Introduction




The young George Washington's first appearance on the world stage was on the occasion that inaugurated the struggle between Great Britain and France for control of the Ohio Valley. This conflict brought him into contact with the Indians* of that vast land. From then on, the Indians played a crucial role in his life. As an officer in the French and Indian War, he was forced to nearly beg them for aid in fighting the enemy. As president, he would attempt to establish and maintain a coherent and workable Indian policy that would both satisfy the wants and needs of the country and deal justly with the Indians.

As a young soldier, Washington developed an ambivalent attitude towards the Indians. Through his several years on the frontier, he witnessed the great military strength the Indians wielded in the forest. He came to admire their prowess in forest combat and respected a few individual Indians. However, their seemingly unending demands for gifts weakened Washington's respect for them. He also disliked them because of their constant, brutal attacks on the Virginia frontier, which he and his forces appeared unable to stop. Washington's great interest in frontier lands, and the stubborn refusal of the Indians to peacefully depart from them, contributed to his opinions of them. Nevertheless, once the war was over, Washington believed that the best method of dealing with the Indians was a fair trade system which respected their rights.

Washington took his opinions of the Indians with him to the presidency, and these views formed his basic Indian policy. Throughout his eight years as president, Washington proclaimed his steadfast desire for what he described as justice and humanity towards the Indians. He wanted to be remembered as a man who respected the rights of all. As president of a country which shouted to all the world its belief in equality, Washington did not want to be known as a man who would simply brush aside the rights of the Indians. However, Washington's words and negotiations regarding the natives did not match his actions.

The country was land hungry; hungry for the land which the Indians occupied. Both in the Northwest Territory (mostly modern day Ohio) and the Georgia frontier, frontiersmen who had no respect for the rights of the Indians demanded their removal. During his presidency, Washington, for all his promotion of justice towards the Indians, could not realistically protect the rights of the Indians against these unrelenting forces. The president made speeches and wrote proposals concerning the rights of the Indians, but in the end, he did not view the Indians as another foreign power but rather as a stubborn impediment to the westward advance of the United States. The sad truth was that the Washington administration only continued the removal of the Indians from their lands.


Notes


* Throughout this work, the term "Indians" will be used to describe the native Americans with which the British and French were involved. The reason is that all of the British and French involved in this period described these people as "Indians," so the term "native Americans" would be anachronistic.

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