May 27, 2023

In honor of Walrus and his love for Native American History, I am posting this perspective on history. 

This is one of the reasons that Walrus and I joined the American Indian Movement Rebellion at Wounded Knee in 1973. Native American Sovereignty Was Once Considered a Possibility.

There was a time when there could have been a North American Indian Nation.

One of the things that has always bothered me is how history is manipulated, erased, and forgotten, leaving us with a sanitized history that makes people feel better. This is one of the reasons that DeSantis is banning the teaching of real history in Florida and wants to expand it nationally.

As a student of history and an author of a book on the Confederates Raiders of the U.S. Civil War, I have discovered so many things that have been censored from U.S. History books.

One of those things is the Royal Proclamation of 1763. It was issued by King George III on October 7th, 1763, following the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Seven Years War with France.

The British had set aside almost the entirety of British North America, from the Mississippi to the Appalachians, for the Native Americans.

The British had decided that Native Americans and Colonists could not peacefully coexist side by side and that the two communities needed their own spaces.

The British set aside the area between the Mississippi and Appalachians for the Native Americans. The proclamation and access to western lands was one of the first significant areas of dispute between Britain and the colonies and would become a contributing factor leading to the American Revolution. 

George Washington and his Virginia soldiers had been granted lands past the boundary prior to the proclamation, which was a motivating factor for Washington to rebel.

When the USA declared independence and began westward expansion, the British armed and assisted the Native American resistance.

This was one cause for the USA declaring war on the UK in 1812.

A British war aim in that war was the establishment of an independent Native American State. The British also wanted to end slavery.

Contrary to what many Americans believe today, the revolution was not motivated by taxes or freedom, but by self-interest amongst the landed gentry. The tax on tea for example was less than what the British paid in England in tea tax. 

Sadly, the British failed in their aims and the Native Americans were left to their fate at the hands of the USA and the perverse doctrine of manifest destiny.

The Royal Proclamation continues to be of legal importance to First Nations in Canada, being the first legal recognition of aboriginal title, rights, and freedoms, and is recognized in the Constitution Act, 1982, in part as a result of direct action by indigenous peoples of Canada, known as the Constitution Express movement of 1981–1982.