the exceptions of a few such as Molly Brant and Mary Jemison, are rare. 

It is time to correct that trend.  While European-American settlers carved out a new country, Natives were loosing their land, their way of life, their self-sufficiency and their cultural identity in a terrifying, never-ending ordeal.  That side of the story should be told.