Diplomatic Shenanigans
Many native American tribes employed intricate, ceremonial, forms of diplomacy. Leaders met in forums designed to overcome language barriers, where they used a variety of methods to communicate. Although tribes such as the Mohawk, Lenape, and Tuscarora, for example, shared a root language known as Algonquian, most spoke a unique dialect. Translators (limited to speaking only when interpreting) played a crucial role in these meetings, along with gift-giving, feasts, and backroom deals. It was a complicated, but functional, system designed to eliminate miscommunication.
William Penn learned, and respected, native diplomatic customs, but Europeans like Penn were rare throughout the seventeenth and early to mid-eighteenth centuries. Few colonists spent their days in the “untamed” wilderness, and European society tended to look down on those who did. As the decades passed, however, and European populations exploded, colonial leaders learned to value their social outliers, e.g. traders, scouts, and woodsmen, for their knowledge of tribal culture. Many of these men abused their power and position to a degree that even Machiavelli raised his hands and (probably) cried, “Whoa whoa whoa!”
These “go-betweens” worked as ambassadors/translators for both European and Native American groups. Those with few moral compunctions, however, aided colonial interests despite being retained to represent an indigenous tribe. Maps, for example, play an enormous part of any land deal, and “negotiators” assisted colonial officials in designing charts and atlases with territorial names rearranged or reshaped to fool native delegations about their size or location.
The tradition of gift-giving prior to negotiations opened the door for go-betweens to seek out native leaders susceptible to bribery. In 1754, the Susquehanna Land Company (SLC) negotiated the sale of Wyoming Valley, the northern branch of the Susquehanna River, from the Iroquois. It was a huge triumph for the company, and one that was rife with underhanded tactics. Most Europeans believed the territory belonged to the Iroquois Confederacy (comprised primarily by the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora). The valley’s main inhabitants, however, were Lenape displaced by the Walking Purchase in 1737. The SLC, however, overcame this stumbling block by negotiating the land sale in a secret meeting where they’d rigged all the cards in their favor.
The SLC sounded out several Iroquois tribes regarding the land, and found the Mohawk amenable to the idea. The Mohawk did not consider the valley part of their territory, and several of their leaders favored selling land they did not legitimately possess. This was all the SLC needed to hear. The company sent paid native representatives (promised an annual pension) ahead to promote their cause. They employed a Cayuga headman to serve as an advisor for “one hundred pieces of Spanish.” Mohawk leaders received forty dollars on the day they signed, and “two-hundred pieces of eight” when the treaty closed. The secret conference met in early July of 1754, and numerous representatives from Iroquois tribes attended. The conference was a frenzy of gift-giving, and when it ended, the Lenape, who were not invited, found themselves displaced once again.
They employed a Cayuga headman to serve as an advisor for “one hundred pieces of Spanish.” Mohawk leaders received forty dollars on the day they signed, and “two-hundred pieces of eight” when the treaty closed. The secret conference met in early July of 1754, and numerous representatives from Iroquois tribes attended. The conference was a frenzy of gift-giving, and when it ended, the Lenape, who were not invited, found themselves displaced once again.