Northwest Indians

[TLS]

Native Tribes of the Northwest


Overall Summary: The tribes of the northwest were almost uniform in their support for the British during the Revolutionary War and have no reason to believe that the new states of America will be friendly to their interests. Each of these tribes receive something in the way of supplies from the British, who have no issue continuing to run guns and supplies into the Northwest, and rumors abound on the Eastern Seaboard that the British aim to create an Indian buffer state between Canada and the now-fractured Americans. However, for the moment any dreams of a united confederacy of Indians remains mere rumor and smoke, and the collapse of American unity could diminish the need for such an overarching alliance. Military estimates are given in terms of total men that can be put under arms; these soldiers could be any mix of militia, cavalry, or infantry, depending on their ability to access firearms.


Wyandot (Huron)
Population: 10,000 to 15,000
Geography: Southern Ontario, western Michigan
Military: 1,000 to 2,000 men

Shawnee
Population: 20,000 to 30,000
Geography: Southern Indiana
Military: 2,000 to 3,000 men

Miami
Population: 20,000 to 30,000
Geography: Northwestern Ohio and Indiana
Military: 2,000 to 3,000 men

Lenapi (Delaware)
Population: 10,000 to 15,000
Geography: Southern Ohio
Military: 1,000 to 2,000 men

Council of Three Fires (Chippewa, Odawa, Potawatomi)
Population: 10,000 to 15,000
Geography: Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the Lower Peninsula of Michigan
Military: 1,000 to 2,000 men

Wabash Confederacy (Wea, Pinkashaw, Kickapoo, Mascouten)
Population: 5,000 to 10,000
Geography: Northern Indiana
Military: 600 to 1,000 men

Illini Confederacy (Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Peoria, and others)
Population: 5,000 to 10,000
Geography: Illinois
Military: 600 to 1,000 men

[TLS]

1784-1785

The flow of settlers moving west has slowed slightly, as the Americans are hesitant to move into the frontier without being sure that they're within the remit of the proper government, but as the new order settles in the flow begins to pick up the pace. American settlers begin, if not pouring, then certainly flowing over the Appalachians into the fertile lands on the western slopes of the mountains. New trading posts begin to pop up from the Cuyahoga to the Ohio, and with them come guns, soldiers, and gold.

Rumors also begin to trickle out of the northwest of unseasonable quiet among the Indians, as the previously constant inter-tribal raids begin to die down and are replaced by eerie silence. The settlers take this as a profitable omen, as the feared warring Indian hordes on the other side of the mountains are nowhere to be found.

[Lefty]

Ebenezer Zane is authorized by the Ministry of the Interior to perform a survey and expedition of the Ohio Country to engage in trade and peace talks with the Indians there.

[TLS]

Ebenezer Zane is authorized by the Ministry of the Interior to perform a survey and expedition of the Ohio Country to engage in trade and peace talks with the Indians there.

Zane's adventure through the Ohio Country, along the Ohio River and then north, back towards the Virginia border takes him into contact with a number of Indian settlements primarily affiliated with the Delaware tribe. He brings back a few trinkets and promises of friendship from the Delaware, but has remarkably little else to show for his year treating with the Indians. He was able to secure blessing for a few settlements in the region but found the Delaware and inscrutable negotiating partner. Most worryingly, he returns to Virginia with a distinct sense that the Indians may be more interconnected than previously believed, as he encountered a few representatives from far-flung tribes, such as the Odawa, along his route. However, he has also effectively surveyed and mapped much of the realm he traversed (primarily RL southern Ohio) and presents effective plans and strategies for future settlement in the region--negotiations with the Indians be damned.

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