Pontiac’s War was a conflict between the British and a large number of Native American groups in the Great Lakes region and the Ohio Valley in 1763 and 1764. The Ohio Valley surrounds the Ohio River in what is now the eastern United States. The war, also called Pontiac’s Rebellion, is named for the Ottawa chief Pontiac . In 1763, Pontiac led an alliance of several tribes against the British in the Detroit region. His actions also triggered attacks on British forts and American colonial settlements across the frontier. The war led to the strengthening of British measures limiting colonial settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains .
Background.
For many years, the French and the British had competed to gain favor with Indian groups on the western frontier, largely through gifts and favorable trade agreements. But at the end of the French and Indian War (1754-1763), a treaty gave the British control over territory stretching from the Appalachians to the Mississippi River. The British offered less favorable trade terms to the Native Americans. General Jeffery Amherst, commander of the British forces in North America, introduced restrictions that upset established trade patterns. He also set limits on certain goods, including gunpowder and ammunition that the indigenous (native) people needed for hunting.
Native American resentment increased. Many warriors were also influenced by the teachings of Neolin, a spiritual leader of the Delaware nation who was known as the Delaware Prophet. Neolin urged Native Americans to return to traditional ways and drive the British off of Native American homelands. At the same time, colonists began settling in larger numbers on lands west of the mountains. The British government, seeking to limit tensions between Native Americans and colonists, enacted policies discouraging settlement beyond the mountains.
The war.
In early 1763, Pontiac began to assemble an alliance of Native American groups to resist the British. In May, he led warriors from the Ottawa and several other indigenous nations against the British fort at Detroit, in what is now Michigan. News of his actions spread quickly. Pontiac also sent warriors to encourage more nations to attack the British. Soon, other groups attacked settlements from Virginia and Pennsylvania in the east to present-day Indiana and Wisconsin in the west. The Delaware , Miami , Chippewa , Potawatomi , Seneca, Shawnee , Wyandot, and other nations participated in the attacks. By July, Native American warriors had captured eight British forts on the frontier.
Britain feared a long and bloody war with the Native Americans. In October 1763, King George III issued a proclamation barring colonists from settling on Native American hunting lands west of the Appalachians. British soldiers stationed at frontier posts were to regulate trade with Native Americans and enforce restrictions on frontier settlement.
During the late summer and autumn, Native American groups, often low on supplies and ammunition, struggled to maintain their gains against the British. British agents negotiated with a number of Native American leaders to remain neutral or to persuade warriors to support British forces. During the siege of Fort Pitt, the site of present-day Pittsburgh, the British had even tried to spread smallpox among their opponents. In August 1763, during the Battle of Bushy Run, the British defeated a large force of Delaware, Shawnee, and other nations near Fort Pitt and lifted the siege there. Pontiac called off his siege of Detroit in October. Though the fighting wound down, tensions between Native Americans and colonists remained. In December 1763, a group of colonists known as the Paxton Boys massacred a peaceful settlement of Conestoga people in Pennsylvania.
In 1764, the British sent two expeditions into the Ohio Valley to attack warring Native American groups there. The British reached peace agreements with a number of groups that year. Pontiac signed a peace treaty in 1766.
Aftermath.
The peace agreements that ended Pontiac’s War allowed the British to retain their western forts. The agreements also promised to restore favorable trade terms with the Native Americans. However, settlers continued to push westward in defiance of the king’s proclamation.
