The Respect and Hate for the Iroquois

The Iroquois were the main military power of the Native Americans in North America during the 1700s. It was a loosely based confederacy that was formed from the combination of five separate nations. The Iroquois were greatly impacted by the settlement and expansion of the colonists in the 1700s, and were deeply impacted by the American Revolution. Before the Revolution the Iroquois were flourishing from trade with the English and the French. They seemed to be primed for expansion, which they did in 1713 when a sixth nation joined the Iroquois which allowed them to control a pivotal plot of land that separated the British from the French. This made the Iroquois an important ally for the settlers to win. It seemed as though everything was going perfectly for the Iroquois, but eventually the tides turned. They had everything going for them, power, land, and the desire of settlers to be their ally, which would generally mean they would be treated very well. This did occur as the Iroquois leaders and colonial leaders worked together in the middle of the 18th century. Leaders such s Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson saw "the Iroquois' lack of class stratification and their representational form of government" as "an inspiration" ("Iroquois Confederacy"). American leaders looked up to the Native American style of life at this point, but then it was strongly looked down upon. This shows that there was a time that the Native Americans were looked up to, but then they were looked down upon as inferior and as savages that the whites did not wish to mix with. So, there was hope that the two groups could live happily together and the segregation and oppression that occurred was not inevitable. There was peace at one time, which is widely highlighted in American elementary schools. I believe this is so in order to make it seem as though the Americans were not cruel to the Indians, but this is far from the truth. The American Revolution completely flipped the way that Americans looked at and treated the Native Americans. It also separated the Iroquois Confederacy as nations were split on who to support. Since there was widespread support of the British by the Iroquois, Americans had a lot of angst towards these people. It makes sense to me that Americans would not think highly of a people that widely fought against them in a war for Independence, but it does not seem like a proper excuse to treat them with hatred. However, it does make sense that it would be hard to bring the nations together after they fought a war and they lived so close, so conflict is something to be expected in this situation. However it amazed me how complete and swift the shift from respect to hate of the Iroquois was. Attacks were authorized on the Iroquois tribes as well as raids of their homes. The raids destroyed villages and made "Indian groups perpetual enemies of the new nation" (Iroquois Confederacy"). The leaders of America previously had the utmost respect for Native Americans, even using their way of living as a model for the Constitution, and yet by the end of the American Revolution a relationship of hate had a strong foundation.

"Iroquois Confederacy." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 Jan. 2010. .