"The French may have won the battle, but it was at Fort Henry they lost the war. The First Nations held the balance of power at this time, and it was here that he lost them as trusted allies."
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From Ouisconsin to Caughnawaga or the
Tales of the Great Lakes First Nations by David D. Plain Trafford Publishing
book review by Caroline Blaha-Black
Native American historian David D. Plain takes the reader on a romp through history in a collection of narratives of the Indians of the Great Lakes First Nations, and how they dealt with the ever-increasing flood of white man into their lands.
Stories span from 1618-1818 C.E., and the book is divided into two parts–Allies with the French and the Allies with the British. The book consists of a series of blog entries, done over a three-year period, which the writer collected in a book form. The entries flow in chronological order. The author knows his subject well, and he's mostly concerned with the Indians of the Great Lakes, for example, the Ottawa, Chippewa, Delaware, and Mohawk, among other famous tribes. He highlights the difference between the French, who were the first settlers in the Indian lands, but who were mostly interested in the fur trade and didn't strive to take the lands away from the natives, unlike the British who not only sought the furs, but also land for their colonists.
Particularly of note is, for example, the story about the lifestyle of the Ojibwa, and the fact that they had no centralized government, and the story about the fall of Fort William Henry, where the First Nations warriors helped the French general, Marquis de Montcalm, take the British fort. However, in the end, Montcalm betrayed them, and the warriors did not get the promised plunder. As a result, Montcalm lost them as his trusted allies. This is a good book for lovers of American and American Indian history and for anyone with an interest in Native American stories.