Henry Stuart\'s \"Report From Cherokee

Henry Stuart's "Report from Cherokee Country"

Henry Stuart's position as the British deputy superintendent of Indian Affairs during the American Revolution and the years immediately prior to it required a great deal of political savvy and tact. As this text acknowledges, the various Native American tribes that existed in the wide area of now-European dominated land were often at war with one another, in addition to the disputes they had with the various groups of white settlers -- the separatist colonists, the British and the colonial loyalists, and the French. Each of these groups laid their own claim to the land, and Henry Stuart's job was to us these forces to persuade the many disparate Native American groups to the British point-of-view -- an impossible task at which he did not want to appear a failure, which necessarily colored his interpretation and representation of events.

The many different factions represented many more viewpoints on the wide array of general and specific issues that existed between and within these groups at the time, and Henry Stuart would have needed to deal diplomatically with all of them if he ever hoped to reach a peaceful conclusion, which seems to have been his desire even when he knew it was hopeless. He does say, after all, that after the great meeting between the tribal leaders, "it was in vain to talk any more of Peace, all that could now be done was to give them strict charge not to pass the Boundary Line [and] not to injure any of the King's faithful subjects" (Stuart, 204).

With a brother who basically awarded him this position, it is safe to assume that Henry Stuart came from a fairly well established British family. Yet he also shows himself, even without meaning to, to be a quite capable man for the job he was given, though it was doomed to failure form the start. The amount of diplomacy, tact, and respect that Stuart shows for the Native Americans is impressive given the time period.

The picture of the situation that Stuart paints is clearly in disagreement with the Native Americans; they end up deciding to go to war with the colonists instead of waiting as Stuart and the other British delegate plead for them to do. In this instance, Stuart does portray some of the classic ethnocentrism that history has taught us to expect of imperial forces. When the Native American urge his companion and him to take up the war belt, he describes how they begged off: "We told them that Indians did not understand our written Talks and we did not understand their Beads, nor what were their intentions" (Stuart, 204). It seems fairly clear from Stuart's writing that he did understand their intentions, but that he did not agree with them. In a way, then, this passage shows some amount of condescension, but an even greater amount of diplomacy. By claiming not to fully understand what was going on, Stuart was able to refrain from agreeing with the decision to go to war while t the same time retaining some alliance.

What Stuart is really trying to illustrate in this text, then, is the complete impossibility of the situation he was confronted with. In a way, this reflects the total underestimation of many different facets of the situation by the British government. They sent only a mid- or even low-ranking official to talk to the Native Americans, but the situation demanded a much larger (though likely still useless) delegation. The opening of this piece of text describes not only the large number of tribes and individual Native Americans present, but also carries the Native American's descriptions of the vast quantities of settlers and forts that are encroaching on their land (Stuart, 202). The problem is a very large one, yet for some reason the British seem too feel that the Native Americans should be easy to diplomatically contain -- all Stuart has to do is make a suggestion or two.

The falsity of this belief is perhaps one of the main reasons behind Stuart's writing o this document. It seems to be almost an excuse, as though he were saying "I tried, and look -- I really did the best I could, but those native Americans were just too righteously angry." He does not go quite so far as blaming the Revolutionary War on the Native Americans, but he certainly does not appear happy with their decision. The British were not happy either, as they had basically lost a very useful ally when the Native American tribes were routed by the colonial forces. In large part, then, this document could also be read as a way of Stuart covering himself. Not only was he describing the impossibility of this task, he also clearly demonstrates his disapproval with the Native Americans' decision, especially when it and the opposing British stance put "our lives and the lives of all the white people...in great danger" (Stuart, 204).