Pontiac's
Rebellion was a war waged by Indians of the Great
Lakes region against British rule after the French
and Indian War. The Indians, who had formed alliances
with the defeated French, were dissatisfied with
treatment from British officials. Unlike the Indian's
French allies, British officials entrusted with
Indian relations refused to offer gifts to tribal
leaders such as guns, gunpowder, and ammunition.
Furthermore, English settlers began displacing Indians
from their land. While French settlers and Indians
seemed to live in relative harmony, the sheer number
of English settlers that descended on the region
prompted many Indians to support war. The Indians
began to feel as if the British were preparing for
war against them. The rebellion lasted three years,
from 1763 to 1766. Much of the war's terrible violence
occurred in 1763; the remaining years were spent
formulating peace treaties. The war was named after
Pontiac, chief of the Ottawa tribe. Indians from
many tribes including the Ottawa, Ojibwa, Shawnee,
Miami, Huron, Seneca and Potawatomi participated
in the uprising.
The
war started in May of 1763 when American Indians
laid siege to Fort Detroit. On May 7, 1763, Pontiac,
and some 900 Indian warriors seized Fort Detroit
and killed many of the British inside the fort.
British reinforcements soon arrived, but were soundly
defeated at the Battle of Bloody Run on July 31,
1763. Meanwhile, other Indian groups were taking
forts in present-day Illinois, Michigan, Indiana,
Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Many attacks followed the
same routine: Indians would trick the settlers into
allowing them access to the forts, and then capture
or kill the inhabitants. On June 22, 1763, a group
of Delaware Indians attacked Fort Pitt and killed
dozens of British settlers. On September 14, 1763,
a group 300 Seneca, Ojibwa, and Ottawa Indians attacked
a supply train near Fort Niagara. In what came to
be known as "Devil's Hole Massacre," 72
soldiers were killed. In present-day Franklin County,
Pennsylvania, four Delaware Indian warriors killed
a school teacher and her ten students. Indian raids
throughout Ohio Country began to intensify, as did
raids conducted by local militias on peaceful Indian
tribes. One local militia group, known as The Paxton
Boys, traversed the Pennsylvania countryside in
1763 and 1764 searching for Indians to kill.
Soon,
British officials realized that a more diplomatic
solution could expedite the ending of the war. Many
Indian leaders, who realized the British were not
going away, and whose people were decimated with
diseases such as Smallpox, were also in favor of
ending the conflict. Through a combination of diplomatic
and military solutions, aimed at the reclamation
of Forts Niagara, Pitt, at Detroit, the British
finally succeeded in ending the conflict. On July
25, 1766, a peace treaty was signed by Pontiac himself.
It is important to note that the treaty was not
an Indian surrender, as no prisoners were exchanged,
and no land was ceded.
