The Haudenosaunee and The Revolution

During the American Revolutionary War, the American Indians of the Iroquois Confederacy (formally called the Haudenosaunee) were officially neutral. Two men, Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) and Joseph Louis Cook (Akiatonharónkwen) were not satisfied with neutrality. Brant advocated and fought for the British cause, while Colonel Louis (as he was known) and his regiment of Oneida tribesmen fought for the Continental Army. So great was their political division that it almost caused a civil war within the Haudenosaunee. Colonel Louis' rank was eventually formalized, having been commissioned as a Lieutenant Colonel by the Continental Congress.

Far more Haudenosaunee (and American Indians generally) sided with the British cause than with the Colonists, in this case causing sufficient damage to the Continental cause to challenge American independence itself. George Washington eventually led a counter-attack so devastating that it earned him the name Town Destroyer (Conotocarious). He is remembered to this day as a bringer of horror and violence among the People of the Longhouse for his retribution attack.

Colonel Louis, who was also half-black, was the highest-ranked American Indian in the Continental Army, the only Indian with a Congressional commission, and was with George Washington at Valley Forge in 1777 and at the Battle of Johnstown in 1781. He remained an influential chief and advocate for the Haudenosaunee and a military adviser to the United States for the rest of his life. He died from wounds inflicted on a battlefield of the War of 1812.

The story of Brant, Cook, the Iroquois, and the Revolution seems so fascinating that I can't imagine why it's not been told more often. The divisions among the Haudenosaunee then mirror the divisions in America now. There should be a movie, a book, a history in some medium that tells this uniquely American story in better detail than Wikipedia and my poor post.