Restoring the Chain of Friendship: British Policy and the Indians of the Great Lakes, 1783-1815 [Hardcover]

Timothy Willig's Restoring the Chain of Friendship: British Policy and the Indians of the Great Lakes, 1783-1815 contributes significantly to our understanding of how "the eighteenth century ended with the future of British-Indian relations uncertain" (88). From 1783 to 1812 the key question surrounding Britain's ever-evolving frontier policy in the Great Lakes region was how to restructure Indian relations in a postwar era of peace in which conditions on the ground remained fluid. The primary concerns of Native peoples centered on retention of homelands and sovereignty amidst a strained relationship with the British in Upper Canada and an aggressively expansionist United States.

Willig reconstructs how a diverse array of Native American tribes, bands, and villages stretching from southern Ontario across Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to the western Great Lakes shaped, negotiated, and contested British Indian policy formulation and implementation from the end of the American Revolution through the War of 1812. At the end of the first decade after the American War of Independence, the political status of Indian tribes in the eyes of British policy makers declined. Although both sides wanted to maintain mutually beneficial relations, postwar circumstances ushered in a "policy of retrenchment" that threatened to reduce Indian power and influence (80).

From the Native American perspective, the ante bellum status quo outcome of the War of 1812 was a disaster. While the dreams of US expansionists to invade and annex easily Canada failed, the war ended British influence over American Indians. The British betrayed their pledges to protect Indian interests and tried to negotiate for an Indian buffer state to protect Canada from American encroachment. But more than one hundred thousand Americans settlers had already precluded that proposal. Although remnants of the old Chain of Friendship remained until the 1840s, a Dakota chief named Red Wing accurately foresaw the future. The American "eagle" and the British "lion" became allies, enabling US Indian policy makers to diminish the sovereignty of Native peoples, cultures, and homelands further.

A minor weakness, that may have more to do with the U of NE Press than the author, is the lack of adequate maps. One map is half a page, the other three-quarters. Surely they could be enlarged without distortion and include more sites referred to within the text. Although Restoring the Chain of Friendship is perhaps too detailed for the general reading public or lower-level college courses, it would make a strong addition to upper-level and graduate classes on US, Canadian, and Native American history from 1783 to 1815. For those who specialize in First Nations law and policy on either side of the forty-ninth parallel, Willig's book can proudly takes its place alongside those of Gregory Dowd, Reginald Horsman, R. David Edmunds, and Colin Calloway. It is interesting to see a community college teacher's research augment the scholarship of such distinguished company.

Thorough and well-written, Willig approaches areas of the subject matter other authors have yet to address. Exceptional research and unbiased presentation of Native Americans and their British counterparts; a must-have for any history classroom and educator.

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