1
00:01:40,781 --> 00:01:42,715
Hello. I'm Kevin Costner.
2
00:01:42,883 --> 00:01:45,408
Welcome back to 500 Nations.
3
00:01:45,585 --> 00:01:48,554
Even before the colonies
were established in the East...
4
00:01:48,722 --> 00:01:52,453
...the European entrepreneurs of
the New World started pushing west...
5
00:01:52,626 --> 00:01:55,789
...testing the boundaries
of this rich new land.
6
00:01:55,962 --> 00:01:58,795
What they discovered was
the wealth of the Indian nations...
7
00:01:58,965 --> 00:02:02,162
...and the staggering abundance
of their natural resources.
8
00:02:02,335 --> 00:02:06,499
The beautiful furs,
the endless supply of deerskins.
9
00:02:06,673 --> 00:02:11,633
Indian people, in turn, saw that the goods
the Europeans offered made life a lot easier.
10
00:02:11,812 --> 00:02:15,771
Metal axes, knives,
copper kettles and guns.
11
00:02:15,949 --> 00:02:19,043
And for a time,
this simple arrangement worked.
12
00:02:19,219 --> 00:02:24,316
But very quickly, North America became
an irresistible prize to the Europeans.
13
00:02:24,491 --> 00:02:27,892
They sent armies to fight for the control
of the continent's resources...
14
00:02:28,061 --> 00:02:31,155
...the way modern armies fight over oil.
15
00:02:31,331 --> 00:02:36,997
In this hour, we take you to the heartland,
to a continent in turmoil.
16
00:02:37,170 --> 00:02:40,298
Welcome to Part Five
of 500 Nations:
17
00:02:40,474 --> 00:02:42,874
"A Cauldron of War."
18
00:02:48,582 --> 00:02:51,210
"When the white man
came here as stranger...
19
00:02:51,384 --> 00:02:54,979
...he saw that the furs worn by our nations
were valuable...
20
00:02:55,155 --> 00:02:58,682
...and he showed to our ancestors
many goods which he brought with him.
21
00:02:58,859 --> 00:03:01,692
And these were very tempting.
22
00:03:04,064 --> 00:03:05,588
The white man said:
23
00:03:05,765 --> 00:03:10,202
'Will you not sell the skins of your animals
for the goods I bring? '
24
00:03:11,571 --> 00:03:13,061
Our ancestors replied:
25
00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:17,301
'We will buy your goods,
and you will buy our furs.'
26
00:03:17,477 --> 00:03:22,608
The whites proposed nothing more.
Our ancestors acceded to nothing else."
27
00:03:22,782 --> 00:03:26,377
Peau de Chat, ojibway.
28
00:03:26,620 --> 00:03:30,420
In the 1600s,
French and English fur traders...
29
00:03:30,590 --> 00:03:33,684
...made deep inroads into
the North American continent...
30
00:03:33,860 --> 00:03:38,456
...where interior Indian nations
hunted beaver, mink, fox...
31
00:03:38,632 --> 00:03:40,964
...and other fur-bearing animals.
32
00:03:41,201 --> 00:03:44,693
For northern Indian nations,
trading with Europeans...
33
00:03:44,871 --> 00:03:47,601
...was merely an expansion
of a seasonal round...
34
00:03:47,774 --> 00:03:50,743
...that had been repeated for centuries.
35
00:03:52,078 --> 00:03:56,105
Winter was the traditional time for villages
to disperse into smaller groups...
36
00:03:56,283 --> 00:03:59,514
...to hunt and trap from winter camps.
37
00:04:00,353 --> 00:04:05,484
Spring was the season when they came
back together and resumed village life.
38
00:04:06,526 --> 00:04:11,964
Hunters returned home with their
winter's take of pelts and welcomed trade.
39
00:04:13,967 --> 00:04:17,300
At first, European traders
conformed to this cycle...
40
00:04:17,470 --> 00:04:20,837
...and the beautiful and exotic furs
placed Indian traders...
41
00:04:21,007 --> 00:04:23,771
...in a strong bargaining position.
42
00:04:24,344 --> 00:04:29,304
"I heard my host, a Montagnais leader,
say one day, jokingly:
43
00:04:29,482 --> 00:04:31,973
'The beaver does everything
perfectly well.
44
00:04:32,152 --> 00:04:36,851
It makes kettles, hatchets,
swords, knives, bread.
45
00:04:37,023 --> 00:04:40,390
In short, it makes everything.'
46
00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:44,155
He was making sport of us Europeans
who have such a fondness...
47
00:04:44,331 --> 00:04:46,390
...for the skin of this animal."
48
00:04:46,566 --> 00:04:49,763
Nicholas d'onee, fur trader.
49
00:04:51,805 --> 00:04:55,571
Fur trade was becoming central
to the European economy.
50
00:04:55,742 --> 00:05:00,702
From beaver came felt, and when
the felt hat came into fashion in Europe...
51
00:05:00,880 --> 00:05:05,112
...the North Atlantic trade
took on global proportions.
52
00:05:07,220 --> 00:05:10,383
It seemed like the European
way of trading...
53
00:05:11,958 --> 00:05:14,620
...was to go out
and try to outdo one another.
54
00:05:14,794 --> 00:05:16,625
Who was gonna have the most?
55
00:05:16,796 --> 00:05:20,698
And so our people were not like that...
56
00:05:20,867 --> 00:05:23,665
...with the other nations
before the Europeans.
57
00:05:23,837 --> 00:05:29,070
But they soon caught on to be able
to become wealthy that way.
58
00:05:30,477 --> 00:05:34,880
Increasing demand and higher prices
forced the fur trade to change...
59
00:05:35,048 --> 00:05:39,246
...and, along with it,
the very structure of Indian nations.
60
00:05:39,919 --> 00:05:42,888
Many Indian people
found it more lucrative to trade...
61
00:05:43,056 --> 00:05:46,355
...than to pursue old economic activities.
62
00:05:46,526 --> 00:05:50,257
If you take a primitive tribe anywhere...
63
00:05:52,599 --> 00:05:57,502
...and present them with something
that will make them have an easier life...
64
00:05:58,038 --> 00:05:59,835
...they will take it.
65
00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:03,336
You know? The easy, easy way.
66
00:06:03,510 --> 00:06:07,469
And by using the easy way,
you're losing also your culture...
67
00:06:07,647 --> 00:06:11,583
...because keeping your culture
is not always easy.
68
00:06:12,585 --> 00:06:16,077
Young men broke away
from their traditional community roles...
69
00:06:16,256 --> 00:06:19,282
...to pursue commercial hunting
in order to obtain goods...
70
00:06:19,459 --> 00:06:22,360
...that could only be gained
through trade.
71
00:06:27,133 --> 00:06:29,658
Agricultural nations planted less.
72
00:06:29,836 --> 00:06:34,967
Fields lay fallow as pelts were used
to purchase food from European traders.
73
00:06:36,342 --> 00:06:40,244
Ancient cultural and religious values
came under attack...
74
00:06:40,413 --> 00:06:42,813
...as the relationships
between Indian people...
75
00:06:42,982 --> 00:06:47,646
...the land and animals,
changed through commercial hunting.
76
00:06:48,221 --> 00:06:51,884
Even European traders
noted the transition.
77
00:06:52,358 --> 00:06:57,193
Before, they killed animals only
in proportion as they had need of them.
78
00:06:57,363 --> 00:07:03,768
They never made an accumulation of skins
of moose, otter, beaver or others...
79
00:07:03,937 --> 00:07:07,964
...but only so far as they needed them
for personal use.
80
00:07:11,344 --> 00:07:15,440
Within decades,
the animal populations of entire regions...
81
00:07:15,615 --> 00:07:18,516
...were completely exterminated.
82
00:07:18,818 --> 00:07:21,616
In the past, there was none
to barter with us...
83
00:07:21,788 --> 00:07:24,256
...that would have tempted us
to waste our animals...
84
00:07:24,791 --> 00:07:28,693
...as we did after the white people
came on this island.
85
00:07:31,297 --> 00:07:35,324
Nations who once traded in peace
were forced into competition...
86
00:07:35,502 --> 00:07:40,371
...even hostility, as hunters encroached
upon the lands of others.
87
00:07:42,609 --> 00:07:45,339
"The times are exceedingly altered.
88
00:07:45,512 --> 00:07:48,504
The times have turned
everything upside down...
89
00:07:48,681 --> 00:07:51,241
...chiefly by the help of the white people.
90
00:07:51,417 --> 00:07:56,548
In times past, our forefathers lived in peace,
love and great harmony...
91
00:07:56,723 --> 00:07:59,283
...and had everything in great plenty.
92
00:07:59,492 --> 00:08:02,620
But, alas, it is not so now.
93
00:08:02,796 --> 00:08:07,199
All our fishing, hunting and fowling
is entirely gone."
94
00:08:08,001 --> 00:08:10,834
Harry Quaduaquid, Mohegan.
95
00:08:13,106 --> 00:08:15,097
Adherence to traditional values...
96
00:08:15,275 --> 00:08:19,871
...was further eroded by the greatest
of all scourges that flowed from trade:
97
00:08:20,046 --> 00:08:21,638
Alcohol.
98
00:08:21,815 --> 00:08:24,306
A British trader observed:
99
00:08:24,484 --> 00:08:28,511
They do not call it drinking
unless they become drunk.
100
00:08:28,688 --> 00:08:30,246
Immediately after taking...
101
00:08:30,423 --> 00:08:33,449
...everything with which they can
injure themselves from the houses...
102
00:08:33,626 --> 00:08:35,491
...the women carry it into the woods...
103
00:08:35,662 --> 00:08:38,028
...where they go to hide
with all their children.
104
00:08:39,232 --> 00:08:42,668
After that, the men have a fine time...
105
00:08:42,836 --> 00:08:47,102
...beating, injuring
and killing one another.
106
00:08:47,974 --> 00:08:54,174
With each generation, alcohol cut deeper
into the social fabric of Indian nations.
107
00:08:55,281 --> 00:09:01,618
In 1803 alone, 21,000 gallons of rum
flowed into the interior.
108
00:09:05,692 --> 00:09:08,559
"We are meant to deliberate upon what?
109
00:09:09,295 --> 00:09:13,857
Upon no less a subject than whether
we shall or shall not be a people.
110
00:09:14,033 --> 00:09:18,299
The tyrant is no native to our soil,
but is the pernicious liquid...
111
00:09:18,471 --> 00:09:21,167
...which our pretended white friends
artfully introduced...
112
00:09:21,341 --> 00:09:24,242
...and so plentifully pours among us."
113
00:09:24,410 --> 00:09:26,173
Creek speaker.
114
00:09:26,713 --> 00:09:32,174
Trade also brought a deadly killer that
went unrecognized until the 20th century.
115
00:09:32,352 --> 00:09:36,652
Indian nations had long traditions
in painting and paint making...
116
00:09:36,823 --> 00:09:40,919
...and few pigments were as highly prized
as red ocher.
117
00:09:42,028 --> 00:09:45,896
When European traders introduced
brilliant red vermilion paint...
118
00:09:46,065 --> 00:09:49,660
...it became widely used
for facial and body decoration.
119
00:09:51,104 --> 00:09:54,232
But the paint was made
from lead and mercury...
120
00:09:54,407 --> 00:09:58,241
...hidden poisons that may have
struck down thousands.
121
00:10:03,950 --> 00:10:08,011
Such was the agreement made
by my ancestors with the white man.
122
00:10:08,621 --> 00:10:10,384
They hunted for the white man...
123
00:10:10,556 --> 00:10:13,491
...and before many years,
the game grew scarce.
124
00:10:15,328 --> 00:10:18,695
And the benefits we derived
from this agreement are these:
125
00:10:19,399 --> 00:10:24,098
Instead of using a stone to cut my wood,
I used a sharp ax.
126
00:10:24,270 --> 00:10:28,104
Instead of being clothed in my own warm,
ancient clothing...
127
00:10:28,274 --> 00:10:31,710
...I used that which comes
from across the big water.
128
00:10:32,345 --> 00:10:36,543
Instead of having plenty of food,
I am always hungry.
129
00:10:45,925 --> 00:10:50,385
And instead of being sober,
the Indians are drunk.
130
00:11:00,573 --> 00:11:04,873
Along the south Atlantic coast,
one small Indian nation...
131
00:11:05,044 --> 00:11:09,174
...would take their economic destiny
into their own hands.
132
00:11:10,450 --> 00:11:13,851
In 1670, the English founded Charleston...
133
00:11:14,020 --> 00:11:17,683
...on land belonging to the Sewee,
or "Islanders."
134
00:11:23,062 --> 00:11:26,623
Charleston emerged as the economic heart
of the Southern colonies...
135
00:11:26,799 --> 00:11:32,396
...built on a thriving trade in deer hides
with the Sewee and neighboring nations.
136
00:11:32,939 --> 00:11:35,339
In the late 1600s,
with the founding of Charleston...
137
00:11:35,508 --> 00:11:37,499
...the economy revolved
around Indian trade.
138
00:11:39,212 --> 00:11:40,975
The men who lived along Goose Creek...
139
00:11:41,147 --> 00:11:45,311
...became the big traders who would go
into the interior, trading with the Indians.
140
00:11:45,485 --> 00:11:47,976
Trading all manner of
manufactured goods and beads...
141
00:11:48,154 --> 00:11:50,486
...but primarily to get deerskins...
142
00:11:50,656 --> 00:11:53,523
...which were being used
for all kinds of purposes.
143
00:11:54,494 --> 00:11:57,190
The financial success
of the Charleston traders...
144
00:11:57,363 --> 00:12:02,164
...did not extend to their Indian suppliers,
who typically received only five percent...
145
00:12:02,335 --> 00:12:05,566
...of what buyers in England
paid for their hides.
146
00:12:05,738 --> 00:12:08,605
The Sewee were determined
to be treated fairly.
147
00:12:08,775 --> 00:12:11,141
An English observer reported:
148
00:12:11,911 --> 00:12:15,438
"Seeing that the ships always
came in at one place...
149
00:12:15,615 --> 00:12:20,609
...made them very confident that that way
was the exact road to England.
150
00:12:20,953 --> 00:12:26,357
And seeing so many ships come thence,
they believed it could not be far."
151
00:12:26,993 --> 00:12:30,360
John Lawson, surveyor general.
152
00:12:31,330 --> 00:12:35,460
The Sewee believed that by rowing
to the distant point on the horizon...
153
00:12:35,635 --> 00:12:37,466
...where ships first appeared...
154
00:12:37,637 --> 00:12:41,004
...they would be able to
find their way to England.
155
00:12:41,374 --> 00:12:44,434
Once there, they could
establish direct trade...
156
00:12:44,610 --> 00:12:47,204
...eliminating the expensive middlemen.
157
00:12:47,380 --> 00:12:50,349
Preparations were secretly begun.
158
00:12:51,117 --> 00:12:55,144
"It was agreed upon immediately
to make an addition of their fleet...
159
00:12:55,321 --> 00:13:00,759
...by building more canoes, and those
to be of the best sort and biggest size...
160
00:13:00,927 --> 00:13:04,454
...as fit for their intended discovery.
161
00:13:04,630 --> 00:13:08,157
Some Indians were employed
about making the canoes...
162
00:13:08,334 --> 00:13:09,824
...others to hunting.
163
00:13:10,002 --> 00:13:13,335
Everyone to the post
he was most fit for...
164
00:13:13,506 --> 00:13:18,967
...all endeavors tending towards
an able fleet and cargo for Europe."
165
00:13:19,612 --> 00:13:22,581
John Lawson, surveyor general.
166
00:13:24,250 --> 00:13:26,377
After months of preparation...
167
00:13:26,552 --> 00:13:30,511
...the canoes were loaded with hides,
pelts and the most valuable possessions...
168
00:13:30,690 --> 00:13:32,783
...of the Sewee nation.
169
00:13:35,661 --> 00:13:37,891
All able-bodied men and women...
170
00:13:38,064 --> 00:13:41,500
...boarded the vessels
and launched into the surf...
171
00:13:42,435 --> 00:13:47,498
...leaving behind only the children,
the sick and the very old.
172
00:13:49,475 --> 00:13:53,343
The Sewee nation had become a flotilla.
173
00:13:54,847 --> 00:14:00,547
But as they entered open ocean,
their fragile endeavor turned disastrous.
174
00:14:03,055 --> 00:14:05,046
A gale blew up.
175
00:14:05,958 --> 00:14:09,223
High seas engulfed the Sewee canoes.
176
00:14:15,334 --> 00:14:19,703
Those strong enough to survive
were not the fortunate ones.
177
00:14:21,274 --> 00:14:25,142
They were rescued by
a passing English slave ship...
178
00:14:25,311 --> 00:14:29,475
...only to be delivered to the auction block
in the West Indies.
179
00:14:30,316 --> 00:14:35,344
In an instant,
the Sewee nation ceased to exist.
180
00:14:36,522 --> 00:14:40,219
Its people had become a commodity.
181
00:14:41,060 --> 00:14:43,028
They were not alone.
182
00:14:44,764 --> 00:14:48,393
Indian slaves,
along with deer hides and rum...
183
00:14:48,568 --> 00:14:51,833
...formed the basis of
the Southern colonial economy.
184
00:14:53,639 --> 00:14:55,106
In Charleston, South Carolina...
185
00:14:55,274 --> 00:14:58,243
...the slave trade really started
with the selling of Indians...
186
00:14:58,411 --> 00:15:02,507
...and everything that we see later with the
African-Americans who were sold there...
187
00:15:02,682 --> 00:15:06,618
...was going on in the 1600s and 1700s
with the Indians.
188
00:15:06,786 --> 00:15:09,755
They would be brought into market,
they'd be put up on a block...
189
00:15:09,922 --> 00:15:11,583
...they would be auctioned off.
190
00:15:11,757 --> 00:15:15,523
Many Indian slaves were kept
for the home economy in the South...
191
00:15:15,695 --> 00:15:17,720
...or shipped to New England.
192
00:15:17,897 --> 00:15:21,594
Most were sent to Barbados,
the Bahamas, Jamaica...
193
00:15:21,767 --> 00:15:25,794
...and other Caribbean outposts
to work the sugar plantations.
194
00:15:27,073 --> 00:15:30,839
Life in servitude was brutal and short...
195
00:15:31,010 --> 00:15:34,002
...and, as Indian slaves
succumbed to violence...
196
00:15:34,180 --> 00:15:36,375
...disease and harsh working conditions...
197
00:15:36,782 --> 00:15:40,684
...African slaves were imported
to take their place.
198
00:15:40,853 --> 00:15:44,220
Africans and Indians were basically
being treated as animals.
199
00:15:44,390 --> 00:15:48,156
Even though the Catholic Church had
recognized the humanity of the Indians...
200
00:15:48,327 --> 00:15:52,229
...most of the conquerors who came over
did not recognize them as human beings...
201
00:15:52,398 --> 00:15:55,424
...and they treated them the same way
they would wild horses or cows...
202
00:15:55,601 --> 00:15:59,662
...by branding them, by chaining them,
by making them march in long lines...
203
00:15:59,839 --> 00:16:03,036
...chained to one another,
and then by selling them in an auction.
204
00:16:03,209 --> 00:16:05,803
You could see an Indian being sold
on an auction block...
205
00:16:05,978 --> 00:16:09,971
...the same way you could see cows,
horses, or a mule being sold.
206
00:16:10,149 --> 00:16:16,213
As late as 1730, one-quarter of the slaves
in some Southern colonies...
207
00:16:16,389 --> 00:16:19,324
...were still Indian people.
208
00:16:20,359 --> 00:16:26,161
"They took a part of my tribe
and sold them to the Spaniards in Bermuda.
209
00:16:27,667 --> 00:16:33,264
But I would speak, and I could wish
it might be like the voice of thunder...
210
00:16:33,439 --> 00:16:38,900
...that it might be heard afar off,
even to the ends of the earth.
211
00:16:39,078 --> 00:16:44,573
He that will advocate slavery
is worse than a beast...
212
00:16:44,750 --> 00:16:51,087
...and he that will not set his face against
its corrupt principles is a coward...
213
00:16:51,257 --> 00:16:55,421
...and not worthy of being
numbered among men."
214
00:16:55,861 --> 00:16:59,160
William Apess, Pequot.
215
00:17:06,172 --> 00:17:12,008
"You British and the French are like
the two edges of a pair of shears...
216
00:17:12,745 --> 00:17:17,045
...and we are the cloth which is
cut to pieces between them."
217
00:17:18,184 --> 00:17:19,879
Odawa.
218
00:17:20,886 --> 00:17:24,913
By the mid- 1700s,
the Indian nations of the Eastern interior...
219
00:17:25,091 --> 00:17:27,582
...were surrounded by European powers.
220
00:17:27,760 --> 00:17:29,853
Spain controlled Florida.
221
00:17:30,029 --> 00:17:33,021
The English were pressing in
from their colonies in the East.
222
00:17:33,199 --> 00:17:36,168
And the French were aggressively moving
across the Great Lakes...
223
00:17:36,335 --> 00:17:38,530
...and along the Mississippi River.
224
00:17:39,171 --> 00:17:43,733
Spurred by the increasingly lucrative
fur trade, along with valuable farmlands...
225
00:17:43,909 --> 00:17:48,676
...North America was seen by
the Europeans as a commercial prize.
226
00:17:50,116 --> 00:17:53,882
To win it, the French and English
established military outposts...
227
00:17:54,053 --> 00:17:56,954
...throughout the interior
to support their trading ventures...
228
00:17:57,123 --> 00:18:00,320
...and solidify their claims to the land.
229
00:18:00,493 --> 00:18:02,859
This idea of encroachment...
230
00:18:03,028 --> 00:18:05,087
...and land ownership
was so foreign to us...
231
00:18:06,665 --> 00:18:10,226
...that we couldn't understand it.
As individuals, we couldn't understand it.
232
00:18:10,403 --> 00:18:12,598
It was carving up our mother's breast.
233
00:18:12,772 --> 00:18:17,675
It was parceling out the land
and the air above it...
234
00:18:17,843 --> 00:18:19,435
...to individual ownership.
235
00:18:20,846 --> 00:18:26,011
In 1754, France and England
clashed for control over the continent...
236
00:18:26,185 --> 00:18:30,519
...in what would become known as
the French and Indian War.
237
00:18:31,857 --> 00:18:36,021
From Europe, the American conflict
was seen as a distant chess match...
238
00:18:36,195 --> 00:18:39,096
...for territory, power and trade...
239
00:18:39,265 --> 00:18:43,361
...with Indian nations
mere fighting pawns.
240
00:18:44,804 --> 00:18:47,637
But in America,
the interior Indian nations...
241
00:18:47,807 --> 00:18:51,334
...saw their homelands
turned into violent battlegrounds.
242
00:18:53,379 --> 00:18:57,315
"Why do not you and the French fight
in the old country and on the sea?
243
00:18:58,150 --> 00:19:00,846
Why do you come to fight in our land?"
244
00:19:01,387 --> 00:19:03,912
Shingas, Lenape.
245
00:19:04,323 --> 00:19:08,225
Most Indian nations joined the war
on the side of the French.
246
00:19:09,328 --> 00:19:15,324
We had a very close affinity
to the French people.
247
00:19:15,501 --> 00:19:21,667
The reason is because they had
no designs on our territory.
248
00:19:22,741 --> 00:19:26,336
They were not out to colonize.
If they wanted to live with us...
249
00:19:26,512 --> 00:19:31,006
...they married into the tribe, and they
lived with us, and they were welcome.
250
00:19:31,183 --> 00:19:34,084
On the other hand,
at the other end of the scale...
251
00:19:34,253 --> 00:19:38,189
...the English are notorious
for being colonists.
252
00:19:38,357 --> 00:19:42,020
They don't want the sun to set
on the British Empire...
253
00:19:42,194 --> 00:19:46,494
...so they want colonies everywhere,
and this new world was no different.
254
00:19:46,665 --> 00:19:48,599
That's why they came.
255
00:19:49,201 --> 00:19:53,194
In 1760, after six years of war...
256
00:19:53,372 --> 00:19:57,866
...the French shocked their Indian allies in
the Ohio Valley and western Great Lakes...
257
00:19:58,043 --> 00:20:01,206
...by abruptly withdrawing
from the region.
258
00:20:01,380 --> 00:20:04,645
While the French continued to fight
for other parts of the continent...
259
00:20:04,817 --> 00:20:08,913
...here, the English army moved
into their abandoned forts unopposed.
260
00:20:09,588 --> 00:20:11,317
Englishmen...
261
00:20:11,924 --> 00:20:14,791
...although you have
conquered the French...
262
00:20:14,960 --> 00:20:18,123
...you have not yet conquered us.
263
00:20:18,831 --> 00:20:21,129
We are not your slaves.
264
00:20:21,300 --> 00:20:27,205
These lakes, these woods and mountains
were left to us by our ancestors.
265
00:20:27,873 --> 00:20:30,740
They are our inheritance...
266
00:20:30,910 --> 00:20:33,743
...and we will part with them to none.
267
00:20:35,481 --> 00:20:40,509
One Odawa man, who had fought alongside
the French, then watched them retreat...
268
00:20:40,686 --> 00:20:43,086
...refused to abandon the struggle.
269
00:20:43,255 --> 00:20:45,655
His name was Pontiac.
270
00:20:45,824 --> 00:20:50,818
On the night he was born,
there was snow and rain and winds.
271
00:20:52,731 --> 00:20:57,134
There was lightning and thunder,
and there were shooting stars.
272
00:20:57,303 --> 00:21:00,431
And all of the phenomena
that was taking place that night...
273
00:21:00,606 --> 00:21:03,734
...the elders said that there was
a great person being born.
274
00:21:04,209 --> 00:21:08,145
While many leaders saw the English
as a threat to their nations...
275
00:21:08,314 --> 00:21:13,081
...Pontiac saw the English as a threat
to all Indian people.
276
00:21:13,252 --> 00:21:18,918
Nations had to put aside the past
and unite in common purpose.
277
00:21:19,091 --> 00:21:24,256
Pontiac's vision would change the thinking
of Indian leaders for generations.
278
00:21:25,564 --> 00:21:28,226
So, what he did was
to organize his own thoughts...
279
00:21:29,735 --> 00:21:33,694
...and then organize his own people
and then other tribes.
280
00:21:33,872 --> 00:21:37,433
Got them together, with what undoubtedly
had to be great oratory...
281
00:21:37,610 --> 00:21:41,740
...and great diplomatic moves and skills...
282
00:21:41,914 --> 00:21:46,374
...to get people, some of whom were
his bitter enemies, our tribe's enemies.
283
00:21:46,552 --> 00:21:48,816
We fought the Hurons
for hundreds of years.
284
00:21:48,988 --> 00:21:52,116
We fought the Shawnees.
We fought many of these tribes.
285
00:21:52,291 --> 00:21:55,283
He went around and got them...
286
00:21:55,461 --> 00:21:59,591
...to become part of what's known as
Pontiac's Confederacy.
287
00:22:01,300 --> 00:22:04,360
"It is important for us, my brothers...
288
00:22:04,536 --> 00:22:10,998
...that we exterminate from our land
this nation which only seeks to kill us.
289
00:22:12,378 --> 00:22:17,873
When I go to the English chief to tell him
that some of our comrades are dead...
290
00:22:18,784 --> 00:22:24,245
...instead of weeping,
he makes fun of me and of you.
291
00:22:25,624 --> 00:22:30,926
When I ask him for something
for our sick, he refuses...
292
00:22:31,096 --> 00:22:35,157
...and tells me that he has no need of us.
293
00:22:36,869 --> 00:22:39,394
There is no more time to lose.
294
00:22:39,571 --> 00:22:42,301
And when the English
shall be defeated...
295
00:22:42,474 --> 00:22:48,140
...we shall cut off the passage,
so they cannot come back to our country."
296
00:22:48,313 --> 00:22:51,146
Pontiac, odawa.
297
00:22:52,418 --> 00:22:57,287
Fighting men from the Anishinabe,
Miami, Seneca, Lenape...
298
00:22:57,456 --> 00:23:01,483
...Shawnee and other nations,
responded to his call.
299
00:23:02,661 --> 00:23:08,930
In May of 1763, Pontiac's Rebellion
erupted with the siege of Fort Detroit.
300
00:23:10,903 --> 00:23:15,772
Over the next two months, nine of the 11
English forts in the region fell.
301
00:23:15,941 --> 00:23:19,775
Only Detroit and Fort Pitt
remained in British hands...
302
00:23:19,945 --> 00:23:23,278
...both under siege by Pontiac's alliance.
303
00:23:24,550 --> 00:23:29,078
When he started taking the British forts,
and he took them one by one...
304
00:23:29,254 --> 00:23:33,782
...cut off the security of the colonists,
then they were on their own.
305
00:23:33,959 --> 00:23:38,123
Then his vision was that once we get
the last one, once we get Detroit...
306
00:23:38,297 --> 00:23:42,666
...we'll start and we'll just kind of
herd them ahead of us like ducks or geese...
307
00:23:42,835 --> 00:23:45,303
...right back to the Atlantic ocean.
308
00:23:46,038 --> 00:23:49,496
Pontiac stood on the verge
of total victory.
309
00:23:49,675 --> 00:23:53,270
With France still in control
of Louisiana and the Mississippi...
310
00:23:53,445 --> 00:23:55,572
...local French residents assured him...
311
00:23:55,748 --> 00:23:58,342
...that French forces would soon
return to the region...
312
00:23:58,517 --> 00:24:02,009
...to help him drive out the English
once and for all.
313
00:24:02,187 --> 00:24:07,921
But unknown to Pontiac, France had already
signed a treaty of surrender in Paris...
314
00:24:08,093 --> 00:24:13,326
...ending all hostilities between
the two colonial powers in North America.
315
00:24:13,499 --> 00:24:16,059
Rumors of the accord
reached Pontiac in June...
316
00:24:16,235 --> 00:24:17,862
...at the height of his triumph.
317
00:24:18,036 --> 00:24:22,496
But he refused to believe that the French
would not respond to his victories.
318
00:24:24,143 --> 00:24:27,510
The British army, freed from
campaigns against the French...
319
00:24:27,679 --> 00:24:30,739
...launched massive expeditions
against the Indian forces.
320
00:24:32,584 --> 00:24:35,644
But Pontiac's alliance held their ground.
321
00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:43,151
Increasingly desperate to prevail...
322
00:24:43,328 --> 00:24:47,560
...British commander Jeffrey Amherst
put a bounty on Pontiac's head...
323
00:24:47,733 --> 00:24:52,102
...then proposed a sinister tactic:
Germ warfare.
324
00:24:53,305 --> 00:24:56,172
Could it not be contrived
to send the smallpox...
325
00:24:56,341 --> 00:24:58,673
...among those disaffected
tribes of Indians?
326
00:24:58,844 --> 00:25:04,111
We must, on this occasion, use every
stratagem in our power to reduce them.
327
00:25:04,283 --> 00:25:08,242
You will do well to try to inoculate
the Indians by means of blankets...
328
00:25:08,420 --> 00:25:12,186
...to try to extirpate this execrable race.
329
00:25:13,292 --> 00:25:16,022
Shawnee, Lenape, and Odawa...
330
00:25:16,195 --> 00:25:20,598
...were crippled by smallpox-infested
blankets from Fort Pitt.
331
00:25:23,535 --> 00:25:27,027
Pretty soon, burst out
a terrible sickness among us.
332
00:25:27,206 --> 00:25:30,369
Lodge after lodge was totally vacated.
333
00:25:30,542 --> 00:25:35,741
Nothing but the dead bodies
lying here and there in their lodges.
334
00:25:37,149 --> 00:25:42,917
Entire families being swept off
with the ravages of this terrible disease.
335
00:25:45,791 --> 00:25:51,286
In October, confirmation of the French
surrender reached Pontiac and his allies.
336
00:25:51,463 --> 00:25:55,160
The news was a decisive blow
to the momentum of the rebellion.
337
00:25:55,834 --> 00:25:59,235
Now they knew that help
would never come.
338
00:26:00,038 --> 00:26:02,438
Pontiac called off the siege of Detroit...
339
00:26:02,608 --> 00:26:05,543
...and retired with his people
to their winter camps.
340
00:26:09,248 --> 00:26:13,947
The next spring, he tried to rally forces
for another push against the English...
341
00:26:14,119 --> 00:26:16,587
...but his efforts were ineffective.
342
00:26:16,755 --> 00:26:20,191
Many Indian nations were encouraged
by English promises...
343
00:26:20,359 --> 00:26:24,090
...that settlements would
never be allowed on their land.
344
00:26:25,764 --> 00:26:28,426
They were also anxious
to normalize relations...
345
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:30,966
...and to resume European trade.
346
00:26:37,843 --> 00:26:43,338
With the passage of another year,
Pontiac was a leader without a following.
347
00:26:43,515 --> 00:26:45,574
His moment had passed.
348
00:26:45,751 --> 00:26:49,209
The British forts were there to stay.
349
00:26:51,189 --> 00:26:55,853
In 1769, only six years after
the incredible success...
350
00:26:56,028 --> 00:27:00,192
...of his campaign against the British,
Pontiac died...
351
00:27:00,365 --> 00:27:04,358
...murdered in the ancient Indian center
of Cahokia.
352
00:27:04,836 --> 00:27:08,067
But his life had not been in vain.
353
00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:13,303
His vision of united Indian nations
would echo through the region...
354
00:27:13,478 --> 00:27:16,140
...and across the coming decades.
355
00:27:18,951 --> 00:27:21,511
The idea didn't die.
356
00:27:21,687 --> 00:27:24,918
The idea that Pontiac had implanted...
357
00:27:25,090 --> 00:27:28,890
...with these other leaders
and these other tribes prevailed.
358
00:27:30,729 --> 00:27:34,961
Pontiac's life was a message
to the future.
359
00:27:37,836 --> 00:27:41,966
But before the nations of the Great Lakes
and Ohio Valley would rise again...
360
00:27:42,140 --> 00:27:45,303
...the continent would be embroiled
in another costly war...
361
00:27:45,477 --> 00:27:50,380
...this time, between
the American colonists and their king.
362
00:27:55,787 --> 00:27:58,449
"The Iroquois laugh when you talk
of obedience to kings.
363
00:28:00,792 --> 00:28:05,252
For they cannot reconcile the idea
of submission with the dignity of man.
364
00:28:06,398 --> 00:28:09,561
Each individual is a sovereign
in his own mind...
365
00:28:09,735 --> 00:28:13,831
...and as he conceives he derives
his freedom from the Creator alone...
366
00:28:14,006 --> 00:28:17,942
...he cannot be induced
to acknowledge any other power."
367
00:28:18,677 --> 00:28:21,373
John Long, fur trader.
368
00:28:21,780 --> 00:28:25,113
The Europeans,
their point of view on our people...
369
00:28:25,283 --> 00:28:28,616
...is that we didn't really exist as a people,
as a structured people...
370
00:28:30,522 --> 00:28:32,251
...until they came.
371
00:28:32,424 --> 00:28:38,522
You know, but, really,
when you research back into our history...
372
00:28:38,697 --> 00:28:44,533
...you're gonna find that
we were already structured...
373
00:28:44,703 --> 00:28:51,165
...and with governments intact,
and our way of life was already intact.
374
00:28:52,044 --> 00:28:57,448
The oldest democracy in North America
was created by five Indian nations...
375
00:28:57,616 --> 00:29:00,380
...in what is today New York state:
376
00:29:00,752 --> 00:29:06,850
The Onondaga, Oneida,
Mohawk, Seneca and Cayuga.
377
00:29:08,627 --> 00:29:11,926
Together they became
known as the Iroquois.
378
00:29:12,097 --> 00:29:15,658
They called themselves
the Haudenosaunee.
379
00:29:17,936 --> 00:29:21,531
The Haudenosaunee confederacy
was born in a violent era...
380
00:29:21,706 --> 00:29:25,073
...centuries before
the French and Indian War.
381
00:29:26,578 --> 00:29:30,036
At that time, a vicious cycle
of war and revenge...
382
00:29:30,215 --> 00:29:33,878
...was running out of control
among the five nations.
383
00:29:37,756 --> 00:29:43,126
In the midst of the chaos, a visionary man
from the Huron nation appeared.
384
00:29:43,295 --> 00:29:47,561
Rather than a war club and arrows,
he carried teachings.
385
00:29:47,732 --> 00:29:50,997
He would be known as
"the Peacemaker."
386
00:29:54,172 --> 00:29:58,666
The Peacemaker proposed a set of laws
by which people and nations...
387
00:29:58,844 --> 00:30:01,312
...could live in peace and unity.
388
00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:07,851
A system of self-rule, guided by
moral principles known as the "Great Law."
389
00:30:09,387 --> 00:30:13,380
In all your acts,
self-interest shall be cast away.
390
00:30:13,558 --> 00:30:17,426
Look and listen for the welfare
of the whole people...
391
00:30:17,596 --> 00:30:21,327
...and have always in view
not only the present...
392
00:30:21,500 --> 00:30:24,128
...but also the coming generations.
393
00:30:24,302 --> 00:30:27,829
The unborn of the future nation.
394
00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:34,306
When the Great Peacemaker
designed the confederacy and its laws...
395
00:30:34,479 --> 00:30:40,008
...he brought together five warring nations
into one heart, one body, one mind...
396
00:30:40,185 --> 00:30:43,586
...and he symbolized it
by using five arrows...
397
00:30:43,755 --> 00:30:49,022
...when he bound it together
to make it a strong union.
398
00:30:49,194 --> 00:30:52,459
He said, "When you pull one arrow out,
it's easily broken."
399
00:30:52,631 --> 00:30:56,260
He broke one in half in front of them,
just to show them.
400
00:30:56,434 --> 00:31:02,862
So he told them, he said,
"If you all stick together, in union...
401
00:31:03,241 --> 00:31:05,766
...then you will never be broken."
402
00:31:06,878 --> 00:31:12,214
The first wampum belt was created
to symbolize the Great Law.
403
00:31:12,417 --> 00:31:16,148
The image embodied the dream
that became a reality.
404
00:31:16,321 --> 00:31:21,281
Five nations, independent,
but joined together as one.
405
00:31:24,029 --> 00:31:27,157
The Great Law was both
a set of moral teachings...
406
00:31:27,332 --> 00:31:30,392
...and a concrete plan
for a democratic union...
407
00:31:30,569 --> 00:31:33,902
...built around the social structures
of the nations.
408
00:31:35,373 --> 00:31:38,365
Each nation had long been
organized into clans...
409
00:31:38,543 --> 00:31:41,637
...which served as extended families.
410
00:31:42,247 --> 00:31:44,613
Clans lived together in longhouses...
411
00:31:44,783 --> 00:31:47,775
...which were owned
by the women of the clans.
412
00:31:47,953 --> 00:31:53,687
Up to 200 feet in length, longhouses
sheltered as many as a dozen families...
413
00:31:53,858 --> 00:31:57,350
...with private areas and shared fires.
414
00:31:57,529 --> 00:32:02,933
They were a place of security,
a warm refuge against harsh winters.
415
00:32:04,169 --> 00:32:07,764
Clan membership passed
from mother to child.
416
00:32:07,939 --> 00:32:11,705
When a child came of age,
they would marry into another clan.
417
00:32:11,876 --> 00:32:16,711
In this way, the entire nation was woven
into one greater family.
418
00:32:19,718 --> 00:32:21,652
From this clan structure...
419
00:32:21,820 --> 00:32:25,688
...the Haudenosaunee
built a representative democracy.
420
00:32:26,925 --> 00:32:31,385
The women of each clan
would appoint one man as clan chief.
421
00:32:31,563 --> 00:32:36,660
In this way, leadership would rise
through trust, rather than conquest.
422
00:32:37,469 --> 00:32:40,063
The clan chiefs of each
of the five nations...
423
00:32:40,238 --> 00:32:43,207
...gathered at the Haudenosaunee
capital of Onondaga...
424
00:32:43,375 --> 00:32:46,503
...to form the Grand Council.
425
00:32:46,778 --> 00:32:49,076
Governing from the heart
of their territory...
426
00:32:49,247 --> 00:32:52,239
...the Grand Council envisioned
all five nations...
427
00:32:52,417 --> 00:32:54,817
...as sheltered by a giant longhouse...
428
00:32:54,986 --> 00:32:57,978
...stretching 250 miles.
429
00:32:58,156 --> 00:32:59,987
The longhouse's central aisle...
430
00:33:00,158 --> 00:33:02,285
...was the Haudenosaunee trail...
431
00:33:02,460 --> 00:33:06,988
...the principal line of communication
between the members of the league.
432
00:33:07,165 --> 00:33:11,397
The eastern door of the domain
was guarded by the Mohawk.
433
00:33:11,603 --> 00:33:13,833
The Seneca watched the door
to the west.
434
00:33:14,005 --> 00:33:16,633
And the Onondaga were the center...
435
00:33:16,808 --> 00:33:19,106
...the keepers of the fire.
436
00:33:19,277 --> 00:33:22,872
The democratic confederacy
envisioned by the Peacemaker...
437
00:33:23,048 --> 00:33:26,313
...preserved peace for centuries.
438
00:33:27,585 --> 00:33:29,644
When the Europeans arrived...
439
00:33:29,821 --> 00:33:32,654
...in the territory of the Haudenosaunee
in the early 1600s...
440
00:33:34,292 --> 00:33:39,355
...the process or protocol that the
Peacemaker had given to us was in place.
441
00:33:39,531 --> 00:33:43,524
So we were able to deal with
those Europeans on a political basis.
442
00:33:44,669 --> 00:33:50,107
In 1754, Benjamin Franklin attended
a conference with the Haudenosaunee...
443
00:33:50,275 --> 00:33:52,300
...in Albany, New York.
444
00:33:52,510 --> 00:33:55,138
He came away inspired
by the successful model...
445
00:33:55,313 --> 00:33:59,682
...of independent states
united under one rule of law.
446
00:33:59,851 --> 00:34:03,514
Soon after, he would propose
a similar union of colonies.
447
00:34:05,657 --> 00:34:09,650
Twenty-two years later,
these United States...
448
00:34:09,828 --> 00:34:13,423
...would declare their independence
from England.
449
00:34:15,767 --> 00:34:18,463
In that year, 1776...
450
00:34:18,636 --> 00:34:22,538
...events swirled toward
the American Revolution.
451
00:34:25,143 --> 00:34:27,737
Ten thousand strong
and strategically located...
452
00:34:27,912 --> 00:34:30,710
...between the colonies
and the British in Canada...
453
00:34:30,882 --> 00:34:34,682
...the Haudenosaunee
were seen as a key to victory.
454
00:34:35,453 --> 00:34:37,785
British and American diplomats
met repeatedly...
455
00:34:37,956 --> 00:34:40,288
...with representatives
of the Grand Council...
456
00:34:40,458 --> 00:34:44,053
...trying to pull the Indian nations
to their side.
457
00:34:44,229 --> 00:34:45,696
But the Grand Council...
458
00:34:45,864 --> 00:34:49,732
...guided by the principles of peace
laid down by the Great Law...
459
00:34:49,901 --> 00:34:52,529
...declared their neutrality.
460
00:34:54,372 --> 00:34:56,966
Although they would not ally
with either power...
461
00:34:57,142 --> 00:35:00,543
...in a diplomatic gesture,
a delegation from the Grand Council...
462
00:35:00,712 --> 00:35:02,873
...traveled to Philadelphia.
463
00:35:03,047 --> 00:35:06,881
There, the Haudenosaunee,
the oldest democracy in North America...
464
00:35:07,051 --> 00:35:11,147
...officially recognized
the fledgling American government.
465
00:35:11,990 --> 00:35:14,982
The delegation had been lodged
in Independence Hall...
466
00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:17,526
...above the chamber of
the Continental Congress...
467
00:35:17,695 --> 00:35:22,530
...where representatives were drafting
the Declaration of Independence.
468
00:35:25,370 --> 00:35:29,067
During that same critical summer
of 1776...
469
00:35:29,240 --> 00:35:33,973
...a young Mohawk named Joseph Brant
returned from England.
470
00:35:35,547 --> 00:35:40,075
A prot�g� of the British agent
for Indian Affairs, Sir William Johnson...
471
00:35:40,251 --> 00:35:44,585
...Brant's family had long-standing ties
to the British.
472
00:35:45,457 --> 00:35:47,948
Traveling among
the Haudenosaunee nations...
473
00:35:48,126 --> 00:35:51,391
...Brant passionately argued
for an alliance with the British...
474
00:35:51,563 --> 00:35:56,466
...as their only hope to prevent
being overrun by the Americans.
475
00:35:57,368 --> 00:36:00,098
He started to go amongst the nations...
476
00:36:00,738 --> 00:36:04,105
...of the Mohawks, the oneidas,
the onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas...
477
00:36:06,611 --> 00:36:09,580
...trying to entice the young men...
478
00:36:09,747 --> 00:36:11,408
...to go on the side of the British.
479
00:36:12,884 --> 00:36:16,513
In an act that threatened the very existence
of the confederacy...
480
00:36:16,688 --> 00:36:20,146
...Joseph Brant, in open defiance
of the Grand Council...
481
00:36:20,325 --> 00:36:23,123
...called a meeting
in the summer of 1777...
482
00:36:23,294 --> 00:36:25,956
...to argue the British case.
483
00:36:27,031 --> 00:36:31,195
Blacksnake, a young Haudenosaunee man
from the Seneca nation...
484
00:36:31,369 --> 00:36:33,428
...listened closely.
485
00:36:33,972 --> 00:36:36,031
Brant came forward and said...
486
00:36:36,207 --> 00:36:38,675
...that if we did nothing for the British...
487
00:36:38,843 --> 00:36:41,403
...there would be no peace for us...
488
00:36:41,579 --> 00:36:45,310
...our throats would be cut
by the redcoat man or by America...
489
00:36:45,483 --> 00:36:48,646
...that we should go and join the Father.
490
00:36:48,820 --> 00:36:50,913
This is the way for us.
491
00:36:51,089 --> 00:36:55,788
Blacksnake's uncle, a respected
Seneca leader named Cornplanter...
492
00:36:55,960 --> 00:36:58,485
...rose to challenge Brant.
493
00:36:58,663 --> 00:37:02,326
Cornplanter was a veteran
of the French and Indian Wars...
494
00:37:02,500 --> 00:37:06,937
...and had participated in the critical
Council decisions of his time.
495
00:37:07,105 --> 00:37:11,804
He wanted no part of a war
that was not his to fight.
496
00:37:12,610 --> 00:37:16,910
"You must all mark and listen
to what I have to say.
497
00:37:18,049 --> 00:37:20,142
War is war.
498
00:37:20,318 --> 00:37:21,615
Death is death.
499
00:37:21,786 --> 00:37:24,584
A fight is a hard business.
500
00:37:25,323 --> 00:37:30,351
Here, America says not to lift our hands
against either party.
501
00:37:30,528 --> 00:37:32,553
I move, therefore, to wait a little while...
502
00:37:32,730 --> 00:37:36,188
...to hear more consultation
between the two parties.
503
00:37:36,367 --> 00:37:39,268
Let the British say everything
he is going to say to us.
504
00:37:39,437 --> 00:37:43,931
We then can see clear where we are going
and not be deceived."
505
00:37:44,108 --> 00:37:47,043
Cornplanter, Seneca.
506
00:37:47,412 --> 00:37:49,380
In shocked disbelief...
507
00:37:49,547 --> 00:37:53,950
...Blacksnake and the others watched
as Brant rose to his feet.
508
00:37:54,118 --> 00:37:56,916
He ordered Cornplanter
to stop speaking...
509
00:37:57,088 --> 00:37:59,784
...then called him a coward.
510
00:37:59,958 --> 00:38:03,359
The men had a great deal of controversy
among themselves...
511
00:38:03,528 --> 00:38:06,326
...with some for Brant
and some for Cornplanter.
512
00:38:06,497 --> 00:38:09,466
They began to say
that we must fight for somebody...
513
00:38:09,634 --> 00:38:13,331
...because they could not bear
to be called cowards.
514
00:38:14,706 --> 00:38:19,040
The following day, the gathering,
predominately Mohawk and Seneca...
515
00:38:19,210 --> 00:38:20,871
...broke with the Grand Council...
516
00:38:21,045 --> 00:38:24,139
...and agreed to fight with the British.
517
00:38:24,882 --> 00:38:27,817
Cornplanter resigned himself
to the majority will...
518
00:38:27,986 --> 00:38:30,113
...and rallied his men.
519
00:38:30,521 --> 00:38:33,922
Every brave man show himself now.
520
00:38:34,425 --> 00:38:38,020
Hereafter, we will find,
are many dangerous times.
521
00:38:38,529 --> 00:38:39,826
I, therefore, say to you...
522
00:38:39,998 --> 00:38:44,298
...you must stand like good soldiers
against your own white brother.
523
00:38:44,469 --> 00:38:48,530
Because just as soon as he finds out
that you are against him...
524
00:38:48,706 --> 00:38:51,266
...he will show no mercy on us.
525
00:38:55,413 --> 00:38:58,348
But as factions broke
from the Grand Council...
526
00:38:58,716 --> 00:39:01,617
...not all joined the British.
527
00:39:03,087 --> 00:39:06,989
The Oneida, heavily influenced
by American missionaries...
528
00:39:07,158 --> 00:39:11,288
...were moving toward an outright alliance
with the Americans.
529
00:39:13,331 --> 00:39:17,995
The horror of civil war
loomed over the confederacy.
530
00:39:28,713 --> 00:39:31,773
In the midst of the American Revolution...
531
00:39:31,949 --> 00:39:35,282
...a Haudenosaunee civil war began.
532
00:39:36,754 --> 00:39:39,985
On August 6th, 1777...
533
00:39:40,158 --> 00:39:42,956
...Oneida fighting men
and their American allies...
534
00:39:43,127 --> 00:39:46,221
...clashed at Oriskany Creek
with British troops...
535
00:39:46,397 --> 00:39:48,865
...and their Seneca and Mohawk allies.
536
00:39:56,107 --> 00:40:00,567
At day's end,
hundreds lay dead on the battlefield.
537
00:40:03,448 --> 00:40:06,508
As the war raged across
the eastern continent...
538
00:40:06,684 --> 00:40:09,619
...Mohawk and Seneca forces
allied with the British...
539
00:40:09,787 --> 00:40:12,278
...wreaked havoc on frontier settlements...
540
00:40:12,457 --> 00:40:17,656
...draining American economic and military
resources away from the war effort.
541
00:40:18,996 --> 00:40:21,988
In retaliation,
George Washington sent an army...
542
00:40:22,166 --> 00:40:25,829
...against the Haudenosaunee capital
at Onondaga...
543
00:40:26,003 --> 00:40:30,303
...one nation still clinging tenaciously
to neutrality.
544
00:40:31,175 --> 00:40:34,042
After Washington's army
ransacked the capital...
545
00:40:34,212 --> 00:40:40,173
...the Onondaga also plunged angrily into
the war on the side of the British.
546
00:40:41,285 --> 00:40:44,652
You call George Washington
the father of your country.
547
00:40:44,856 --> 00:40:48,189
We call George Washington Hanadegaies,
which means "town destroyer."
548
00:40:50,361 --> 00:40:52,921
In August 1779...
549
00:40:53,097 --> 00:40:55,930
...Washington sent General John Sullivan...
550
00:40:56,100 --> 00:41:00,059
...into Haudenosaunee country
with 5000 men.
551
00:41:01,873 --> 00:41:05,274
Entering territory few white men
had ever even seen...
552
00:41:05,443 --> 00:41:08,674
...Sullivan carved a chilling swath
of destruction...
553
00:41:08,846 --> 00:41:12,805
...forcing those in his path
to flee their homes.
554
00:41:13,284 --> 00:41:16,082
Sullivan's soldiers could not help
but marvel...
555
00:41:16,254 --> 00:41:20,213
...at the prosperity of the deserted towns
they were destroying.
556
00:41:22,160 --> 00:41:26,824
We reached the town,
which consisted of 128 houses...
557
00:41:26,998 --> 00:41:29,489
...mostly very large and elegant.
558
00:41:29,667 --> 00:41:33,603
The Indians live much better
than most of the Mohawk River farmers...
559
00:41:33,771 --> 00:41:37,867
...their houses very well furnished
with all necessary household utensils...
560
00:41:38,042 --> 00:41:39,566
...great plenty of grain...
561
00:41:39,744 --> 00:41:43,271
...several horses, cows and wagons.
562
00:41:43,748 --> 00:41:46,546
It appears to be a very old settlement.
563
00:41:46,717 --> 00:41:49,948
There are a great number
of apple and peach trees here...
564
00:41:50,121 --> 00:41:53,056
...which we cut down and destroyed.
565
00:41:55,426 --> 00:41:57,485
A group of Haudenosaunee mercenaries...
566
00:41:57,662 --> 00:42:00,222
...who guided Sullivan's army
into the territory...
567
00:42:00,398 --> 00:42:02,764
...were captured by the Seneca.
568
00:42:02,934 --> 00:42:06,961
One man recognized his own brother
among the captives.
569
00:42:07,138 --> 00:42:10,301
Brother, you have merited death.
570
00:42:10,875 --> 00:42:15,005
When those rebels drove us from the fields
of our fathers to seek out new homes...
571
00:42:15,179 --> 00:42:18,444
...it was you who would dare to step forth
as their pilot...
572
00:42:18,616 --> 00:42:21,949
...and conduct them to the doors
of our homes to butcher our children...
573
00:42:22,119 --> 00:42:23,484
...and put us to death.
574
00:42:23,654 --> 00:42:26,179
No crime can be greater.
575
00:42:26,357 --> 00:42:29,884
But though you have merited death
and shall die on this spot...
576
00:42:30,061 --> 00:42:33,394
...my hands shall not be stained
in the blood of a brother.
577
00:42:33,865 --> 00:42:35,765
Who will strike?
578
00:42:36,367 --> 00:42:39,928
A Seneca chief
killed the prisoner instantly.
579
00:42:42,540 --> 00:42:47,341
But even the powerful Seneca could not
stand against Sullivan's massive army.
580
00:42:47,511 --> 00:42:52,813
Old and young grabbed what few
possessions they could carry and fled.
581
00:42:52,984 --> 00:42:54,918
"The part of our corn they burnt...
582
00:42:55,086 --> 00:42:57,247
...and threw the remainder into the river.
583
00:42:57,421 --> 00:42:58,979
They burnt our houses...
584
00:42:59,156 --> 00:43:01,818
...killed what few cattle and horses
they could find...
585
00:43:01,993 --> 00:43:03,756
...destroyed our fruit trees...
586
00:43:03,928 --> 00:43:06,658
...and left nothing but the bare soil.
587
00:43:07,632 --> 00:43:09,497
What were our feelings...
588
00:43:09,667 --> 00:43:14,161
...when we found that there was not a
mouthful of any kind of sustenance left...
589
00:43:14,338 --> 00:43:18,775
...not even enough to keep a child
one day from perishing with hunger?"
590
00:43:19,677 --> 00:43:23,044
Dehgewanus, Seneca.
591
00:43:23,381 --> 00:43:26,817
In retaliation for the American destruction
of Onondaga...
592
00:43:26,984 --> 00:43:29,976
...Mohawk, Seneca and Cayuga villages...
593
00:43:30,154 --> 00:43:33,612
...Joseph Brant attacked the Oneida
and neighboring Tuscarora...
594
00:43:33,791 --> 00:43:36,191
...allies of the Americans.
595
00:43:36,460 --> 00:43:40,590
In the end, all of the five nations
were ravaged.
596
00:43:40,765 --> 00:43:43,563
Out of scores of Haudenosaunee towns...
597
00:43:43,734 --> 00:43:47,363
...only two survived unscathed.
598
00:43:48,205 --> 00:43:49,695
And it was already fall...
599
00:43:49,874 --> 00:43:53,537
...with no way to replace the lost crops.
600
00:43:54,011 --> 00:43:57,447
The tragedy heightened
with the coming of winter.
601
00:43:58,082 --> 00:43:59,913
It was the coldest in memory.
602
00:44:00,084 --> 00:44:03,178
Snow fell 5 feet deep.
603
00:44:03,354 --> 00:44:08,849
Many homeless Haudenosaunee
died of hunger, cold and disease.
604
00:44:16,534 --> 00:44:20,368
Less than four years later, in 1783...
605
00:44:20,538 --> 00:44:24,167
...the British government surrendered
at the Treaty of Paris.
606
00:44:24,342 --> 00:44:28,642
With no concern for the sovereignty
of Indian nations, even their allies...
607
00:44:28,813 --> 00:44:33,147
...the British ceded control of the continent
as far west as the Mississippi...
608
00:44:33,317 --> 00:44:36,013
...to the new American nation.
609
00:44:36,520 --> 00:44:38,215
In postwar treaties...
610
00:44:38,389 --> 00:44:42,189
...the United States government
seized vast Haudenosaunee lands...
611
00:44:42,360 --> 00:44:45,818
...even those belonging to their allies,
the Oneida...
612
00:44:45,997 --> 00:44:48,932
...whose women had brought
life-saving corn and blankets...
613
00:44:49,100 --> 00:44:53,560
...to George Washington's starving troops
at Valley Forge.
614
00:44:55,139 --> 00:44:57,437
But the five nations
of the Haudenosaunee...
615
00:44:57,608 --> 00:45:02,170
...would heal the wounds of civil war
and remain defiant.
616
00:45:02,346 --> 00:45:06,112
In 1790, they forced concessions
from the United States...
617
00:45:06,283 --> 00:45:08,274
...at the Treaty of Canandaigua...
618
00:45:08,452 --> 00:45:11,979
...which allowed them to keep
their core homelands.
619
00:45:12,156 --> 00:45:16,024
The Haudenosaunee
would survive and rebuild...
620
00:45:16,193 --> 00:45:21,426
...drawn together by the Great Law
and their Grand Council...
621
00:45:22,533 --> 00:45:26,060
...a union that endures to this day.
622
00:45:28,472 --> 00:45:31,032
If the Haudenosaunee was destroyed...
623
00:45:31,709 --> 00:45:33,677
...at the Revolutionary War...
624
00:45:33,844 --> 00:45:36,506
...then why am I sitting here?
625
00:45:37,415 --> 00:45:39,144
We were not destroyed.
626
00:45:39,316 --> 00:45:41,716
Our Council fire still remained.
627
00:45:41,886 --> 00:45:45,185
Our Council's fires has remained
all of these years.
628
00:45:45,356 --> 00:45:49,622
And the history and the culture
of the Haudenosaunee...
629
00:45:49,794 --> 00:45:54,026
...its political and spiritual structure
is still intact.
630
00:45:54,198 --> 00:45:57,690
And we sit here, traveling around the world
on our own passports...
631
00:45:57,868 --> 00:46:00,200
...as sovereign people.
632
00:46:00,871 --> 00:46:03,965
We were not destroyed
by the Revolutionary War.
633
00:46:09,213 --> 00:46:12,148
No sooner had the United States
come into being...
634
00:46:12,316 --> 00:46:15,251
...than its people, hungry for new land
and opportunity...
635
00:46:15,419 --> 00:46:20,322
...poured west, across the Appalachian
Mountains, to open up the new frontier.
636
00:46:20,491 --> 00:46:24,154
But imagine the movement
as the Indian people must have seen it.
637
00:46:24,328 --> 00:46:26,057
This was their home...
638
00:46:26,230 --> 00:46:28,164
...where their ancestors were buried...
639
00:46:28,332 --> 00:46:30,664
...where they were raising their children.
640
00:46:30,835 --> 00:46:33,929
They had already experienced
the disruptions of trade:
641
00:46:34,105 --> 00:46:38,371
Alcohol, missionaries, disease and war.
642
00:46:38,542 --> 00:46:41,136
Now their lands were at stake.
643
00:46:41,312 --> 00:46:43,872
Indian people fought
to preserve their freedom...
644
00:46:44,048 --> 00:46:46,983
...and in their aggressive defense,
stories of frontier violence...
645
00:46:47,151 --> 00:46:50,780
...came to define them as hostiles
and savages.
646
00:46:50,955 --> 00:46:53,423
Armed with this distorted image,
the same cycle...
647
00:46:53,591 --> 00:46:56,458
...that had dispossessed
the Indian nations of the East...
648
00:46:56,627 --> 00:46:58,822
...was underway again.
649
00:46:58,996 --> 00:47:02,329
We begin Part Six in
the ohio River valley.
650
00:47:02,500 --> 00:47:04,525
Where, in the atmosphere
of frontier chaos...
651
00:47:04,702 --> 00:47:07,535
...one of the great leaders
of North America would emerge...
652
00:47:07,705 --> 00:47:09,468
...with a message of hope.
653
00:47:09,640 --> 00:47:11,631
His name was Tecumseh...
654
00:47:11,809 --> 00:47:15,210
...and he would try to change
the course of history.
655
00:47:22,319 --> 00:47:26,346
"When we passed through the country
between Pittsburgh and our nations...
656
00:47:26,690 --> 00:47:30,319
...lately Shawnee and Lenape
hunting grounds...
657
00:47:32,062 --> 00:47:36,294
...where we could once see nothing
but deer and buffalo...
658
00:47:37,134 --> 00:47:40,069
...we found the country thickly inhabited...
659
00:47:40,237 --> 00:47:43,297
...and the people under arms.
660
00:47:44,575 --> 00:47:50,013
We were compelled to make
a detour of 300 miles.
661
00:47:52,816 --> 00:47:55,751
We saw large numbers
of white men in forts...
662
00:47:55,920 --> 00:47:58,548
...and fortifications around salt springs...
663
00:47:58,722 --> 00:48:01,452
...and buffalo grounds."
664
00:48:01,959 --> 00:48:05,258
Cornstalk, Shawnee.
665
00:48:06,797 --> 00:48:09,630
In the aftermath
of the American Revolution...
666
00:48:09,800 --> 00:48:12,701
...the lands of the powerful
Haudenosaunee nations...
667
00:48:12,870 --> 00:48:16,362
...were shrunk to little more
than reservation islands.
668
00:48:16,540 --> 00:48:19,065
The front lines of the invasion
moved west...
669
00:48:19,243 --> 00:48:21,302
...to the nations of the Ohio Valley:
670
00:48:21,478 --> 00:48:26,279
The Lenape, Shawnee, Miami and others.
671
00:48:28,252 --> 00:48:30,186
Settlers flooded west...
672
00:48:30,354 --> 00:48:32,584
...many of them
Revolutionary War veterans...
673
00:48:32,756 --> 00:48:37,284
...paid with land grants by the government
left bankrupt from the war.
674
00:48:38,762 --> 00:48:41,026
Supported by the new United States...
675
00:48:41,198 --> 00:48:43,826
...they came prepared to fight for the land.
676
00:48:47,805 --> 00:48:52,242
"The people of our frontier carry on
private expeditions against the Indians...
677
00:48:52,409 --> 00:48:54,934
...and kill them
whenever they meet them.
678
00:48:55,179 --> 00:48:58,637
And I do not believe there is a jury
in all Kentucky...
679
00:48:58,816 --> 00:49:00,716
...who would punish a man for it."
680
00:49:01,919 --> 00:49:05,355
John Hamtramck,
major, United States Army.
681
00:49:07,625 --> 00:49:09,252
Over the next 20 years...
682
00:49:09,426 --> 00:49:12,395
...through a series of battles
and dubious treaties...
683
00:49:12,563 --> 00:49:16,966
...the new United States laid claim
to Indian lands on the frontier.
684
00:49:17,134 --> 00:49:19,932
Vast tracts were ceded
to white settlement...
685
00:49:20,104 --> 00:49:22,572
...including the future sites of Detroit...
686
00:49:22,740 --> 00:49:26,471
...Toledo, Peoria and Chicago.
687
00:49:28,279 --> 00:49:30,645
"My heart is a stone...
688
00:49:31,081 --> 00:49:34,517
...heavy with sadness for my people...
689
00:49:34,685 --> 00:49:39,884
...cold with the knowledge that no treaty
will keep whites out of our lands...
690
00:49:40,057 --> 00:49:43,220
...hard with the determination to resist...
691
00:49:43,394 --> 00:49:46,420
...as long as I live and breathe."
692
00:49:47,698 --> 00:49:51,225
Blue Jacket, Shawnee.
693
00:49:57,441 --> 00:50:01,309
In this atmosphere of despair
and frontier violence...
694
00:50:01,478 --> 00:50:07,212
...missionaries undermined the cultural
and religious values of Indian communities.
695
00:50:08,786 --> 00:50:11,914
Our life is who we are, our identity...
696
00:50:13,557 --> 00:50:15,149
...our language, our ceremonies...
697
00:50:15,326 --> 00:50:19,626
...our way of how we used to dress
and how we related to each other.
698
00:50:19,797 --> 00:50:21,662
Those are the makeup...
699
00:50:21,832 --> 00:50:24,323
...part of the makeup of our people.
700
00:50:24,501 --> 00:50:27,993
And so when Christianity came about...
701
00:50:28,172 --> 00:50:30,367
...it started to change.
702
00:50:30,541 --> 00:50:34,443
They were trying to make us become
what we were not.
703
00:50:35,746 --> 00:50:37,941
"You have got our country...
704
00:50:38,115 --> 00:50:40,413
...but are not satisfied.
705
00:50:40,584 --> 00:50:43,917
You want to force your religion upon us.
706
00:50:44,088 --> 00:50:46,921
The Creator has made us all.
707
00:50:47,091 --> 00:50:50,527
But he has made
a great difference between us.
708
00:50:51,428 --> 00:50:55,660
He has given us a different complexion
and different customs.
709
00:50:55,833 --> 00:51:00,463
Since he has made so great a difference
between us in other things...
710
00:51:00,637 --> 00:51:03,071
...why may we not conclude...
711
00:51:03,240 --> 00:51:05,800
...that he has given us
a different religion...
712
00:51:05,976 --> 00:51:08,638
...according to our understanding?
713
00:51:11,482 --> 00:51:16,442
We do not wish to destroy your religion
or take it from you.
714
00:51:17,087 --> 00:51:20,784
We only want to enjoy our own."
715
00:51:20,958 --> 00:51:24,223
Red Jacket, Seneca.
716
00:51:26,096 --> 00:51:30,123
But the pressure on Indian people
was unrelenting.
717
00:51:30,300 --> 00:51:36,136
Their land, livelihood, culture
and very beliefs under attack.
718
00:51:36,740 --> 00:51:41,507
Frustrated warriors traded
scarce resources for alcohol.
719
00:51:42,146 --> 00:51:45,479
And now reality's in your face.
You're slapped in the face with reality.
720
00:51:47,050 --> 00:51:49,883
What's the best way to escape
that kind of reality?
721
00:51:50,053 --> 00:51:54,752
During those times,
our people began to take up the rum...
722
00:51:55,058 --> 00:51:56,753
...to numb their feelings.
723
00:51:56,927 --> 00:51:59,760
Because that feeling, that hurt,
was so strong.
724
00:52:01,064 --> 00:52:05,194
"The men revel in strong drink
and are very quarrelsome.
725
00:52:06,003 --> 00:52:09,564
The families become frightened
and move away for safety.
726
00:52:10,574 --> 00:52:13,509
Now the drunken men run yelling
through the village...
727
00:52:13,844 --> 00:52:16,813
...and have weapons to injure those
whom they meet.
728
00:52:17,781 --> 00:52:19,976
Now there are no doors in the houses...
729
00:52:20,150 --> 00:52:22,948
...for they have all been kicked off.
730
00:52:23,120 --> 00:52:29,116
Now, we men full of strong drink
alone track there."
731
00:52:29,960 --> 00:52:33,225
Handsome Lake, Seneca.
732
00:52:36,200 --> 00:52:39,795
One young Shawnee man, Lalawethika...
733
00:52:39,970 --> 00:52:42,962
...like many demoralized young men
of his generation...
734
00:52:43,140 --> 00:52:45,631
...had succumbed to alcoholism.
735
00:52:45,809 --> 00:52:50,644
He was completely dependent
on his older brother, Tecumseh.
736
00:52:51,215 --> 00:52:56,619
Tecumseh and Lalawethika had grown up
in the world of frontier violence.
737
00:52:56,787 --> 00:52:59,688
Their father was killed fighting the British.
738
00:52:59,857 --> 00:53:03,315
Their older brother died
at the hands of Tennessee settlers.
739
00:53:03,494 --> 00:53:08,329
The village of their birth had been
laid waste by Kentuckians.
740
00:53:08,565 --> 00:53:10,499
Now, in 1803...
741
00:53:10,667 --> 00:53:13,135
...determined to maintain his traditions...
742
00:53:13,303 --> 00:53:17,000
...Tecumseh led Lalawethika
and the people of their village...
743
00:53:17,174 --> 00:53:18,766
...west, into Indiana...
744
00:53:18,942 --> 00:53:23,777
...in an effort to put distance
between themselves and white settlers.
745
00:53:23,947 --> 00:53:27,383
But in Indiana,
Lalawethika's drinking worsened.
746
00:53:27,551 --> 00:53:30,452
He sank into a deep depression.
747
00:53:30,621 --> 00:53:34,079
But his life was about to turn around.
748
00:53:34,324 --> 00:53:36,258
One day, while in his home...
749
00:53:36,426 --> 00:53:39,293
...Lalawethika fell to the floor.
750
00:53:39,463 --> 00:53:43,923
For a time, Tecumseh and others
in the village believed he was dead.
751
00:53:47,271 --> 00:53:49,102
But he was not dead.
752
00:53:49,506 --> 00:53:52,566
Lalawethika had had a revelation...
753
00:53:52,743 --> 00:53:58,045
...a divine message that responded to
the unbearable conditions of his people.
754
00:53:58,215 --> 00:54:03,209
Suddenly and clearly,
he saw a path for renewal.
755
00:54:03,787 --> 00:54:09,350
Abandon the ways of the white man
and return to the old teachings.
756
00:54:10,260 --> 00:54:11,887
From that moment forward...
757
00:54:12,062 --> 00:54:16,021
...Lalawethika would be known as
Tenskwatawa...
758
00:54:16,199 --> 00:54:18,326
...the Shawnee Prophet.
759
00:54:19,503 --> 00:54:21,835
Tenskwatawa never drank again.
760
00:54:22,005 --> 00:54:24,838
And he urged his followers
to shun alcohol...
761
00:54:25,008 --> 00:54:29,069
...and all other ideas and things
that came from white men.
762
00:54:30,447 --> 00:54:32,540
"Have you not heard at evenings...
763
00:54:32,716 --> 00:54:35,310
...and sometimes in the dead of night...
764
00:54:35,485 --> 00:54:39,444
...those mournful sounds
that steal through the deep valleys...
765
00:54:39,623 --> 00:54:42,717
...and along the mountainsides?
766
00:54:42,893 --> 00:54:45,157
These are the wailings of those spirits...
767
00:54:45,329 --> 00:54:49,789
...whose bones have been turned up
by the plow of the white man...
768
00:54:49,967 --> 00:54:54,131
...and left to the mercy
of the rain and wind."
769
00:54:54,871 --> 00:54:58,568
Tenskwatawa, Shawnee.
770
00:55:01,612 --> 00:55:05,844
Tenskwatawa promised that if
the people returned to their own ways...
771
00:55:06,016 --> 00:55:10,680
...the whites would be pushed back,
and prosperity would return.
772
00:55:12,856 --> 00:55:16,849
Tecumseh embraced his brother's vision
of cultural renewal...
773
00:55:17,027 --> 00:55:22,055
...and together, they spread the message
to every Ohio Valley nation.
774
00:55:23,567 --> 00:55:27,970
Hundreds traveled to Indiana
to hear them speak in person.
775
00:55:28,639 --> 00:55:30,539
Shawnee, Odawa...
776
00:55:30,707 --> 00:55:32,607
...Wyandot, Kickapoo...
777
00:55:32,776 --> 00:55:35,336
...and other families
converged on a new settlement...
778
00:55:35,512 --> 00:55:37,742
...established by the Prophet
and Tecumseh...
779
00:55:37,914 --> 00:55:41,611
...near the intersection of the Wabash
and Tippecanoe rivers:
780
00:55:41,785 --> 00:55:43,878
Prophetstown.
781
00:55:45,489 --> 00:55:49,255
Tenskwatawa preached to visitors
in the council house every night...
782
00:55:49,426 --> 00:55:52,054
...followed by dancing and singing.
783
00:55:52,229 --> 00:55:57,929
White frontiersmen claimed to be able
to hear the drums all night long.
784
00:55:59,169 --> 00:56:03,037
But it would be Tecumseh who would
challenge the course of history...
785
00:56:03,206 --> 00:56:05,367
...by transforming
his brother's message...
786
00:56:05,542 --> 00:56:09,376
...into a political and military movement.
787
00:56:09,546 --> 00:56:11,878
Using Prophetstown as his base...
788
00:56:12,049 --> 00:56:14,176
...Tecumseh would emerge...
789
00:56:14,351 --> 00:56:18,447
...the most powerful Indian leader
of his time.
790
00:56:32,803 --> 00:56:35,499
"Brothers, we are friends.
791
00:56:35,672 --> 00:56:38,732
We must assist each other
to bear our burdens.
792
00:56:38,909 --> 00:56:43,039
The blood of many of our fathers and
brothers has run like water on the ground...
793
00:56:43,213 --> 00:56:46,512
...to satisfy the avarice of the white men.
794
00:56:49,119 --> 00:56:52,247
We, ourselves, are threatened
with a great evil.
795
00:56:52,422 --> 00:56:57,325
Nothing will pacify them
but the destruction of all the red men."
796
00:56:57,494 --> 00:57:00,725
Tecumseh, Shawnee.
797
00:57:02,299 --> 00:57:06,167
In 1808, while the Shawnee Prophet,
Tenskwatawa...
798
00:57:06,336 --> 00:57:09,134
...preached cultural renaissance
at Prophetstown...
799
00:57:09,306 --> 00:57:12,673
...his brother, Tecumseh,
traveled throughout the territory...
800
00:57:12,843 --> 00:57:14,606
...spreading the Prophet's message...
801
00:57:14,778 --> 00:57:19,147
...along with a political
and military vision of his own.
802
00:57:19,449 --> 00:57:22,043
"The whites have driven us
from the sea to the lakes.
803
00:57:22,219 --> 00:57:24,414
We can go no farther.
804
00:57:24,588 --> 00:57:27,216
The way, the only way, to stop this evil...
805
00:57:27,390 --> 00:57:31,827
...is for us to unite in claiming
a common and equal right in the land...
806
00:57:31,995 --> 00:57:34,828
...as it was at first and should be now.
807
00:57:34,998 --> 00:57:36,693
For it was never divided...
808
00:57:36,867 --> 00:57:39,358
...but belongs to all.
809
00:57:39,536 --> 00:57:41,060
Unless every tribe...
810
00:57:41,238 --> 00:57:44,401
...unanimously combines to give a check
to the ambition...
811
00:57:44,574 --> 00:57:46,439
...and avarice of the whites...
812
00:57:46,610 --> 00:57:49,704
...they will soon conquer us,
apart and disunited...
813
00:57:49,880 --> 00:57:52,440
...and we will be driven away
from our native country...
814
00:57:52,616 --> 00:57:56,313
...and scattered as autumnal leaves
before the wind."
815
00:57:56,486 --> 00:57:59,819
Tecumseh, Shawnee.
816
00:58:00,824 --> 00:58:04,089
Tecumseh electrified his audiences.
817
00:58:04,261 --> 00:58:06,991
At one gathering,
a nervous white observer...
818
00:58:07,164 --> 00:58:10,531
...reported seeing young men
shaking with emotion...
819
00:58:10,700 --> 00:58:14,659
...a thousand tomahawks
brandished in the air.
820
00:58:15,372 --> 00:58:19,103
William Henry Harrison,
governor of the Indiana territory...
821
00:58:19,276 --> 00:58:22,939
...recognized Tecumseh's
personal power and charisma...
822
00:58:23,113 --> 00:58:26,776
...and saw the Shawnee leader
as a singular threat.
823
00:58:26,950 --> 00:58:29,316
"The implicit obedience and respect...
824
00:58:29,486 --> 00:58:33,855
...which the followers of Tecumseh
pay to him is really astonishing.
825
00:58:34,024 --> 00:58:36,219
And more than any other circumstance...
826
00:58:36,393 --> 00:58:40,056
...bespeaks him one of those
uncommon geniuses...
827
00:58:40,230 --> 00:58:43,563
...which spring up occasionally
to produce revolutions...
828
00:58:43,733 --> 00:58:47,225
...and overturn the established
order of things.
829
00:58:47,404 --> 00:58:50,999
If it were not for the vicinity
of the United States...
830
00:58:51,174 --> 00:58:54,166
...he would perhaps be the founder
of an empire that would...
831
00:58:54,344 --> 00:58:59,077
...rival in glory that of Mexico or Peru."
832
00:58:59,549 --> 00:59:02,746
Governor William Henry Harrison.
833
00:59:03,186 --> 00:59:06,087
Prophetstown's population swelled.
834
00:59:07,190 --> 00:59:10,626
But despite Tecumseh's
growing influence...
835
00:59:10,794 --> 00:59:14,924
...he could not control the actions
of all Indian leaders.
836
00:59:15,098 --> 00:59:18,966
In 1809, at one of many
treaty conferences...
837
00:59:19,135 --> 00:59:21,831
...Governor Harrison convinced
leaders of the Miami...
838
00:59:22,005 --> 00:59:24,030
...Lenape and Potawatomi...
839
00:59:24,207 --> 00:59:28,644
...to sell 3 million acres of land
in Indiana and Illinois.
840
00:59:28,812 --> 00:59:30,905
Tecumseh was outraged...
841
00:59:31,081 --> 00:59:34,847
...considering those who signed the treaty
guilty of treason.
842
00:59:35,018 --> 00:59:37,816
No tribe has the right to sell a country...
843
00:59:37,988 --> 00:59:42,049
...even to each other,
much less to strangers.
844
00:59:42,259 --> 00:59:44,227
Sell a country.
845
00:59:44,394 --> 00:59:48,421
Why not sell the air, the great sea,
as well as the earth?
846
00:59:48,598 --> 00:59:53,035
Did not the great spirit make them all
for the use of his children?
847
00:59:53,637 --> 00:59:57,403
Tecumseh went to Harrison,
and, in a volatile meeting...
848
00:59:57,574 --> 01:00:00,134
...confronted the governor face to face.
849
01:00:00,310 --> 01:00:05,043
Brother, I look at the land
and pity the women and children.
850
01:00:05,215 --> 01:00:09,675
I am authorized to say
that they want to save that piece of land.
851
01:00:11,354 --> 01:00:13,219
We do not wish you to take it.
852
01:00:13,390 --> 01:00:15,756
It is small enough for our purposes.
853
01:00:15,926 --> 01:00:18,724
I want the present boundary line
to continue.
854
01:00:18,895 --> 01:00:20,795
Should you cross it...
855
01:00:20,964 --> 01:00:24,957
...I assure you it will be productive
of bad consequences.
856
01:00:26,803 --> 01:00:29,294
But the settlements
continued to expand...
857
01:00:29,472 --> 01:00:32,532
...even onto the newly ceded lands.
858
01:00:32,709 --> 01:00:38,272
Tecumseh was convinced that only force
would stop the American advance.
859
01:00:38,949 --> 01:00:40,940
To build a military resistance...
860
01:00:41,117 --> 01:00:43,051
...he continued to travel tirelessly...
861
01:00:43,219 --> 01:00:46,211
...among the nations of the Great Lakes
and Ohio Valley...
862
01:00:46,389 --> 01:00:49,950
...while Harrison kept a nervous eye
on his movements.
863
01:00:50,460 --> 01:00:52,985
No difficulties deter him.
864
01:00:53,496 --> 01:00:56,465
For four years,
he has been in constant motion.
865
01:00:56,633 --> 01:00:59,830
You see him today on the Wabash,
and in a short time...
866
01:01:00,003 --> 01:01:03,200
...you hear of him on the shores
of Lake Erie or Michigan...
867
01:01:03,373 --> 01:01:07,469
...or the banks of the Mississippi,
and wherever he goes...
868
01:01:07,644 --> 01:01:11,944
...he makes an impression favorable
to his purpose.
869
01:01:12,582 --> 01:01:15,415
In 1811, Tecumseh traveled south...
870
01:01:15,585 --> 01:01:18,918
...in an effort to bring the powerful
Choctaw, Chickasaw...
871
01:01:19,089 --> 01:01:21,523
...and Creek into the alliance.
872
01:01:21,992 --> 01:01:24,085
There, in village after village...
873
01:01:24,260 --> 01:01:29,425
...he argued that Indian nations
stood at the brink of disaster.
874
01:01:30,567 --> 01:01:33,968
Where today are the powerful tribes
of our people?
875
01:01:34,504 --> 01:01:38,167
They have vanished before the avarice
and oppression of the white man...
876
01:01:38,341 --> 01:01:40,832
...as snow before the summer sun.
877
01:01:41,011 --> 01:01:43,536
Will we let ourselves be destroyed
in our turn...
878
01:01:43,713 --> 01:01:46,443
...without making an effort
worthy of our race?
879
01:01:47,217 --> 01:01:49,242
Shall we, without a struggle...
880
01:01:49,419 --> 01:01:52,081
...give up our homes, our lands...
881
01:01:52,255 --> 01:01:56,419
...the graves of our dead and everything
that is dear and sacred to us?
882
01:01:56,593 --> 01:02:01,394
I know you will say with me,
"Never. Never!"
883
01:02:03,233 --> 01:02:06,031
But Tecumseh's passion
and presence alone...
884
01:02:06,202 --> 01:02:09,933
...could not overcome a growing
cultural rift.
885
01:02:10,907 --> 01:02:13,740
Many Southern Indian leaders
were encouraging their nations...
886
01:02:13,910 --> 01:02:17,141
...to emulate mainstream white society.
887
01:02:17,313 --> 01:02:21,773
Others saw military conflict
with the U.S. As suicide.
888
01:02:22,552 --> 01:02:26,079
Although Tecumseh found passionate
supporters everywhere...
889
01:02:26,256 --> 01:02:30,818
...his hope that Southern nations
would join in a unified resistance...
890
01:02:30,994 --> 01:02:33,019
...was not to be.
891
01:02:34,998 --> 01:02:37,296
In January of 1812...
892
01:02:37,467 --> 01:02:42,837
...Tecumseh returned to Indiana
to find Prophetstown destroyed...
893
01:02:43,006 --> 01:02:45,634
...its people dispersed.
894
01:02:49,479 --> 01:02:52,141
Governor Harrison had waited
until Tecumseh...
895
01:02:52,315 --> 01:02:55,773
...the military leader of the movement,
had departed for the South...
896
01:02:55,952 --> 01:02:58,386
...before moving on Prophetstown.
897
01:02:59,989 --> 01:03:02,890
But Tenskwatawa,
with a much smaller force...
898
01:03:03,059 --> 01:03:05,653
...attacked the Americans
before they reached the town...
899
01:03:05,829 --> 01:03:08,627
...allowing the residents to evacuate.
900
01:03:12,569 --> 01:03:16,903
The following day, Harrison entered
the deserted town on the Tippecanoe River...
901
01:03:17,073 --> 01:03:19,268
...and burned it to the ground.
902
01:03:19,742 --> 01:03:24,145
Although his army suffered twice
the casualties of the Indian force...
903
01:03:24,314 --> 01:03:28,182
...Harrison claimed a victory
that would eventually propel him...
904
01:03:28,351 --> 01:03:30,410
...to the presidency.
905
01:03:32,455 --> 01:03:34,719
Despite the loss of Prophetstown...
906
01:03:34,891 --> 01:03:40,090
...Tecumseh and the Prophet began
immediately to rebuild their movement.
907
01:03:42,232 --> 01:03:47,636
Then the War of 1812 broke out
between the British and United States.
908
01:03:47,804 --> 01:03:50,864
Suddenly, there was a new opportunity
to push back the Americans...
909
01:03:51,040 --> 01:03:53,167
...through an alliance with the British.
910
01:03:53,343 --> 01:03:57,177
The two brothers moved north to Canada
with 1000 men.
911
01:03:57,347 --> 01:04:02,614
There, they were joined by allies from
throughout the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes.
912
01:04:05,188 --> 01:04:07,281
After years of tireless effort...
913
01:04:07,457 --> 01:04:11,655
...Tecumseh's unified resistance
was now a reality.
914
01:04:12,996 --> 01:04:17,262
The British and Indian force laid siege
to the fort at Detroit...
915
01:04:17,433 --> 01:04:19,993
...quickly forcing its surrender.
916
01:04:20,170 --> 01:04:23,867
American forts fell at Mackinac
and Dearborn.
917
01:04:24,207 --> 01:04:28,644
In January of 1813,
Tecumseh and his allies...
918
01:04:28,811 --> 01:04:32,372
...forced the surrender
of the Americans at Frenchtown.
919
01:04:33,316 --> 01:04:37,616
Tecumseh hoped to push the campaign
into the Ohio Valley...
920
01:04:38,488 --> 01:04:43,892
...but the following May, British
and Indian forces suffered their first defeat.
921
01:04:44,060 --> 01:04:45,925
Then, during the summer...
922
01:04:46,095 --> 01:04:49,030
...the war began to turn against them...
923
01:04:49,199 --> 01:04:53,295
...and Tecumseh could see
the British will failing.
924
01:04:54,737 --> 01:04:58,605
He confronted the British commander,
General Proctor.
925
01:04:59,475 --> 01:05:03,309
You always told us that you would never
draw your foot off British ground.
926
01:05:03,479 --> 01:05:06,039
But now we see you are drawing back.
927
01:05:06,482 --> 01:05:09,451
We are very much astonished
to see you tying up everything...
928
01:05:09,619 --> 01:05:11,211
...and preparing to run away...
929
01:05:11,387 --> 01:05:14,914
...without letting us know
what your intentions are.
930
01:05:16,559 --> 01:05:19,027
Without informing their Indian allies...
931
01:05:19,195 --> 01:05:21,686
...the British made plans
to abandon Detroit...
932
01:05:21,864 --> 01:05:24,697
...as a large American force approached.
933
01:05:24,867 --> 01:05:29,201
At the head of the American Army rode
the man who destroyed Prophetstown...
934
01:05:29,372 --> 01:05:32,535
...Governor William Henry Harrison.
935
01:05:34,644 --> 01:05:38,774
Tecumseh demanded that
General Proctor make a stand.
936
01:05:39,983 --> 01:05:41,348
"Listen...
937
01:05:41,517 --> 01:05:43,849
...we wish to remain here
and fight our enemy.
938
01:05:44,020 --> 01:05:46,420
You have got the arms and ammunition.
939
01:05:46,589 --> 01:05:49,183
If you have an idea of going away,
give them to us...
940
01:05:49,359 --> 01:05:51,020
...and you may go and welcome.
941
01:05:51,194 --> 01:05:54,857
As for us, our lives are in the hands
of the Creator.
942
01:05:55,031 --> 01:05:57,295
We are determined to defend our lands...
943
01:05:57,467 --> 01:06:01,767
...and if it be his will, we wish to leave
our bones upon them."
944
01:06:01,938 --> 01:06:04,805
Tecumseh, Shawnee.
945
01:06:05,808 --> 01:06:08,675
Faced with Harrison's 3000-man army...
946
01:06:08,845 --> 01:06:13,145
...Tecumseh was forced to fall back
with the British 80 miles.
947
01:06:13,316 --> 01:06:16,308
They halted their retreat
along the Thames River.
948
01:06:16,486 --> 01:06:19,387
There, Tecumseh would make his stand.
949
01:06:21,924 --> 01:06:24,358
On October 5th, 1813...
950
01:06:24,527 --> 01:06:29,829
...the Shawnee leader rallied his men
as he inspected the lines from horseback.
951
01:06:32,168 --> 01:06:35,331
He urged General Proctor to do the same.
952
01:06:35,772 --> 01:06:39,674
Tell your men to be firm,
and all will be well!
953
01:06:41,144 --> 01:06:46,912
Tecumseh dismounted and joined his troops
at their position in a swampy thicket.
954
01:06:47,717 --> 01:06:51,084
The night before, he had had a premonition
about the battle.
955
01:06:51,254 --> 01:06:55,054
And in it, he had foreseen his death.
956
01:06:56,526 --> 01:07:01,054
Tecumseh removed the scarlet British
military jacket he always wore...
957
01:07:01,230 --> 01:07:04,722
...and dressed in traditional
Shawnee clothes.
958
01:07:06,469 --> 01:07:08,733
He handed his sword
to a trusted friend...
959
01:07:08,905 --> 01:07:11,965
...and instructed him to give it
to his son when he grew up...
960
01:07:12,141 --> 01:07:15,167
...and to tell him
what his father stood for.
961
01:07:16,379 --> 01:07:19,974
In midafternoon,
Harrison's cavalry charged.
962
01:07:23,086 --> 01:07:26,283
The British lines immediately
collapsed and ran...
963
01:07:26,456 --> 01:07:31,758
...with the British general on horseback
passing his own troops as they fled.
964
01:07:33,329 --> 01:07:37,789
Tecumseh did not run.
And neither did his men.
965
01:07:38,668 --> 01:07:40,499
From a nearby hillside...
966
01:07:40,670 --> 01:07:46,267
...the Shawnee Prophet watched as the
Americans charged his brother's position.
967
01:07:48,511 --> 01:07:52,003
Tecumseh received a gunshot
wound to the chest...
968
01:07:52,181 --> 01:07:53,944
...and fell.
969
01:07:55,918 --> 01:07:59,547
Thirty minutes later,
the battle was over.
970
01:08:04,460 --> 01:08:06,587
For the Ohio Valley nations...
971
01:08:06,763 --> 01:08:10,392
...the eventual British defeat
in the War of 1812...
972
01:08:10,566 --> 01:08:15,265
...would simply underscore
the tragic loss of Tecumseh.
973
01:08:15,438 --> 01:08:19,272
In the years before the war,
he had traveled the Indian roads...
974
01:08:19,442 --> 01:08:22,741
...stretching in every direction
from Prophetstown.
975
01:08:22,912 --> 01:08:26,643
In every village,
his warning had been the same:
976
01:08:26,816 --> 01:08:32,379
"The Americans will not stop
until they have taken all our land. "
977
01:08:33,089 --> 01:08:37,150
Tecumseh had seen the future.
978
01:08:43,766 --> 01:08:45,028
"While strong...
979
01:08:45,201 --> 01:08:49,729
...it has been our obvious policy
to weaken them.
980
01:08:49,906 --> 01:08:51,771
Now that they are weak and harmless...
981
01:08:51,941 --> 01:08:55,377
...and most of their lands fallen
into our hands...
982
01:08:55,545 --> 01:08:58,878
...they must be taught to improve
their condition."
983
01:08:59,048 --> 01:09:03,985
William Clark,
superintendent of Indian Affairs.
984
01:09:05,087 --> 01:09:08,716
For decades, federal agents
and Christian missionaries...
985
01:09:08,891 --> 01:09:12,418
...had pressured Indian nations
to abandon their traditions...
986
01:09:12,595 --> 01:09:15,496
...and assimilate into white society.
987
01:09:15,665 --> 01:09:19,294
The policy, promoted by Thomas Jefferson
and others after him...
988
01:09:19,469 --> 01:09:22,632
...advocated intermarriage,
religious conversion...
989
01:09:22,805 --> 01:09:26,332
...and financial incentives
to turn Indian people...
990
01:09:26,509 --> 01:09:28,875
...into Americanized farmers.
991
01:09:30,847 --> 01:09:34,715
In the South,
U.S. Policy was succeeding.
992
01:09:34,884 --> 01:09:39,218
Traditionals had been eliminated
as a serious military threat...
993
01:09:39,388 --> 01:09:42,482
...and American culture was spreading.
994
01:09:44,927 --> 01:09:46,690
The large Southern nations...
995
01:09:46,863 --> 01:09:52,199
...the Cherokee, Choctaw,
Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole...
996
01:09:52,368 --> 01:09:56,805
...came to be known as
the "Five Civilized Tribes."
997
01:09:57,440 --> 01:10:02,742
To the Americans, the most civilized
of these were the Cherokee.
998
01:10:02,912 --> 01:10:05,278
We call ourselves Aniyunwiya...
999
01:10:05,448 --> 01:10:09,714
...which is translated into
"the Principal People."
1000
01:10:12,221 --> 01:10:13,813
When the Creator made the world...
1001
01:10:13,990 --> 01:10:18,620
...he created these beautiful mountains
here in the Smokies.
1002
01:10:18,794 --> 01:10:20,785
And he needed someone to live here...
1003
01:10:20,963 --> 01:10:25,662
...someone who would take care of what
he'd made and what he gave to us...
1004
01:10:25,835 --> 01:10:28,201
...so he chose the Cherokee people.
1005
01:10:28,371 --> 01:10:30,305
The ancient Cherokee nation...
1006
01:10:30,473 --> 01:10:34,341
...flourished in and around
the great Smoky Mountains...
1007
01:10:34,510 --> 01:10:36,501
...building their capital of Echota...
1008
01:10:36,679 --> 01:10:41,446
...in the foothills southwest of present-day
Knoxville, Tennessee.
1009
01:10:41,617 --> 01:10:45,849
Echota was a peace town,
where no one could be harmed.
1010
01:10:47,523 --> 01:10:49,957
But with each passing generation...
1011
01:10:50,126 --> 01:10:55,621
...there were fewer and fewer who clung
to the traditional Cherokee-life way.
1012
01:10:56,999 --> 01:10:59,092
Many Cherokee became successful...
1013
01:10:59,268 --> 01:11:02,237
...modeling themselves after
their American neighbors...
1014
01:11:02,405 --> 01:11:07,468
...living in two-story houses on plantations,
raising European crops...
1015
01:11:07,643 --> 01:11:12,910
...owning slaves and educating
their children in American schools.
1016
01:11:14,750 --> 01:11:18,277
In 1817, a new national council formed...
1017
01:11:18,454 --> 01:11:23,357
...with wealthy landowner John Ross
as its principal elected chief.
1018
01:11:24,060 --> 01:11:27,723
The centuries-old clan-based government
was replaced...
1019
01:11:27,897 --> 01:11:32,231
...with a republican state modeled
after the American system.
1020
01:11:33,769 --> 01:11:37,068
Echota, the venerated
Cherokee peace town...
1021
01:11:37,239 --> 01:11:42,006
...was replaced as seat of government
by New Echota in Georgia.
1022
01:11:44,680 --> 01:11:47,979
In 1821, a man named Sequoya...
1023
01:11:48,150 --> 01:11:53,087
...completed an alphabet that committed
the Cherokee language to writing.
1024
01:11:53,255 --> 01:11:58,192
Soon they had their own newspaper,
the Cherokee Phoenix.
1025
01:11:58,928 --> 01:12:01,488
But despite Cherokee efforts to coexist...
1026
01:12:01,664 --> 01:12:06,158
...and United States government policies to
bring Indian nations into the American way...
1027
01:12:06,335 --> 01:12:10,829
...it was a relationship
marred by racism and greed.
1028
01:12:13,609 --> 01:12:16,601
In the middle of a booming slave economy
built around cotton...
1029
01:12:16,779 --> 01:12:19,475
...demand for land was growing...
1030
01:12:20,316 --> 01:12:25,344
...and the Southern Indian nations
still controlled vast areas.
1031
01:12:25,521 --> 01:12:30,185
In 1828, Andrew Jackson,
like William Henry Harrison...
1032
01:12:30,359 --> 01:12:36,093
...used his reputation as an Indian fighter
to propel himself to the presidency.
1033
01:12:38,434 --> 01:12:41,835
Greed, usually...
1034
01:12:42,004 --> 01:12:45,098
...is a thing that makes people...
1035
01:12:45,274 --> 01:12:48,675
...do things they wouldn't do otherwise.
1036
01:12:50,246 --> 01:12:54,046
Gold was discovered down in Georgia.
1037
01:12:55,918 --> 01:12:59,479
Hundreds of miners illegally swarmed
across the Cherokee border...
1038
01:12:59,655 --> 01:13:01,953
...to lay claim to the vein.
1039
01:13:02,124 --> 01:13:05,355
The Cherokee turned to
the United States for protection.
1040
01:13:05,528 --> 01:13:08,292
But President Jackson,
himself a land speculator...
1041
01:13:08,464 --> 01:13:12,560
...removed federal troops from the area,
telling Georgia officials:
1042
01:13:12,735 --> 01:13:17,138
"Build a fire under the Cherokee.
When it gets hot enough, they'll move. "
1043
01:13:18,574 --> 01:13:22,840
The greed of the white man grew...
1044
01:13:23,012 --> 01:13:27,711
...and the first thing that came
into his mind was:
1045
01:13:28,951 --> 01:13:33,911
"We must obtain this land...
1046
01:13:34,090 --> 01:13:36,991
...at any cost."
1047
01:13:37,159 --> 01:13:43,155
And that idea of the removal
started there.
1048
01:13:45,334 --> 01:13:47,859
For the Indian people who believed
their salvation...
1049
01:13:48,037 --> 01:13:50,801
...lay in emulating American society...
1050
01:13:50,973 --> 01:13:55,603
...the most bitter betrayal
came on May 28th, 1830.
1051
01:13:55,778 --> 01:13:57,575
Under Jackson's advocacy...
1052
01:13:57,747 --> 01:14:00,841
...the Indian Removal Act was passed.
1053
01:14:01,016 --> 01:14:02,711
Nations east of the Mississippi...
1054
01:14:02,885 --> 01:14:04,978
...were to give up
their homelands forever...
1055
01:14:05,154 --> 01:14:09,682
...and move to a special
Indian territory in Oklahoma.
1056
01:14:12,795 --> 01:14:17,357
"The Americans said,
'The land shall be yours forever.'
1057
01:14:18,134 --> 01:14:19,897
Now they say:
1058
01:14:20,069 --> 01:14:24,165
'The land you live on is not yours.
1059
01:14:24,340 --> 01:14:28,299
Go beyond the Mississippi.
There is game.
1060
01:14:28,477 --> 01:14:33,710
There you may remain while
the grass grows and the water runs.'
1061
01:14:33,883 --> 01:14:35,407
Brothers...
1062
01:14:35,584 --> 01:14:39,213
...will not our Great Father
come there also?"
1063
01:14:40,122 --> 01:14:43,853
Speckled Snake, Creek.
1064
01:14:46,162 --> 01:14:47,595
At New Echota...
1065
01:14:47,763 --> 01:14:51,062
...Cherokee leaders felt deeply betrayed.
1066
01:14:51,233 --> 01:14:53,098
Principal Chief John Ross...
1067
01:14:53,269 --> 01:14:56,136
...and wealthy Cherokee landholder
Major Ridge...
1068
01:14:56,305 --> 01:14:58,705
...both had fought alongside
President Jackson...
1069
01:14:58,874 --> 01:15:02,935
...in a war against traditional factions
of the Creek nation.
1070
01:15:04,780 --> 01:15:07,681
Meeting in violation
of Georgia state law...
1071
01:15:07,850 --> 01:15:11,115
...the Cherokee Council
vehemently opposed removal...
1072
01:15:11,287 --> 01:15:14,688
...and reminded the nation of their law
that carried the death penalty...
1073
01:15:14,857 --> 01:15:19,385
...for anyone who sold Cherokee lands
without authorization.
1074
01:15:20,362 --> 01:15:22,956
"Even if report was favorable...
1075
01:15:23,132 --> 01:15:27,626
...as to the fertility of the soil
in Indian territory...
1076
01:15:27,803 --> 01:15:31,762
...if the running streams
were as transparent as crystal...
1077
01:15:31,941 --> 01:15:34,307
...and the silver fish abounded...
1078
01:15:35,010 --> 01:15:38,411
...we should still adhere
to the purpose of spending...
1079
01:15:38,581 --> 01:15:43,814
...the remnant of our lives
on the soil that gave us birth."
1080
01:15:45,454 --> 01:15:47,684
Cherokee Council.
1081
01:15:48,757 --> 01:15:52,557
Indian protests fell on deaf ears.
1082
01:15:52,728 --> 01:15:56,391
The Choctaw were the first
made to bend.
1083
01:15:59,068 --> 01:16:04,267
"Painful in the extreme
is the mandate of our expulsion.
1084
01:16:05,975 --> 01:16:10,810
I ask you in the name of justice
for a repose for myself...
1085
01:16:10,980 --> 01:16:13,448
...and my injured people.
1086
01:16:13,616 --> 01:16:15,208
Let us alone.
1087
01:16:15,384 --> 01:16:17,318
We will not harm you.
1088
01:16:17,486 --> 01:16:19,681
We want rest.
1089
01:16:21,257 --> 01:16:24,090
We hope, in the name of justice...
1090
01:16:24,260 --> 01:16:29,391
...that another outrage may never be
committed against us...
1091
01:16:29,565 --> 01:16:32,796
...and that we may, for the future...
1092
01:16:32,968 --> 01:16:39,032
...not be driven about as beasts
who benefit from a change of pasture.
1093
01:16:39,208 --> 01:16:43,110
We go forth, sorrowful, knowing that...
1094
01:16:43,279 --> 01:16:45,839
...wrong has been done."
1095
01:16:46,548 --> 01:16:49,381
George Harkin, Choctaw.
1096
01:16:50,886 --> 01:16:54,515
Between 1831 and 1832...
1097
01:16:54,690 --> 01:16:59,957
...13,000 Choctaw made the long
and difficult trek to the West.
1098
01:17:00,562 --> 01:17:04,555
Two thousand were to die along the way.
1099
01:17:06,602 --> 01:17:09,093
"My voice is weak.
1100
01:17:09,271 --> 01:17:11,865
You can scarcely hear me.
1101
01:17:12,574 --> 01:17:15,338
It is not the shout of a warrior...
1102
01:17:15,511 --> 01:17:18,571
...but the wail of an infant.
1103
01:17:20,916 --> 01:17:25,876
I have lost it in mourning over
the misfortunes of my people.
1104
01:17:28,390 --> 01:17:31,416
Their tears came in the raindrops...
1105
01:17:31,593 --> 01:17:34,687
...and their voices in the wailing winds.
1106
01:17:36,065 --> 01:17:39,296
Our land was taken away."
1107
01:17:40,169 --> 01:17:43,400
Colonel Webb, Choctaw.
1108
01:17:44,106 --> 01:17:46,199
The Creek were next.
1109
01:17:46,375 --> 01:17:48,809
In the spring of 1836...
1110
01:17:48,978 --> 01:17:53,108
...the American Army forced them
to surrender all their land.
1111
01:17:54,216 --> 01:17:58,084
One-third of the Creek died
on the journey west.
1112
01:18:00,489 --> 01:18:04,755
The way I feel is
there is a wound in our hearts.
1113
01:18:06,328 --> 01:18:11,288
And that was a wound
in our ancestors' heart.
1114
01:18:11,467 --> 01:18:15,460
And that wound will never be healed.
1115
01:18:15,637 --> 01:18:20,904
And I feel like that
whatever they do for us...
1116
01:18:21,076 --> 01:18:24,273
...will never pay up.
1117
01:18:26,949 --> 01:18:30,942
"Last night I saw the sun set
for the last time...
1118
01:18:34,189 --> 01:18:37,625
...and its light shine upon the treetops...
1119
01:18:38,961 --> 01:18:45,196
...and the land and the water
that I am never to look upon again."
1120
01:18:47,436 --> 01:18:50,200
Menewa, Creek.
1121
01:18:57,012 --> 01:19:00,573
Every year, from 1830 to 1838...
1122
01:19:00,749 --> 01:19:04,412
...Cherokee Principal Chief John Ross
visited Washington...
1123
01:19:04,586 --> 01:19:07,453
...attempting to forestall removal.
1124
01:19:08,090 --> 01:19:12,754
"We have been made to drink
of the bitter cup of humiliation.
1125
01:19:12,928 --> 01:19:14,987
Treated like dogs...
1126
01:19:15,164 --> 01:19:19,658
...our lives, our liberties,
the sport of the white man.
1127
01:19:19,835 --> 01:19:25,273
Our country and the graves of our fathers
torn from us in cruel succession...
1128
01:19:25,441 --> 01:19:30,276
...until we find ourselves
fugitives, vagrants...
1129
01:19:30,446 --> 01:19:34,246
...and strangers in our own country."
1130
01:19:34,716 --> 01:19:37,651
John Ross, Cherokee.
1131
01:19:38,754 --> 01:19:41,348
Ross wrote hundreds of letters.
1132
01:19:42,091 --> 01:19:46,619
He met several times with President
Jackson, with whom he had served in war.
1133
01:19:46,795 --> 01:19:52,233
He petitioned Congress and brought two
lawsuits before the U.S. Supreme Court.
1134
01:19:53,869 --> 01:19:56,838
"We are not ignorant of our condition.
1135
01:19:57,539 --> 01:20:01,168
We are not insensible to our sufferings.
1136
01:20:01,343 --> 01:20:03,174
We feel them.
1137
01:20:03,345 --> 01:20:06,246
We groan under their pressure...
1138
01:20:06,415 --> 01:20:12,376
...and anticipation crowds our breasts
with sorrow yet to come."
1139
01:20:13,922 --> 01:20:16,755
John Ross, Cherokee.
1140
01:20:17,226 --> 01:20:19,319
Ross did win one victory...
1141
01:20:19,495 --> 01:20:23,158
...when the Supreme Court ruled that
the Cherokee were a sovereign nation...
1142
01:20:23,332 --> 01:20:26,768
...and not subject
to Georgia's jurisdiction.
1143
01:20:26,935 --> 01:20:29,495
But President Jackson
disregarded the ruling...
1144
01:20:29,671 --> 01:20:31,935
...and belittled the power
of the Supreme Court...
1145
01:20:32,107 --> 01:20:36,544
...by challenging the chief justice
to enforce the law himself.
1146
01:20:38,914 --> 01:20:42,315
Georgia held lotteries for Cherokee lands.
1147
01:20:43,385 --> 01:20:46,684
State troops forced people
from their houses.
1148
01:20:46,855 --> 01:20:49,983
Cherokee government buildings
at New Echota were sold off...
1149
01:20:50,159 --> 01:20:54,391
...along with the residence
of Principal Chief John Ross.
1150
01:20:54,563 --> 01:20:58,693
Cherokee leader Major Ridge
also lost his plantation.
1151
01:20:58,867 --> 01:21:03,031
He now became convinced of the futility
and peril of resistance.
1152
01:21:03,805 --> 01:21:08,936
I know the Indians have an older title
than the United States.
1153
01:21:09,111 --> 01:21:13,104
We obtained the land
from the living God above.
1154
01:21:13,282 --> 01:21:16,251
They got their title from the British.
1155
01:21:16,785 --> 01:21:18,582
Yet they are strong...
1156
01:21:18,754 --> 01:21:20,847
...and we are weak.
1157
01:21:21,924 --> 01:21:24,051
Major Ridge, as I understand it...
1158
01:21:24,226 --> 01:21:26,956
...he advocated for a good
period of time...
1159
01:21:28,931 --> 01:21:31,627
...that no more Cherokee lands
would be sold or ceded...
1160
01:21:31,800 --> 01:21:33,290
...under penalty of death.
1161
01:21:33,869 --> 01:21:37,305
And then later, he wound up
doing the same darn thing.
1162
01:21:37,472 --> 01:21:39,406
As a matter of fact, worse.
1163
01:21:39,575 --> 01:21:41,202
Ridge traveled to Washington...
1164
01:21:41,376 --> 01:21:44,709
...without the authorization
of the Cherokee Council.
1165
01:21:44,880 --> 01:21:47,713
There, he met with federal officials.
1166
01:21:48,650 --> 01:21:50,709
Ridge privately negotiated a treaty...
1167
01:21:50,886 --> 01:21:54,287
...ceding Cherokee lands for $5 million...
1168
01:21:54,456 --> 01:21:59,393
...new land in the Oklahoma-Indian territory,
and removal assistance.
1169
01:21:59,561 --> 01:22:03,053
We had been a country for 500 years
before they were...
1170
01:22:04,633 --> 01:22:06,760
...and we were on an equal status.
1171
01:22:06,935 --> 01:22:09,597
And every time we had a treaty
from then on...
1172
01:22:09,771 --> 01:22:13,434
...we got a little less status,
and they got a little more land.
1173
01:22:14,476 --> 01:22:17,707
Ridge returned home to convince
the national council...
1174
01:22:17,879 --> 01:22:20,211
...to accept the treaty terms.
1175
01:22:20,382 --> 01:22:24,978
I would willingly die to preserve
the graves of our fathers...
1176
01:22:25,487 --> 01:22:30,049
...but any forcible effort to keep them
will cost us our lands...
1177
01:22:30,759 --> 01:22:32,454
...our lives...
1178
01:22:32,628 --> 01:22:35,119
...and the lives of our children.
1179
01:22:35,731 --> 01:22:38,097
There is but one path of safety...
1180
01:22:38,767 --> 01:22:42,328
...one road to future existence
as a nation.
1181
01:22:42,904 --> 01:22:45,930
That path is open before you.
1182
01:22:46,375 --> 01:22:49,401
Make a treaty of cession.
1183
01:22:49,578 --> 01:22:50,943
Give up these lands...
1184
01:22:51,113 --> 01:22:55,072
...and go over beyond the great
Father of Waters.
1185
01:22:56,485 --> 01:22:59,352
The national council rejected the treaty.
1186
01:22:59,521 --> 01:23:03,252
But Ridge, with no legal authority
to represent the Cherokee nation...
1187
01:23:03,425 --> 01:23:06,258
...met secretly with U.S. Officials.
1188
01:23:06,428 --> 01:23:09,829
Defying the council's death sentence
for the selling of Cherokee lands...
1189
01:23:09,998 --> 01:23:14,867
...Ridge, his son, and others
signed the removal treaty.
1190
01:23:20,809 --> 01:23:23,869
On May 17th, 1836...
1191
01:23:24,046 --> 01:23:27,607
...the U.S. Senate ratified
the treaty by a single vote.
1192
01:23:27,783 --> 01:23:32,379
The Cherokee nation was given
two years to move west.
1193
01:23:33,221 --> 01:23:38,249
In that time, Ridge and 2000 Cherokee
emigrated to Oklahoma...
1194
01:23:38,427 --> 01:23:42,261
...while the vast majority of the nation
ignored the illegal treaty...
1195
01:23:42,431 --> 01:23:44,831
...and remained on their lands.
1196
01:23:46,702 --> 01:23:49,330
In late spring of 1838...
1197
01:23:49,504 --> 01:23:51,904
...as the deadline for removal passed...
1198
01:23:52,074 --> 01:23:55,066
...General Winfield Scott
arrived in Georgia...
1199
01:23:55,243 --> 01:23:57,871
...with 7000 soldiers.
1200
01:23:58,280 --> 01:24:01,113
His orders were to
remove the Cherokee...
1201
01:24:01,283 --> 01:24:03,410
...by any means necessary.
1202
01:24:04,219 --> 01:24:06,881
"Think of this,
my Cherokee brethren:
1203
01:24:07,055 --> 01:24:08,545
I am an old warrior...
1204
01:24:08,724 --> 01:24:11,818
...and have been present
at many a scene of slaughter.
1205
01:24:11,993 --> 01:24:14,894
But spare me, I beseech you...
1206
01:24:15,063 --> 01:24:18,931
...the horror of witnessing
the destruction of the Cherokees.
1207
01:24:19,101 --> 01:24:20,796
Do not even wait...
1208
01:24:20,969 --> 01:24:23,995
...for the close approach of the troops."
1209
01:24:24,539 --> 01:24:27,007
General Winfield Scott.
1210
01:24:28,310 --> 01:24:31,575
Thousands of Cherokee were
rounded up at bayonet-point...
1211
01:24:31,747 --> 01:24:35,945
...unable to carry with them anything
but the most necessary belongings...
1212
01:24:36,118 --> 01:24:39,747
...then held in stockades
to await removal.
1213
01:24:40,222 --> 01:24:44,556
My great-great-grandmother,
when they came to take them away...
1214
01:24:45,127 --> 01:24:47,186
...they drove them out of the house...
1215
01:24:47,362 --> 01:24:50,160
...didn't even let the kids
get their shoes or anything.
1216
01:24:50,332 --> 01:24:52,459
They were setting down at dinner...
1217
01:24:52,634 --> 01:24:56,900
...and they got outside and they were
kind of roughing her around...
1218
01:24:57,072 --> 01:25:01,031
...and my great-great-grandfather...
1219
01:25:01,910 --> 01:25:03,468
...kind of fought back.
1220
01:25:03,645 --> 01:25:07,081
They throwed him in chains
and took him off one way...
1221
01:25:07,249 --> 01:25:09,615
...took her and the children
off another way.
1222
01:25:11,153 --> 01:25:13,883
Conditions inside stockades
were terrible...
1223
01:25:14,055 --> 01:25:15,955
...and many died.
1224
01:25:18,794 --> 01:25:22,230
"We have been made prisoners
by your men...
1225
01:25:22,397 --> 01:25:25,161
...but we do not fight against you.
1226
01:25:25,667 --> 01:25:28,568
We have never done you any harm.
1227
01:25:28,737 --> 01:25:30,398
We are Indians.
1228
01:25:30,906 --> 01:25:33,670
We have hearts that feel.
1229
01:25:34,376 --> 01:25:36,606
We do not want to die.
1230
01:25:37,579 --> 01:25:39,774
We are in trouble, sir.
1231
01:25:40,382 --> 01:25:43,545
Our hearts are very heavy.
1232
01:25:43,718 --> 01:25:45,379
Very heavy.
1233
01:25:46,555 --> 01:25:48,580
We cannot make talk."
1234
01:25:49,291 --> 01:25:51,418
Cherokee Council.
1235
01:25:53,361 --> 01:25:58,025
Sixteen thousand Cherokee
were removed from their homeland.
1236
01:25:59,267 --> 01:26:04,102
Principal Chief John Ross left
with his family on the last convoy.
1237
01:26:04,272 --> 01:26:07,469
His wife, along with one-quarter
of the nation...
1238
01:26:07,642 --> 01:26:09,542
...would die on the forced exodus...
1239
01:26:09,711 --> 01:26:13,408
...that would be known as
the "Trail of Tears."
1240
01:26:13,582 --> 01:26:16,107
The non-lndian people who came here...
1241
01:26:16,284 --> 01:26:20,152
...did not view the Cherokee people
as human beings...
1242
01:26:20,322 --> 01:26:24,053
...which made it easy to dishonor
and desecrate these people.
1243
01:26:28,029 --> 01:26:33,262
People sometimes say
I look like I never smile.
1244
01:26:36,204 --> 01:26:39,833
Most of the time,
I keep thinking of the old nation...
1245
01:26:40,008 --> 01:26:44,877
...and wonder how the big mountain
now looks in springtime...
1246
01:26:45,347 --> 01:26:50,580
...and how the boys and young men
used to swim in the big river.
1247
01:26:52,487 --> 01:26:57,550
And then there comes before me
the picture of the march.
1248
01:26:57,726 --> 01:27:01,355
Maybe someday we will understand...
1249
01:27:01,530 --> 01:27:04,966
...why the Cherokees had to suffer.
1250
01:27:10,605 --> 01:27:13,802
While the body of the nation
was forced west...
1251
01:27:13,975 --> 01:27:16,637
...several hundred Cherokee
evaded Scott's men...
1252
01:27:16,811 --> 01:27:21,180
...and retreated to the deep recesses
of the Smoky Mountains.
1253
01:27:22,551 --> 01:27:25,850
The Army, ineffective at locating
the free Cherokee...
1254
01:27:26,021 --> 01:27:28,512
...was recalled from the mountains.
1255
01:27:29,558 --> 01:27:31,219
As the troops were withdrawing...
1256
01:27:31,393 --> 01:27:37,491
...one cavalry detachment stumbled upon
a small camp of 12 free Cherokee.
1257
01:27:37,666 --> 01:27:39,463
Among them was an older man...
1258
01:27:39,634 --> 01:27:44,230
...Tsali, his wife, brother and sons.
1259
01:27:45,440 --> 01:27:48,136
When the Cherokee refused to submit
to the soldiers...
1260
01:27:48,310 --> 01:27:52,508
...Tsali's wife was jabbed with a bayonet,
and a struggle ensued.
1261
01:27:52,681 --> 01:27:55,411
Two soldiers were killed.
1262
01:27:57,752 --> 01:28:02,121
Tsali and his family fled deeper
into the Smoky Mountains.
1263
01:28:02,857 --> 01:28:05,121
But U.S. Soldiers had died...
1264
01:28:05,293 --> 01:28:11,391
...and now General Scott would have to
make the Cherokee pay at any cost.
1265
01:28:12,667 --> 01:28:16,865
With winter approaching,
Scott delivered an ultimatum to Tsali:
1266
01:28:17,038 --> 01:28:22,237
"Surrender, or 7000 soldiers would be
unleashed on the free Cherokee...
1267
01:28:22,410 --> 01:28:27,177
...until the last of their nation
was captured or killed. "
1268
01:28:34,055 --> 01:28:37,456
Tsali made a fateful decision.
1269
01:28:38,493 --> 01:28:42,725
He offered to surrender, if Scott would let
the rest of the Cherokee resistance...
1270
01:28:42,897 --> 01:28:46,060
...remain in their
Smoky Mountain homeland.
1271
01:28:46,534 --> 01:28:52,200
Scott agreed, and Tsali surrendered
along with his family.
1272
01:28:53,241 --> 01:28:56,870
Tsali approaches and offers the gun...
1273
01:28:57,045 --> 01:28:59,843
...holding both ends with each hand.
1274
01:29:00,649 --> 01:29:01,911
General Scott...
1275
01:29:03,351 --> 01:29:05,148
...takes the gun...
1276
01:29:05,954 --> 01:29:10,220
...and they are to be martyred.
1277
01:29:14,129 --> 01:29:18,691
They were taken to a place at the mouth
of the Tuckaseigee River.
1278
01:29:20,235 --> 01:29:24,399
There, Tsali, his brother,
and his two oldest sons...
1279
01:29:24,572 --> 01:29:27,507
...would be executed by firing squad.
1280
01:29:27,676 --> 01:29:30,577
Tied to a tree, awaiting death...
1281
01:29:30,745 --> 01:29:34,442
...Tsali had a last request of a friend.
1282
01:29:36,384 --> 01:29:38,215
U'tsala...
1283
01:29:38,887 --> 01:29:42,323
...there is one favor I wish to ask
at your hands.
1284
01:29:43,024 --> 01:29:47,552
You know I have a little boy
who was lost among the mountains.
1285
01:29:48,496 --> 01:29:51,329
I want you to find that boy
if he is not dead...
1286
01:29:51,499 --> 01:29:54,468
...and tell him the last words
of his father...
1287
01:29:54,636 --> 01:29:58,037
...were that he must never go
beyond the Mississippi...
1288
01:29:58,206 --> 01:30:01,642
...but die in the land of his birth.
1289
01:30:03,144 --> 01:30:06,443
It is sweet to die in one's native land...
1290
01:30:06,614 --> 01:30:10,573
...and be buried by the margins
of one's native stream.
1291
01:30:12,854 --> 01:30:15,789
On November 25th, 1838...
1292
01:30:15,957 --> 01:30:21,293
...Tsali died for the freedom
of the Eastern Cherokee people.
1293
01:30:25,667 --> 01:30:28,295
And when he died...
1294
01:30:29,571 --> 01:30:31,664
...he was a victor.
1295
01:30:33,208 --> 01:30:36,666
He accomplished the thing...
1296
01:30:36,845 --> 01:30:40,076
...which was uppermost in his mind...
1297
01:30:40,248 --> 01:30:44,014
...that his people might go free.
1298
01:30:46,554 --> 01:30:50,718
Seven months later,
in the new Oklahoma-Indian territory...
1299
01:30:50,892 --> 01:30:54,020
...Major Ridge, his son and nephew...
1300
01:30:54,195 --> 01:30:56,823
...who had all signed the removal treaty...
1301
01:30:56,998 --> 01:31:01,492
...were assassinated for selling
the Cherokee homelands.
1302
01:31:07,308 --> 01:31:10,072
Our next program moves west
to the Great Plains...
1303
01:31:10,245 --> 01:31:12,941
...and the famous horse culture
that has come to define...
1304
01:31:13,114 --> 01:31:16,140
...the first nations of this continent
throughout the world.
1305
01:31:16,317 --> 01:31:18,979
Join us when 500 Nations returns with...
1306
01:31:19,154 --> 01:31:21,486
..."Struggle for the West."
1307
01:34:01,015 --> 01:34:03,006
Subrip by Tantico, Croatia
(03.2012)