History for Fun, Profit, and Insight: National Historic Sites

Showing posts with label National Historic Sites. Show all posts

Indians in the American Revolution and Depictions of Iroquois from Fort Stanwix and Oriskany

The American Revolution ( American War of Independence) produced many changes in North America. One of these was the end of the Iroquois Confederacy as an important political entity.

An exhibit from the Fort Stanwix visitor center showing two Iroquois and a trader from the period.

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The war in the Mohawk River Valley, then a frontier region of New York, was a civil war. The Whites fought each other, loyalists against those favoring independence, and among the Iroquois Six Nation Confederacy, the nations split, some favoring the American cause, others preferring their traditional loyalties with the British, particularly as the British had promised to help them curb the spread of the aggressive, land-hungry American settlers, and others struggling to remain as neutral as possible in what they considered a White man's war.

Many Iroquois, particularly the Mohawks, left their home region soon after the war.

Many of these events focused on a fortification called Fort Stanwix. It is now a National Historical Park and located in Rome, New York, a small city located between Syracuse and Utica. ( see: the National Park Service Website for Fort Stanwix. )

The Oriskany Battlefield, perhaps the most important battle of this part of the war, is located a little bit to the East.

I have a strong interest in the history of the American Revolution (War of Independence) and wargame the period. Among my current projects are a large number of half-painted 25mm Old Glory "woodland Indians with rifles" that I intend to use as Iroquois. I'll try to include some photos of them when they are finished, but here's what the looked like a couple weeks ago. Clearly, there's a great deal of detail and color left to be added.

Therefore, for those with similiar interests, I offer the following photos from the Fort Stanwix visitors center. Apologies for the poor quality of some of the photos. I have come to the realization that if I wish this blog to be its best, I must improve my photography skills and hope to spend some time on that soon.

Let's begin with some close ups of the above exhibit. After we will follow up with period and later depictions of some of the key Iroquois involved.

The life size Iroquois models from the exhibit.
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Notice the bead work on the straps and the knife.
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Detail on the bag.
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This and the one below show the headdress detail on the models.

awful picture but does show some more detail from another angle
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Same poor quality but the other Iroquois model in the display.
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Important Iroquois of the Time depicted in the Museum

This is a fuzzy photo (apologies) of the Seneca leader Cornplanter ( Gy-ant-wa-chia )
You can find a better image of this painting, plus a full biography at either of these two pages Cornplanter on Wikipedia or Indigenous People Net

OH MY!! An even worse photo of the exhibit on Red Jacket. Although he reportedly fled the battle of Oriskany early in the fighting he went on to become an important Iroquois statesman. See these sites for better depictions and more details: wikipedia or Indigenous People Net

Martin Van Buren House

In upstate New York, not too far south from Albany but on the opposite, eastern, side of the Hudson River, lies the former home of Martin Van Buren, the eight president of the USA. Today his home has been restored and is a National Historic Site. Tours are given by Park Rangers, and there is a also a film show and a bookstore. In my opinion, the site is well worth an hour and a half visit.

What follows are pictures of my visit, but you can see the official National Park Service site here:
https://www.nps.gov/mava/index.htm

Martin Van Buren was a single term president. He served from 1837-1841 and was the first US President to serve who was born after independence from Great Britain. Curiously, and as an ESL teacher writing in the midst of an anti-immigrant time, I find it fascinating that while native born, his first language was not English, but Dutch. Many readers will remember that New York was originally settled by the Dutch, only later becoming a British possession, and at this time there were still large Dutch speaking communities in New York State including much of the upstate New York, upper Hudson River, Albany and Rensselaer County areas. For most of his life and time in office, said the Ranger who gave the tour, Van Buren was embarrassed by the fact that when he became excited or agitated, his Dutch accent tended to emerge and become thicker.

Van Buren was born and raised in upstate New York. His father was a tavern owner and he was third of five children, although his mother had three other children, his two half-brothers and his half sister, from a previous marriage. The tavern was an important local meeting place and it was often used for political meetings. As one of the key issues in the USA during Van Buren's political career was slavery, and Van Buren's relationship and attitude to that institution has come under intense scrutiny, it is worth mentioning that his father did own a small number of slaves who worked and assisted in the tavern and Van Buren did grow up in a slave owning family at a time when slavery was legal in New York State.

In 1796 he was apprenticed to a lawyer, learned this trade, and in 1803 opened his own practice with his half-brother James Van Alen. In 1897, he married a cousin named Hannah and the couple had four children before she passed away 12 years later from tuberculosis. He did not remarry and raised four sons as a widower.

Van Buren became active in state politics, and played the political game well in order to get ahead and meet his objectives. In fact, his critics called him shiftless and devious for hiding his beliefs and shifting alliances with the factions that dominated the state's political scene. In 1812 he was elected to the New York State Senate and ultimately became New York State Secretary of State. Van Buren was instrumental in creating the Albany Regency, seen by many as a prototype for the political machines that came to dominate not just Albany but much of the country for years, and, in some locations, even to the present time.

In 1828, he ran for governor and won but resigned only 12 weeks later in order to take a post as Andrew Jefferson's Secretary of State. He had worked for years to support Jackson in this, Jackson's second bid for the presidency. He became an important part of Jackson's cabinet during a particularly tumultuous time in American politics.

In 1832, Van Buren became Jackson's vice-president.In 1836 he became president himself and served for a single term. Van Buren's party passed him over for re-election and James Polk ran for president in his stead in 1836, winning the next election. Van Buren retired, spent the next few years in Europe, and then returned to live much of the rest of his life at this mansion in upstate New York.

The key events during his four years in office including avoiding war with Canada during a dispute over the Maine-New Brunswick border, controversy on whether or not to admit Texas into the Union (he was opposed as they were a slave state), and an economic crisis. Despite being largely against slavery (although his own life showed an ambivalent attitude towards the institution at times. He had owned slaves at one point until slavery became illegal in New York in 1827.

While President, Martin Van Buren was against slavery but was more interested in preserving the union. Some of his actions in this area are troubling, including supporting the sending the slaves who rose up and took over the Amistad to Cuba, where they had been heading as slaves, instead of working for a resolution where they would be free. He also was the President who oversaw the removal of the Cherokee and Seminole Indians from their homelands (the long, draining cost of the Seminole War was one problem in his Presidency.)