Unique among the body of work examined here is a single documentary portrayal of American Indians during the American Revolution. In other works studied for this project, I found Native Americans referenced for their participation in the French and Indian War. This conflict is significant as a formative event for many of the people who would later participate in the colonies’ rebellion against England. This foundational experience in the French and Indian War, according to the work of the documentarians, requires representations of warlike American Indians, but later experiences with American Indians during the Revolutionary War are almost always omitted. In Washington the Warrior, the only visual depiction of American Indians occurs in the early years of George Washington’s life, prior to the beginning of the French and Indian War, and later events such as the Sullivan Expedition to burn out Iroquois towns in New York are left out entirely.
This is starkly contrasted by the documentary The American Revolution, in the episode titled “The World at War.” The Sullivan Expedition is examined in the second half of the episode, noting the violent actions taken by Continental soldiers against Iroquois people, settlements, food, and possessions. It also notes that American Indians would give George Washington a name which translates to “burner of villages.”
“Burning Villages” segment from documentary “The American Revolution,” episode “The World at War” (1994); content warning for depictions of violence.
Earlier in the same episode is a discussion of warfare conducted to the west of the Appalachian Mountains, west of the traditionally-studied battlegrounds between the prominent generals of the war. One of the featured historians, Dr. R. Scott Stephenson, who now heads the Museum of the American Revolution, describes how the actions taken by both the rebel side and the loyalist side were “savage,” and while American Indians were involved in the fighting, the use of the word “savage” was specifically about the nature of the warfare rather than the people involved. Stephenson goes on to say that “Americans who we want to hold to some sort of ideal were perpetuating brutal murders and brutal activity against Native people that we traditionally attributed to Indians.” This segment of the documentary concludes with George Rogers Clark, a Continental Army officer and brother to William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition, capturing Fort Vincennes, Indiana. The focus of this piece, however, is not the military struggle to capture the fort, but Clark’s cold-blooded murder, personally carried out, of four or five American Indians who had been captured by Clark’s men near the fort.
Clips from “War on the Frontier” segment from documentary “The American Revolution,” episode “The World at War” (1994); content warning for descriptions of violence.
This segment of the documentary positions Clark as an antagonist and a main character, and the Native Americans as sympathetic minor characters. They are not necessarily protagonists, however, as they are identified as being on the British side and the sympathy can coexist with the perception that they “got what they deserved,” in some way, for being opponents of the young United States. We see here, again, that American Indians in minor character roles are not portrayed as positively as they could be with more authentic and respectful representations. This documentary aired in the middle of the 1990s, prior to newer representations of American Indians that are more problematic. This demonstrates how only one effort to remedy the typically negative representations of American Indians and the whitewashing of United States history is not enough. More honest efforts like this, to portray events and people respectfully for all participants in history, are needed for citizens of the United States to better understand our history.