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Forgotten Allies: The Oneida Indians and the American Revolution

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J.K. Martin does it again. Just as he did with his biography of Benedict Arnold, Professor Martin has placed historical accuracy above mythology to capture the true story of a forgotten people. The Oneida saga is one of the saddest blemishes on American history, not because they were an Indian people who were taken advantage of -- as were so many, particularly out west -- but because, despite their heroic support of the colonial cause, they were taken for granted. This is a brilliant piece of work that adds immeasurably to the historical fabric of our country. A must read for all who take seriously their revolutionary war studies.

Martin and Glatthaar admirably chronicle the history of the Oneida Indians, their important contribution to the colonists during the American Revolution, and the shameful manner in which they were forgotten in the war's aftermath. Martin and Glatthaar do their part as historians to set the record straight. Hopefully, this book will serve as inspiration to others to remember that the United States would not exist but for the vital assistance of many who were ultimately excluded from the Founders' dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Five stars just aren't enough! This is a story that has needed to be told for so long and it's told here beautifully. I can't put it down. The contribution made by this book is validated by the fact that it is recommended on the website of the Oneida Nation -- that's how I found it. If you have an interest in this subject matter, it's a 'must read'!

A brilliant piece of scholarship! This is a solid piece of research that fills a significant void in Revolutionary era scholarship. It is not an apology for past wrongs nor is it tasteless pablum covering territory so many times previously travelled. Rather, this is a refreshing look at the important role made by Native Americans in casting off the British yoke.

If you want to read a great history, read this one. Once you start you won't be able to put it down until you've finished.

In this highly researched and original monograph, Glatthaar and Martin expand the historical memory and provide agency to Native-Americans. This is both a revisionist work and an "expansionist" work, so to speak. Even more this is truly a perspective of the Revolution from the Oneida point-of-view: Typical events one reads about in Revolutionary histories are absent or serve as backdrops to another relevant perspective. The Oneida culture and political systems are also discussed. Furthermore, this book is accessible to general readers and scholars. Forgotten Allies has even caught the attention of movie producers.

This book makes you wonder why the importance of the Iroquois federation to American history is so little known. Essentially, it tells how the Oneidas stood apart from the other tribes to support the American rebels out of distrust of the British. In effect, it's the other side of "Drums Along the Mohawk." The author compellingly interweaves anecdote and overviews for a clear view of the events and the individuals shaping them.

This book is an easy read and flows smoothly from one topic to the next, but lacks objectivity in its viewpoint in the first half of the book. The authors meant the book to be a narrative, an easily readable history about the Oneida Indians that will appeal to the masses. From the other reviews present here, the authors were successful. If you like your history told like a story, this is for you. Unfortunately, for graduate and doctoral students, one will find a one sided view of the events that take place in the first half of the book. Derogatory words and descriptions are often placed in front of the British figures, and their actions are given primarily negative treatment. The authors make an attempt to interject notes of the British viewpoint, but do not give it much credit. This is unfortunate, since a look at the sourcing shows a significant amount of research has been put into the revolutionary perspective. As of now, this is the only book that examines the Oneida contribution to the Revolutionary War in detail, but many of these documents are easy to find if you are a historical researcher. If you are researching the Indian contribution to the American Revolution, this text may be used as an American viewpoint, but again, to find a better perspective from the other tribes of the Six Nations I would first recommend the "The Iroquois in the American Revolution." It is still the standing authority on this subject, but the latter part of the book does provide some fresh research that other books have not addressed.

Redressing the contemptuous injustices of historical omission;


With jewels from beneath the waters, with coral and mother of pearl and the pelt of the beaver, with these I do thee wed, America.

A like institution of fidelity was gifted to the birth of our new form of government by a faithful people who have betimes named George Washington `the Great Father' & 'the Great Chief Warrior', while he yet struggled to gain victory against the madness of the British King George.

Yet the Oneida' who sacrificed life and land and kinship against pro-British Iroquois nations did also decline their rightful citizenship and voting privileges of this great experiment in democracy (with all their Iroquois kindred) so that they might more ably re-forge their union within the sovereign nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. A most rare nobility is the faithfulness of the Oneida Iroquois, `the People of the Standing Stone.'

An exhaustive bibliography of this book does bear upon the quality of it's prose. The historical account introduces a chronological narrative of several geographic and cultural topographies. If you will invest the time (I made multiple installments) these authors will transport your attentions between various Indian settlements and migrations and military encampments, between British loyalist' and Rebel Patriot colonial forts and settlements and marches, between political and religious doctrinal conflicts amongst the Iroquois.

'Forgotten Allies' does not elaborate how trading alliances which formed between alternate Iroquois nations and competing European trading partners contributed to Iroquois internal strife and political bias building up during the 'Beaver wars'.

During that time, various tribes formed favorable trade relations with the French, the English, or the Dutch to the exclusion of those interests held by their fellow federation nation tribes.

The term 'Beaver Wars' is derived from the Iroquois hunters and warriors subduing surrounding native populations and dominating the hunting/trapping interest in those territories for the monopolistic benefits of being the primary supplier of beaver pelts to the European traders. The Confederacy at large sought to retain neutrality when the colonial interests were making war in Europe and on our fair soil.
For their part the Europeans increased their mercenary stipend to the individual Indian nations they were accustomed to trading with. These flowers of evil were the beginnings of political division amongst the Iroquois. And where that story leaves off is where `Forgotten Allies' begins.

Being introduced by this text to the uncovered role of a schism in Christian doctrine between those who supported the Rebel/Patriot cause and those who supported King George's loyalists is no little enigma; it's amazing the authors found so much reference material to treat it. The tip of the theological `ice berg' so to say, would intone that the Anglican/Church of England which was favoring the crown and whose emphasis was after the manner of Catholicism, is treated as a view of `salvation by good works'; while the Presbyterian opposition view which was held by those in support of the Patriot/Rebel cause is treated as reformation theology in origin. This mere thumbnail sketch is difficult to connect in my mind with traditions of a people whose cultural memories remember taking shelter in caves to escape the `ice storms' and the `ice age' giant beasts.

According to Tuscarora Chief Elias Johnson,

(Legends, Traditions And Laws of the Iroquois Or Six Nations And History Of The Tuscarora Indians) (published by Kessinger Reprints)
Legends, Traditions, and Laws of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, and History of the Tuscarora Indians

the tribal traditions recollect a time when Hiawatha (or Taryenyawagon) came down from the star people to lead the six families out of the caves to their ancestral lands when it was once again safe to hunt. This isn't part of the narrative from Martin & Galatthaar, but it's a great conundrum to reconcile when presented with the report that some of these Natives were highly esteemed for their Christian piety (ie. religious loyalty) and their `polite civilisation'. And both those who were English conversant Christian and those who were unable to turn their backs on the old ways were (most of them) resolute in their reconciliation to one another after England signed the Armistice at Paris, Sept. 3rd, 1783.

Although ending the fighting between England and Colonies, by this treaty the British ceded territory to the United States which was not theirs to give, namely the Iroquois homelands, creating issues for the Iroquois to later resolve with the Continental Congress. The shrewd political mind of the Iroquois was aware of the dissimulation from their British allies, one anecdote recounts:

"Attempting to save face with their Iroquois allies, local British commanders told them that `they must not go to war as the King had compassion on his American subjects they having expressed their sorrow for what they had done'."

[in response to this]

"A Seneca Sachem dismissed this commentary as pure nonsense. He observed that `the Americans and French had beat the English[,] that the latter could no longer carry on the war, and that the Indians knew it well & must now be sacrificed or submit to the Americans.' He thought `it was time to attend to their own concerns and listen no longer to...lies'." (p286)

If you're curious about the military assistance recieved from American Natives then you won't be disappointed with this read. Keeping as it's theme a goal of `revealing an *un-told* side of the story', the preponderance of researched material is synthesized to introduce the many Native & European characters extracted from references. These characters' names are well indexed to a heavily annotated text full of concise quotations. It should be borne in mind that the primary subject is war, with all the gravity and reverence attaching to this topic.

I purchased `Forgotten Allies' by Joseph T. Glatthaar & James Kirby Martin from Amazon last year (2007), because some branches of my ancestry include Native American Indian Scouts from the American Revolution and the Civil War whose spoken languages were (respectively of each conflict) Iroquois (eastern) and Athalpascan (western). I am motivated to understand what & why they did what they did, and perhaps discover the intersection of truth with family tradition. The title, `Allies' describes precisely `why' my ancestors claim to have survived the foregoing conflicts.

If you desire a comprehensive description of the traditions and spirituality of the Iroquois Nations, then you're probably looking for the work of Tuscarora Chief Elias Johnson, because such accounts differ from one tribe to the next, and his volume includes details which enlighten some of the relationships involved, as well as early transcriptions of ancient names, first rendered when the missionaries delivered a written form of script to these people. You might even understand the communicative nature of the `Wampum' belts to the social justice of the Iroquois.

The well achieved aim of `Forgotten Allies' concerns itself principally with the sacrifice made by the Oneida' and Tuscarora', two Iroquois Nations who were officially aligned with the Rebel/Patriot cause, establishing them as representatives in good standing of the Iroquois Confederacy en masse.

They were right to expect a more preferential consideration in treating with the Continental Congress (that of benefactors to the U.S. Government), in that process which ultimately developed a treaty entitlement for all Iroquois, the `treaty of Canaandaigua'.

This `crown jewel' of Native American political negotiation leveraged the U.S. Government to rescind dis-favorable treaty conditions which had been erroneously adopted by a former `Walking Purchase' agreement.
As a chapter in U.S. history leading up to what became one of the best negotiated and enforced of many poorly attended treaties in Native American relations with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, these testimonies are overdue for remembrance. The struggle for acknowledgement of wrongful land concessions remains an ongoing legal matter. Even in our day, Supreme Court decisions Oneida I & Oneida II from 1974 & 1985 have been secured amidst ever mounting antagonism from both county level bureaucrats and New York state officials.

From Martin and Glatthaar's book,

"For the most part, the Continental Congress expressed interest in the well being of the Oneidas and attempted to treat it's wartime allies with respect. by comparison, local citizens and their leaders in New York viewed the Oneidas mostly as an annoyance and an impediment. Once the war ended, they began devising ways to force the People of the Standing Stone from their traditional homeland."

Our parts in the story must all come and go with the telling; but the story will go on. (This review is based on the hard cover edition)

As a Native of Rome, NY in Oneida County NY. I know this subject. I am also a Rev war reenactor who is a descendant from Battle of Oriskany militiamen. This book is an attempt to exaggerate the impact of the Oneida's in our War of Independence. The Oneida's were "little brothers" in the Iroquois Confederacy. They were NOT a large tribe, or influential one either. Estimates were they were only 300-500 in the tribe at any one time. The Oneidas due to war, disease, etc. were too few to have an impact during our struggle with Britain. The only contribution that was meaningful was as scouts for Gen Nicholas Herkimer and his 800 Tryon County militia at the Battle of Oriskany 6 Aug 1777. They were the "scouts" who couldn't detect Brant and the British lying in ambush. This book perpetuates the myth that the Oneidas were allies and contributed to our independence. PURE NONSENSE. The Oneida's weren't our allies per say. They played both sides for personal gain. They were far more concerned with the Cayuga's, Mohawks and Seneca's wrath, than siding with us. Yes, some Oneida's fough with us but no more than 60 warriors. The Mohawks after the Seige of Fort Schuyler (Stanwix) destroyed a couple of Oneida villages in retribution. In closing this book is a biased look at 200+ years of Oneida propoganda for their own purposes. Chiefly a bogus land claim to 250,000 acres in Central NY and to expand their Casino "empire". The Oneidas due to casino revenues are trying to re-write history with cash. The author though well intentioned, has fallen prey to the Oneida propoganda.

Very fast and reliable. Book in excellent condition. Received notices through process of ordering, shipping etc.