TheIndian barrier state was an unrealised British proposal to establish aNative Americanbuffer state in theGreat Lakes region ofNorth America. It was intended to consist of territory west of theAppalachian Mountains and bounded by theOhio andMississippi rivers along with theGreat Lakes. British officials first conceived of establishing such a state in 1755 during theFrench and Indian War, and the idea grew in importance after the war ended and Native dissatisfaction with the British resulted inPontiac's War.[1][2]
After the Great Lakes region was ceded to the United States in the 1783Treaty of Paris that ended theAmerican Revolutionary War, British officials and Native chiefs pursued efforts to organize the various tribes within it into theNorthwestern Confederacy, which would form the basis of an Indian state independent of the United States and under British protection. Their goal was to protect the British component of theNorth American fur trade from American merchants and to block the westward expansion of American colonizers.[3][4]
Among the plan's most ardent proponents were Mohawk leaderJoseph Brant and Lieutenant-GovernorJohn Graves Simcoe.[5] In 1814, the British government abandoned efforts to bring such a state into being with the signing of theTreaty of Ghent with the United States, which ended theWar of 1812.
The British first proposed a barrier state in discussions with France in 1755. In 1763, Britain took control of all of the land east of the Mississippi River, and so negotiations with France became irrelevant. Instead, theBritish Crown issued theProclamation of 1763, which was designed to keep Anglo-American settlers east of the Appalachian Mountains and physically separate from the main Indian settlements. The proclamation left the west under British control but alienated theThirteen Colonies, which claimed legal rights to most of the land involved. Furthermore, variouscolonial governments had awarded large tracts of land in lieu of salaries to Anglo-American soldiers who fought in the conflict, such as ColonelGeorge Washington, who unsuccessfully pressed for and fellow veterans from Virginia received their promised rewards.[6] There was great legal confusion for the next decade.[7]
Through theQuebec Act of 1774, the British made the western lands part of theProvince of Quebec, denying American settlers the opportunity to colonize it. This was one of theIntolerable Acts that eventually led to theAmerican Revolutionary War. The western lands were heatedly disputed during the Revolution withAmerican Patriot forces first gaining control before the British defeated them in 1780–1782.[8]
At the Paris treaty negotiations of 1782, the French floated a proposal that would give the British control north of the Ohio River, with the lands south of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River divided into two Indian states. The state to the southeast would be under American supervision. The state to the southwest would be under Spanish supervision. The Americans rejected the plan. The finalTreaty of Paris gave the western lands to the United States, with the British-controlledCanadas to the north,Spanish Florida to the south, andSpanish Louisiana to the west.[9]
The British largely abandoned their Indian allies in the Northwest. They were not a party to the treaty and did not recognize it until they were defeated militarily by the United States. The British continued to support their Indian allies, however, and sold them guns and supplies and until 1796, maintained forts in American territory.[10]
The long-term British goals were to maintain friendly relations with the Indians, support the valuable fur trade based in Montreal, and prevent encroachment by American settlers.[11] TheConfederation Congress of the United States organized the entire region north of the Ohio into theNorthwest Territory in 1787, with a mechanism to create new states once an area had gained sufficient population. Two years earlier, Congress had passed theLand Ordinance of 1785, which provided a means for the rapid surveying and sale of public lands in the region, thus encouraging organized settlement.[citation needed]
In the early 1790s, British officials in Canada made an aggressive effort to organize the various tribes into a sort of confederation that would form the basis of an Indian state.[12] An important impetus was the success of the Indians in destroying one-quarter of the entire United States Army atSt. Clair's defeat, also known as the Battle of the Wabash, in November 1791.[13] The British were surprised and delighted at the success of the Indians whom they had been supporting and arming for years. By 1794, using their base atDetroit, theoretically in American territory, they distributed supplies and munitions to numerous Indian tribes throughout the region.[14]
The British plans were developed in Canada. In 1794 the government in London reversed course and decided it was necessary to gain American favor, since amajor war had broken out with France. London put the barrier state idea on hold and opened friendly negotiations with the Americans that led to theJay Treaty of 1794. One provision was that British acceded to American demands to remove their forts from American territory in Michigan and Wisconsin. Michigan was a province of upper Canada until 1796. The British, from their forts inUpper Canada, continued to supply munitions to the Indians resisting the expansion of the United States.[15]
TheWar of 1812 in theMississippi River theater was fought for control of the would-be barrier state. The British made major gains in 1812. A 2,000-strong American force surrendered Detroit and the Indian alliestook control of parts of Ohio,Indiana andIllinois, as well as all of Michigan and Wisconsin and points west. In 1813, the Americans pushed back, and the Indian forces left the southern districts in order to supportTecumseh and the British. The Americanswon control ofLake Erie, defeated an Anglo-Native force at theBattle of the Thames in Upper Canada, and killed Tecumseh. Most of his alliance broke up.[citation needed]
By 1814, the Americans controlled all ofOhio,[16] all ofIndiana,[17]Illinois south ofPeoria,[18] and theDetroit region ofMichigan.[19] The British and their Indian allies controlled the rest of Michigan and all ofWisconsin.[20] With the Americans in control of Lake Erie and southwestern Upper Canada, the British were largely cut off from their units in Michigan and Wisconsin. Reinforcing them and supplying guns and gunpowder was quite difficult.[21]
The American negotiators atGhent in 1814 refused to entertain proposals for a buffer state. They insisted on abiding by the terms of the Paris Peace Treaty and the Jay Treaty, which assigned the United States full control over Michigan, Wisconsin, and points south.[22]Henry Goulburn, a British negotiator who took part in the Treaty of Ghent negotiations, remarked after meeting with American negotiators that "I had, till I came here, had no idea of the fixed determination which prevails in the breast of every American to extirpate the Indians and appropriate their territory."[23]
In 1814, the British leadership in London realized that peaceful trade with the United States, as desired by British merchants, far outweighed in value the fur trade that was the economic basis of the barrier state. All three British invasions of the United States had ultimately ended in failure at the battles ofPlattsburgh,Baltimore, andNew Orleans. They therefore dropped their demands for a barrier state and for military control over the Great Lakes. The Treaty of Ghent provided for a restoration of prewar boundaries, which determine most of the eastern stretch of the modernCanada–United States border. The treaty also guaranteed rights to the Indians living in the United States. After the war, the United States negotiated, often forcibly, a series of treaties with the Indians in which their land claims were purchased, and the Indians were either assigned toreservations near their original homes or forced to move to reservations further west.[24]