Redressing the contemptuous injustices of historical omission;With jewels from beneath the waters, with coral and mother of pearl and the pelt of the beaver, with these I do thee wed, America.A like institution of fidelity was gifted to the birth of our new form of government by a faithful people who have betimes named George Washington `the Great Father' & 'the Great Chief Warrior', while he yet struggled to gain victory against the madness of the British King George.Yet the Oneida' who sacrificed life and land and kinship against pro-British Iroquois nations did also decline their rightful citizenship and voting privileges of this great experiment in democracy (with all their Iroquois kindred) so that they might more ably re-forge their union within the sovereign nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. A most rare nobility is the faithfulness of the Oneida Iroquois, `the People of the Standing Stone.'An exhaustive bibliography of this book does bear upon the quality of it's prose. The historical account introduces a chronological narrative of several geographic and cultural topographies. If you will invest the time (I made multiple installments) these authors will transport your attentions between various Indian settlements and migrations and military encampments, between British loyalist' and Rebel Patriot colonial forts and settlements and marches, between political and religious doctrinal conflicts amongst the Iroquois.'Forgotten Allies' does not elaborate how trading alliances which formed between alternate Iroquois nations and competing European trading partners contributed to Iroquois internal strife and political bias building up during the 'Beaver wars'.During that time, various tribes formed favorable trade relations with the French, the English, or the Dutch to the exclusion of those interests held by their fellow federation nation tribes.The term 'Beaver Wars' is derived from the Iroquois hunters and warriors subduing surrounding native populations and dominating the hunting/trapping interest in those territories for the monopolistic benefits of being the primary supplier of beaver pelts to the European traders. The Confederacy at large sought to retain neutrality when the colonial interests were making war in Europe and on our fair soil.For their part the Europeans increased their mercenary stipend to the individual Indian nations they were accustomed to trading with. These flowers of evil were the beginnings of political division amongst the Iroquois. And where that story leaves off is where `Forgotten Allies' begins.Being introduced by this text to the uncovered role of a schism in Christian doctrine between those who supported the Rebel/Patriot cause and those who supported King George's loyalists is no little enigma; it's amazing the authors found so much reference material to treat it. The tip of the theological `ice berg' so to say, would intone that the Anglican/Church of England which was favoring the crown and whose emphasis was after the manner of Catholicism, is treated as a view of `salvation by good works'; while the Presbyterian opposition view which was held by those in support of the Patriot/Rebel cause is treated as reformation theology in origin. This mere thumbnail sketch is difficult to connect in my mind with traditions of a people whose cultural memories remember taking shelter in caves to escape the `ice storms' and the `ice age' giant beasts.According to Tuscarora Chief Elias Johnson,(Legends, Traditions And Laws of the Iroquois Or Six Nations And History Of The Tuscarora Indians) (published by Kessinger Reprints)Legends, Traditions, and Laws of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, and History of the Tuscarora Indiansthe tribal traditions recollect a time when Hiawatha (or Taryenyawagon) came down from the star people to lead the six families out of the caves to their ancestral lands when it was once again safe to hunt. This isn't part of the narrative from Martin & Galatthaar, but it's a great conundrum to reconcile when presented with the report that some of these Natives were highly esteemed for their Christian piety (ie. religious loyalty) and their `polite civilisation'. And both those who were English conversant Christian and those who were unable to turn their backs on the old ways were (most of them) resolute in their reconciliation to one another after England signed the Armistice at Paris, Sept. 3rd, 1783.Although ending the fighting between England and Colonies, by this treaty the British ceded territory to the United States which was not theirs to give, namely the Iroquois homelands, creating issues for the Iroquois to later resolve with the Continental Congress. The shrewd political mind of the Iroquois was aware of the dissimulation from their British allies, one anecdote recounts:"Attempting to save face with their Iroquois allies, local British commanders told them that `they must not go to war as the King had compassion on his American subjects they having expressed their sorrow for what they had done'."[in response to this]"A Seneca Sachem dismissed this commentary as pure nonsense. He observed that `the Americans and French had beat the English[,] that the latter could no longer carry on the war, and that the Indians knew it well & must now be sacrificed or submit to the Americans.' He thought `it was time to attend to their own concerns and listen no longer to...lies'." (p286)If you're curious about the military assistance recieved from American Natives then you won't be disappointed with this read. Keeping as it's theme a goal of `revealing an *un-told* side of the story', the preponderance of researched material is synthesized to introduce the many Native & European characters extracted from references. These characters' names are well indexed to a heavily annotated text full of concise quotations. It should be borne in mind that the primary subject is war, with all the gravity and reverence attaching to this topic.I purchased `Forgotten Allies' by Joseph T. Glatthaar & James Kirby Martin from Amazon last year (2007), because some branches of my ancestry include Native American Indian Scouts from the American Revolution and the Civil War whose spoken languages were (respectively of each conflict) Iroquois (eastern) and Athalpascan (western). I am motivated to understand what & why they did what they did, and perhaps discover the intersection of truth with family tradition. The title, `Allies' describes precisely `why' my ancestors claim to have survived the foregoing conflicts.If you desire a comprehensive description of the traditions and spirituality of the Iroquois Nations, then you're probably looking for the work of Tuscarora Chief Elias Johnson, because such accounts differ from one tribe to the next, and his volume includes details which enlighten some of the relationships involved, as well as early transcriptions of ancient names, first rendered when the missionaries delivered a written form of script to these people. You might even understand the communicative nature of the `Wampum' belts to the social justice of the Iroquois.The well achieved aim of `Forgotten Allies' concerns itself principally with the sacrifice made by the Oneida' and Tuscarora', two Iroquois Nations who were officially aligned with the Rebel/Patriot cause, establishing them as representatives in good standing of the Iroquois Confederacy en masse.They were right to expect a more preferential consideration in treating with the Continental Congress (that of benefactors to the U.S. Government), in that process which ultimately developed a treaty entitlement for all Iroquois, the `treaty of Canaandaigua'.This `crown jewel' of Native American political negotiation leveraged the U.S. Government to rescind dis-favorable treaty conditions which had been erroneously adopted by a former `Walking Purchase' agreement.As a chapter in U.S. history leading up to what became one of the best negotiated and enforced of many poorly attended treaties in Native American relations with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, these testimonies are overdue for remembrance. The struggle for acknowledgement of wrongful land concessions remains an ongoing legal matter. Even in our day, Supreme Court decisions Oneida I & Oneida II from 1974 & 1985 have been secured amidst ever mounting antagonism from both county level bureaucrats and New York state officials.From Martin and Glatthaar's book,"For the most part, the Continental Congress expressed interest in the well being of the Oneidas and attempted to treat it's wartime allies with respect. by comparison, local citizens and their leaders in New York viewed the Oneidas mostly as an annoyance and an impediment. Once the war ended, they began devising ways to force the People of the Standing Stone from their traditional homeland." Our parts in the story must all come and go with the telling; but the story will go on. (This review is based on the hard cover edition)