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|conflict=Pontiac's Rebellion |image= |caption=In a famous council on April 27 , 1763 , Pontiac urged listeners to drive the British out of the region. |date=1763–1766 |place= Great Lakes Region |result=Various treaties and policy changes |combatant1= British Empire |combatant2= American Indians |commander1= Jeffrey Amherst Henry Bouquet |commander2= Pontiac Guyasuta |strength1= |strength2= |casualties1= |casualties2= }} Pontiac's Rebellion was a war launched in 1763 by North American Indians who were dissatisfied with British rule in the Great Lakes Region and the Ohio Country after the British victory in the French And Indian War / Seven Years' War (1754–1763). The uprising was the first extensive multi-tribal resistance to European Colonization in North America , and the first war between Europeans and American Indians that did not end in complete defeat for the Indians. First extensive war: Ian K Steele, ''Warpaths: Invasions of North America'', p. 234; first not to be complete Indian defeat: Steele, p. 247. The war began in May 1763 when American Indians attacked a number of British forts and Anglo-American settlements. Eight forts were destroyed, and hundreds of White settlers were killed or captured, with many more fleeing eastwards. Hostilities came to an end after British army expeditions beginning in the summer of 1764 led to peace negotiations over the next two years. The war was a failure for the Indians in that it did not drive away the British, but the uprising prompted the British government to modify the policies that had provoked the conflict. In terms of casualties and numbers of people involved, Pontiac's Rebellion was small by European standards of the era. Warfare on the North American Frontier was characteristically brutal, however, and the killing of prisoners, the targeting of Civilians , and other Atrocities were widespread. Both sides attempted crude forms of Biological Warfare , including what is now perhaps the war's best-known incident, when British officers at Fort Pitt attempted to infect the Besieging Indians with blankets that had been exposed to Smallpox . The war reflected, and contributed to, a greater level of animosity between Anglo-Americans and American Indians. According to historian David Dixon, "Pontiac's War was unprecedented for its awful violence, as both sides seemed intoxicated with Genocidal fanaticism." Quote: David Dixon, ''Never Come to Peace Again: Pontiac's Uprising and the Fate of the British Empire in North America'', p. xiii. The Indian attempt at biological warfare was the poisoning of the well at Fort Ligonier, Dixon p. 153. For racial antagonism, see Daniel K. Richter, ''Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America'', ch. 6. For the particular brutality of North American frontier warfare, see John Grenier, ''The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier, 1607-1814''. The conflict is named after its most famous participant, the Ottawa leader Pontiac ; variations include "Pontiac's War" and "Pontiac's Uprising". An early name for the war was the " Kiyasuta and Pontiac War", but after the publication of Francis Parkman 's landmark book ''The History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac'' (1851), the war became widely known as "Pontiac's Conspiracy". Scholars have long questioned the appropriateness of naming the war after Pontiac, since the extent of Pontiac's influence in the conflict has been variously interpreted. Alternate titles have been proposed, but historians generally continue to refer to the war by the familiar names, with "Pontiac's War" probably the most commonly used, and "Pontiac's Conspiracy" now rarely used. "Kiyasuta and Pontiac War": Dixon, p. 303; alternate titles include "Western Indians' Defensive War" (used by Michael N. McConnell, ''A Country Between: The Upper Ohio Valley and Its Peoples, 1724-1774'', after historian W. J. Eccles) and "The Amerindian War of 1763" (used by Steele). "Pontiac's War" is the term most used by scholars listed in the references. Origins
In the decades before Pontiac's Rebellion, France and Great Britain participated in a Series Of Wars in Europe that also involved their native allies and colonies in North America. The largest of these wars was the worldwide Seven Years' War , in which France lost New France in North America to Great Britain. Most fighting in the North American Theater of the war (sometimes called the French And Indian War ) came to an end after British General Jeffrey Amherst captured French Montréal in 1760. British troops proceeded to occupy the various forts in the Ohio Country and Great Lakes region previously garrisoned by the French. Even before the war officially ended with the Treaty Of Paris (1763) , the British Crown began to implement changes in order to administer its vastly expanded North American territory. Before long, American Indians who had been allies of the defeated French found themselves increasingly dissatisfied with the British occupation and the new policies imposed by the victors. While the French had long cultivated alliances among the Indians, the British post-war approach was essentially to treat the Indians as a conquered people. Tribes involved North American Indians who played a role in Pontiac's Rebellion were diverse peoples with differing backgrounds and agendas. Most of those who took up arms against the British lived in a vaguely defined region of New France known as the ''pays d'en haut'' ("the upper country"), which was claimed by France until the Paris peace treaty of 1763. The natives of the ''pays d'en haut'', primarily speakers of Algonquian Languages , consisted of three basic groups. The first group was the tribes of the , Ojibwa s, Potawatomi s, and Huron s. They had long been allied with French '' Habitants '', with whom they lived, traded, and intermarried. Great Lakes Indians valued their relationship with the French, and were stunned to learn that they were suddenly under British sovereignty because of the French loss of North America. The second group was the tribes of the eastern Illinois Country , which included the Miami , Wea , Kickapoo , Mascouten , and Piankashaw . Like the Great Lakes tribes, these people had a long history of close relations with the French. Because the British military had not yet occupied most of the Illinois Country, which was on the western edge of the main theatre of the war, the natives in this region were less motivated to take part in the uprising. The third group was the tribes of the , Shawnee s, Wyandot s, and Mingos . These people were refugees who settled in the Ohio valley earlier in the century in order to escape British, French, and Iroquois domination. Unlike the Great Lakes and Illinois Country tribes, Ohio natives had no great attachment to the French regime, and had fought alongside the French in the previous war only as a means of driving away the British. They made a separate peace with the British in the Treaty Of Easton (1758), but with the understanding that the British military would withdraw from the Ohio Country. The British, however, strengthened their forts in the region rather than abandon them, and so the Ohio natives went to war in 1763 in another attempt to drive out the British. Outside the ''pays d'en haut'', the influential Iroquois Confederacy maintained a Strong Relationship with the British, and mostly did not participate in Pontiac's War. However, the westernmost Iroquois nation, the Senecas , had become disaffected with the British alliance, and began to send out war messages ("war belts" made of Wampum ) to the Great Lakes and Ohio Country tribes as early as 1761, urging them to unite in an attempt to drive out the British. The first rumours of war that became Pontiac's Rebellion began not with Pontiac at Detroit, but with Senecas south of Lake Ontario . When the war finally came, many Senecas were quick to take action. It is important to note that, with the notable exception of the six Iroquois nations, tribes in Pontiac's War were not organized as political units. At this time and place, ''tribe'' designated a linguistic or ethnic group. Natives of the region usually lived in autonomous, multi-tribal villages; no chief or council spoke for an entire tribe. For example, "the Ottawas" did not go to war; a number of Ottawa war leaders chose to do so, while some other Ottawa leaders denounced the war.Tribes not political units: Richard White, ''The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815'', p. xiv; Other Ottawas denounce war: White, p. 287. New British policy , General Jeffrey Amherst 's post-war policies helped to provoke another war.]] After the end of the Seven Years' War, General Amherst was in overall charge of administering Indian policy, which was closely tied to the regulation of the Fur Trade . The British Crown was looking to reduce expenses after a costly war, and so in February 1761 Amherst issued a General Order which began to cut back on the gifts and provisions customarily distributed to the Indians. Sir William Johnson , the Superintendent of the Indian Department, tried to warn Amherst of the dangers of this frugal policy, to no avail. Gift giving was an integral part of diplomacy among tribes of the ''pays d'en haut''. Amherst, who made little effort to conceal his contempt for the natives, considered this gift giving to be "bribery" that was unnecessary now that the British did not have to compete with France for the Indians' allegiance. However, Native Americans considered gift giving to be an essential part of a reciprocal relationship. From the Indian point of view, by refusing to share some of their bounty with the Indians as the French had done, the British were not fulfilling their obligations as leaders, and the Indians felt insulted. Furthermore, tribal leaders who advocated peace with Europeans derived their influence in part from the ability to redistribute gifts to their people; without gifts to pass along, these chiefs lost stature, and militant, anti-British leaders emerged.Traditional role of gift giving: White, pp. 179–83; McConnell pp. 163–64. Amherst and gifts: White pp. 256–58 and Gregory Evans Dowd, ''War Under Heaven: Pontiac, the Indian Nations, & the British Empire'', pp. 70–75. Additionally, the Indians needed gunpowder and ammunition for hunting in order to provide food for their families and to procure skins for the fur trade. While the French had always made these supplies available, Amherst did not trust his former Indian adversaries, particularly after the Anglo-Cherokee War of 1761, in which Cherokee warriors took up arms against their former British allies. Because the Cherokee war effort had been severely limited due to a shortage of gunpowder, Amherst began to restrict the distribution of powder and lead in hopes of preventing similar uprisings. This, in turn, led American Indians to believe that the British were disarming them in order to conquer or enslave them.Gunpowder and Cherokee War: Fred Anderson, ''Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766'', pp. 469–71. Land and religion Land was also an issue in the coming of the war. While the French colonists had always been relatively few in number, there seemed to be no end of settlers in the British colonies, which inevitably compelled native villagers in the east to relocate further west. Indians in the Ohio Country had been displaced by expanding white settlement, and this motivated their involvement in the war. However, as historian Gregory Dowd emphasizes, Pontiac and his allies around Detroit had not been much affected by white settlement, and even the Ohio Country natives "were under no immediate threat of dispossession." The presence of British troops, not British settlers, was the pressing problem. The expansion of white settlement was a contributing factor—but not a primary cause—of Pontiac's War. Dowd, ''War Under Heaven'', pp. 82–3. In addition to the preceding, in the early 1760s a religious awakening was sweeping through Indian settlements in the region, which was fed by discontent with the British as well as food shortages and epidemic disease. The most influential individual in this phenomenon was Neolin , known as the " Delaware Prophet," who called upon Indians to shun the trade goods, alcohol, and weapons of the whites. Merging elements from Christianity into traditional religious beliefs, Neolin told listeners that the Master Of Life was displeased with the Indians for taking up the bad habits of the white men, and that the British posed a threat to their very existence. "If you suffer the English among you," said Neolin, "you are dead men. Sickness, smallpox, and their poison {Link without Title} will destroy you entirely." It was a powerful message for a people whose world was changing by forces that seemed to be beyond their control.Neolin quoted in Gregory Evans Dowd, ''A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745-1815'', p. 34. Outbreak of war, 1763 All of the above factors contributed to the outbreak of the war in 1763, which began at Fort Detroit under the local leadership of Pontiac, and quickly spread to other British forts in the region. Eight forts fell to Indian attackers; others, including Fort Detroit and Fort Pitt , were unsuccessfully Besieged . Parkman's ''The History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac'' portrayed these attacks as a carefully coordinated operation planned by Pontiac. Parkman's interpretation remains influential, but some historians have long pointed out that there is no reliable evidence that Pontiac—or anyone else—planned these attacks in advance. Rather than the product of a master plan, it is possible that the war evolved spontaneously, as Pontiac's actions at Detroit inspired other already discontented Indians to similarly take up arms against the British. Likewise, although it was widely assumed at the time that Frenchmen were secretly instigating the war, the evidence for this is also slight. Although Pontiac frequently spoke of reviving the Franco-Indian alliance, his rhetoric was probably intended to inspire the French to support him, rather than an indication that he had French backing.Howard H. Peckham, ''Pontiac and the Indian Uprising'', found no evidence of Pontiac's leadership beyond Detroit, but found circumstantial evidence of French involvement (p. 108n); Dowd (''War Under Heaven'', pp. 105–13) doubts French involvement. Siege of Fort Detroit On April 27 , 1763 , Pontiac spoke at a council about 10 miles below the settlement of Detroit . Using the teachings of Neolin to inspire his listeners, Pontiac convinced a number of Ottawas, Ojibwa s, Potawatomi s, and Huron s to join him in an attempt to seize Fort Detroit and drive out the British. According to a French chronicler, Pontiac proclaimed: It is important for us, my brothers, that we exterminate from our lands this nation which seeks only to destroy us. You see as well as I that we can no longer supply our needs, as we have done from our brothers, the French.... From all this you can see well that they are seeking our ruin. Therefore, my brothers, we must all swear their destruction and wait no longer. Nothing prevents us; they are few in numbers, and we can accomplish it.Quoted in Peckham, pp. 119–20. On were left alone. Eventually more than 900 Indian warriors from a half-dozen tribes joined the siege. Late in July, British reinforcements arrived at Fort Detroit and, on July 31 , 1763 , about 250 men attempted to make a surprise attack on Pontiac’s encampment. Pontiac was ready and waiting, and defeated the British at the Battle Of Bloody Run . However, the situation at the fort remained a stalemate, and Pontiac’s influence among his followers began to wane. Groups of Indians began to abandon the siege, some of them making peace with the British before departing. On October 31 , 1763 , finally convinced that the French in Illinois would not come to his aid, Pontiac lifted the siege and removed to the Maumee River , where he continued his efforts to rally resistance against the British. Small forts taken Before word had spread to other British outposts of Pontiac's siege at Detroit, Indians captured five small forts in a series of attacks between May 16 and June 2 . The first fort to be taken was Fort Sandusky , on the shore of Lake Erie . The small Blockhouse had been built in 1761 by order of General Amherst, despite the objections of local Indians, who regarded it as a threat. On May 16 , 1763 , a group of Wyandot s gained entry to the fort under the pretense of holding a council, the same stratagem that had failed in Detroit nine days earlier. They seized the commander and killed the fifteen-man garrison. A number of British Traders were put to death as well, and the fort was burned. Fort St. Joseph (on the site of the present Niles, Michigan ) was captured on May 25 , 1763 by the same method as at Sandusky. The commander was seized by Potawatomis, and most of the fifteen-man garrison was killed outright. Fort Miami (on the site of present Fort Wayne, Indiana ) was the third fort to fall. On May 27 , 1763 , the commander was lured out of the fort by his Indian mistress and shot dead by Miami Indians. The nine-man garrison surrendered after the fort was surrounded. Fort Ouiatenon (about 5 miles southwest of present Lafayette, Indiana ) was taken by Weas, Kickapoos, and Mascoutens on June 1 , 1763 . Soldiers were lured outside for a council, and the entire twenty-man garrison was taken captive without bloodshed. The warriors apologized to the commander for taking the fort, saying that "they were Obliged to do it by the other Nations."Dixon, p. 121. The fifth fort to fall, Fort Michilimackinac (present Mackinaw City , Michigan ), was the largest fort taken by surprise. On June 4 , 1763 , local Ojibwas staged a game of Stickball (a forerunner of Lacrosse ) with visiting Sauk s. The soldiers watched the game, as they had done on previous occasions. The ball was hit through the open gate of the fort; the teams rushed in and were then handed weapons previously smuggled into the fort by Indian women. About fifteen men of the 35 man garrison were killed in the struggle; five more were later executed. Three more forts were taken in a second wave of attacks in mid-June. Fort Venango (near the site of the present Venango, Pennsylvania ) was taken around June 16 , 1763 by Seneca s. The entire twelve-man garrison was killed. Fort Le Boeuf (on the site of Waterford, Pennsylvania ) was attacked on June 18 , possibly by the same Senecas who had destroyed Fort Venango. Most of the twelve-man garrison escaped to Fort Pitt. The eighth and final fort to fall, Fort Presque Isle (on the site of Erie, Pennsylvania ), was surrounded by about 250 Ottawas, Ojibwas, Wyandots, and Senecas on June 19 , 1763 . After holding out for two days, the garrison of approximately sixty men surrendered on the condition that they could return to Fort Pitt. Most were instead killed after emerging from the fort. Siege of Fort Pitt Fort Pitt , with a garrison of 330 men (and over 200 women and children inside), was attacked on June 22 , 1763 , primarily by Delaware (Lenape) Indians. Too strong to be taken by force, the fort was kept under siege throughout July. Meanwhile, Delaware and Shawnee war parties raided deep into the Pennsylvania settlements, taking captives and killing unknown numbers of men, women, and children who were living on what was Indian land a generation earlier. Panicked settlers fled eastwards. For General Amherst, who before the war had dismissed the possibility that the Indians would offer any effective resistance to British rule, the military situation over the summer became increasingly grim. He wrote his subordinates and instructed that enemy Indian prisoners should "immediately be put to death". To Colonel Henry Bouquet at Lancaster, Pennsylvania , who was preparing to lead an expedition to relieve Fort Pitt, Amherst made the following proposal on about 29 June 1763 : "Could it not be contrived to send the small pox among the disaffected tribes of Indians? We must on this occasion use every stratagem in our power to reduce them."Peckham, p. 226; Anderson, p. 542; 809n. Bouquet agreed, writing to Amherst on 1763 : "You will do well to inoculate the Indians by means of blankets, as well as every other method that can serve to extirpate this execrable race."Anderson, p. 809n; Grenier, p. 144. As it turned out, however, officers at the besieged Fort Pitt had already attempted to do what Amherst and Bouquet were still discussing. During a parley at Fort Pitt on 24 June 1763 , Captain Simeon Ecuyer (the commander at Fort Pitt) gave representatives of the besieging Delawares two blankets and a handkerchief that had been exposed to smallpox, in hopes of spreading the disease to the Indians in order to end the siege. Indians in the area did indeed contract smallpox. However, some historians have noted that it is impossible to verify how many people (if any) contracted the disease as a result of the Fort Pitt incident; the disease was already in the area and may have reached the Indians through other vectors. Indeed, even before the blankets had been handed over, the disease may have been spread to the Indians by native warriors returning from attacks on infected white settlements. So while it is certain that these British soldiers attempted to intentionally infect Indians with smallpox, it is uncertain is whether or not their attempt was successful.Anderson, pp. 541–2; McConnell, p. 195; Dowd, ''War Under Heaven'', p. 190. On August 1 , 1763 , most of the Indians broke off the siege at Fort Pitt in order to intercept a body of 500 British troops marching to the fort under Colonel Bouquet. On August 5, these two forces met at the Battle Of Bushy Run . Bouquet fought off the attack and relieved Fort Pitt on August 20 . End of the 1763 campaign Fort Niagara , one of the most critical western forts, was not assaulted, but on September 14 , 1763 at least 300 Senecas, Ottawas, and Ojibwas attacked a supply train along the Niagara Falls portage. Two companies sent from Fort Niagara to rescue the supply train were also defeated. Perhaps seventy-two soldiers and wagoners were killed in these actions (estimates vary), which Anglo-Americans called the " Devil's Hole Massacre ", the deadliest engagement for British soldiers during the war. At this point, major combat in Pontiac's War was effectively over, although raids against settlers would resume the following year. American Indians had won a number of victories in 1763, but they were short of ammunition by the end of the year, and the large forts remained in British hands. British response The Paxton Boys' Uprising The violence and terror of Pontiac's War convinced many white Pennsylvania Frontiersmen that their government was not doing enough to protect them. This discontent was manifest most seriously in an uprising led by a Vigilante group that came to be known as the Paxton Boys , so-called because they were primarily from the area around the Pennsylvania village of Paxtang (Paxton) . The Paxtonians turned their anger towards Native Americans—many of them issued bounties for the arrest of the murderers, but no one came forward to identify them. The Paxton Boys then set their sights on other Indians living within eastern Pennsylvania, many of whom fled to Philadelphia for protection. Several hundred Paxtonians then marched on Philadelphia in January 1764, where the presence of British troops and Philadelphia Militia prevented them from doing more violence. Benjamin Franklin , who had helped organize the local militia, negotiated with the Paxton leaders and brought an end to the immediate crisis. American Indian raids on frontier settlements escalated in the spring and summer of 1764. On May 26 near Fort Cumberland (Maryland) , 15 whites working in a field were killed. On June 14, around 13 settlers near Fort Loudoun (Pennsylvania) were killed, and their homes burned. The most notorious raid of this type was the Enoch Brown School Massacre , when on July 26 four Delaware warriors entered a schoolhouse and killed and Scalped the school teacher and ten children. Incidents such as these prompted the Pennsylvania Assembly to reintroduce the scalp bounties previously offered during the French and Indian War, which paid money for every American Indian killed above the age of ten, including women. The bounty was approved by Governor John Penn. Expeditions and negotiations . The Indian orator holds a belt of Wampum in his hand, an item of great ceremonial importance, without which Eastern Woodlands Indians of the era would not conduct diplomacy.]] General Amherst, held responsible for the Indian uprising by the Board Of Trade , was recalled to London in August 1763. He was replaced by Major General Thomas Gage , who paid more attention to William Johnson's advice regarding Indian policy. There was a shift in overall approach, as Gage and Johnson worked to bring an end to the conflict through diplomatic as well as military means. On July 11 1764 , Johnson opened a treaty conference at Fort Niagara with about 2,000 Indians, primarily members of the Iroquois League. Because of the diplomatic ties between the Iroquois and the British colonies (the Covenant Chain relationship), most Iroquois had not taken part in the war. Nevertheless, the westernmost Iroquois peoples—Senecas from Genesee River valley—had taken up arms against the British, and Johnson worked to bring them back into the fold. As restitution for the Devil's Hole ambush, the Senecas were compelled to cede the strategically important Niagara portage to the British. Johnson also worked to diplomatically isolate the Delawares and Shawnees from the Six Nations, convincing some Oneidas and Tuscarawas to send out a war party against the Ohio Indians. With the area around Fort Niagara more secure, the first of two military expeditions began. On August 6 , 1764 , Colonel John Bradstreet set out from Fort Niagara with about 1,200 British soldiers and a large contingent of Native Americans. Bradstreet's ultimate goal was to reach Detroit and bring Pontiac to terms. Moving along Lake Erie , the expedition stopped at Presque Isle on August 12, where Bradstreet negotiated a treaty with a number of Ohio Indians including the Seneca-Mingo leader Guyasuta . However, Bradstreet exceeded his authority in making this agreement, since the terms called for the halt of the expedition led by Colonel Henry Bouquet (see below). Bradstreet's superiors believed that the Ohio Indians only made peace with Bradstreet in order to stop Bouquet, and so General Gage rejected Bradstreet's treaty. Bradstreet continued on to Detroit and conducted more negotiations, but Pontiac, still hopeful of reviving French support, refused to meet with him. On October 3 , 1764 , Colonel Bouquet set out from Fort Pitt with 1,150 men, marching to the Muskingum River in the Ohio Country, within striking distance of a number of native villages. Bouquet negotiated with Delawares, Shawnees, and Mingos, demanding that they return all captives, including those not yet returned from the French and Indian War. The Indians were compliant, since they were low on ammunition and isolated now that treaties had been negotiated at Fort Niagara and Fort Detroit. With reluctance, the Indians turned over more than 200 captives to Bouquet, most of who had been adopted into Indian families. A number of these people—primarily those who had lived with the Indians since childhood—were reluctant to leave, and Bouquet had to use guards to prevent them from returning to the Indians. Not all of the captives were present, and the Indians were compelled to surrender some hostages as a guarantee that the other captives would be returned to the British colonies.
Bouquet returned to Fort Pitt in November without having fired a shot. His expedition is usually portrayed as a decisive, victorious end to Pontiac's War, demonstrating the weakness of the Indians and the power of the British military. Some historians question that interpretation, noting that Bouquet was compelled to stop short of his goal of punishing the leaders of the war, since his position in the Ohio Country as winter approached was quite vulnerable. Indeed, in 1765 the British decided that the occupation of the former French forts further west in the Illinois Country could only be accomplished by diplomatic—not military—means. Johnson's deputy George Croghan travelled to the Illinois Country that summer, and although he was injured along the way in an attack by Kickapoo and Mascouten warriors, he managed to meet and negotiate with Pontiac. British officials were under the mistaken notion that Pontiac had more power than he actually possessed; paradoxically, by making Pontiac the focus of their diplomatic efforts, they greatly increased his stature. Pontiac, now certain that the French would not come to his aid, agreed to travel to New York, where he made a more formal treaty with William Johnson on 25 July 1766 at Fort Ontario . It was hardly a surrender: no lands were ceded, no prisoners returned, and no hostages were taken. Legacy The total loss of life resulting from Pontiac's Rebellion is unknown. About 450 British soldiers were killed in the fighting; no reliable figures exist for the number of American Indian losses. The violence compelled approximately 4,000 white settlers from Pennsylvania and Virginia to flee their homes. George Croghan estimated that 2,000 white settlers had been killed or captured, a figure that has often been repeated, especially in non-scholarly sources, as 2,000 settlers ''killed''. Gregory Dowd writes that Croghan's figure "cannot be taken seriously" because the estimate was a "wild guess" made by Croghan while he was in London . Historian Daniel Richter characterizes Pontiac's War, as well as the actions of the Paxton Boys, as examples of Ethnic Cleansing .British soldiers killed, Peckham p. 239; 4,000 white refugees, ''War Under Heaven'' p. 275; "not taken seriously", ''War Under Heaven'' p. 142; ethnic cleansing, Richter p. 190. On October 7 , 1763 , the British government issued the Royal Proclamation Of 1763 . It is sometimes written that the Proclamation was a response to Pontiac's War, but this is only partially correct. The proclamation was part of an effort to reorganize British North America after the Treaty Of Paris , and the policies contained in the proclamation were already in the works when Pontiac's War erupted. The outbreak of the war hastened the process. The most significant aspect of the proclamation was that it drew a boundary line between the British colonies and American Indian lands west of the Appalachians . Some Crown officials wanted to limit colonial westward expansion because expansion threatened to undermine the Empire's Economic Relationship with the colonies. Others wanted the colonies to expand, but in a more peaceful and orderly fashion. These expansionists supported a boundary line in order to temporarily halt westward migration until a better expansion policy could be devised—one that would not provoke expensive wars with American Indians. British colonists and land speculators generally resented the Proclamation of 1763 because many of the colonies had extensive land claims in the west. Many landless colonists hoped to settle in the west themselves, and land speculators (including some in Great Britain) looked upon the west as a source of potential wealth. Although the success of the British Empire in the Seven Years' War was a source of pride for many in the British colonies, the proclamation served to undermine colonial attachment to the Empire. In the coming years, many in the colonies resisted the new taxation that was imposed by the Crown—taxes that were intended to pay for the wars that had been fought to secure North America for the British Empire. Royal officials regarded the colonists as ungrateful for refusing to help pay for the army that had protected them during the "Indian uprising." Pontiac's War and the Proclamation of 1763 were thus contributing factors to the coming of the American Revolution . After the American Revolutionary War , the Royal Proclamation of 1763 became a Dead Letter in the United States , but continued to govern the cession of aboriginal land in British North America, especially Upper Canada and Rupert's Land . The proclamation forms the basis of land claims of aboriginal peoples in Canada ( First Nations , Inuit , and Métis ). For North American Indians, Pontiac's War demonstrated the possibilities of pan-tribal cooperation to repel Anglo-American colonial expansion. Subsequent leaders such as Joseph Brant , Alexander McGillivray , Blue Jacket , and Tecumseh would attempt to forge confederacies that would revive the resistance efforts of Pontiac's War. Notes References
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