The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation

In The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation, Colin G. Calloway argues, “Indian nations figured alongside European nations in the founding fathers’ thinking about the current and future state of the union. Indian leaders were adept at playing on American fears of British and Spanish backing for Indian resistance. Debates over the sovereignty of the United States and struggles over the extent and limits of federal authority and states’ rights centered on Indian treaties, and Indian issues, wars, and land policies were critical in developing a strong central government” (pg. 4). Calloway works to counter a gap in the historiography, which primarily overlooks the show more role of Native Americans in Washington’s affairs due to the historical and cultural blinders of manifest destiny, which cast Indian lands as western lands. In this, he argues, “Restoring Indian people and Indian lands to the story of Washington goes a long way toward restoring them to their proper place in America’s story” (pg. 14). He also works to portray the role of diplomacy with Native American tribes, regarded as sovereign nations on a continent with multiple claims to sovereignty by American Indians, Americans, the Spanish, the French, and the English. Calloway also engages with the contradictions inherent in Washington’s legacy, writing, “Washington’s dealings with Indian people and their land do him letter credit, but on the other hand his achievement is creating a nation from a fragile union of states is more impressive when we appreciate the power and challenges his Indian world presented” (pg. 13). Calloway’s work is not a biography of Washington, but rather of his time and world. He plays a vital role in correcting an oversight in the historiography, much like Pekka Hämäläinen’s The Comanche Empire recast the historiography of western expansion to examine the Comanche as a political force in the West. show less

A tremendously well researched study about George Washington's dealings with Native Americans over the course of his lifetime with all its warts. With time there is a growing knowledge of and respect for the two sides for each other. At first, Washington sees them mainly as a blockage to land he covets in the western territories and he sees them as savages. As time passes he mellows after having many meetings with tribal leaders and really is trying to protect them from the encroachment of white settlement. (less than successful) Ultimately the natives always hate the settlers but most love George Washington.

LOTS of information. Some what dry and difficult to read.