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This apparently famous quote led me to discover an historical North American precedent for accepting Project 2025’s offer of redemption through the merger of religion and politics as promoted by the Republicans. I’m always interested in learning any history that was never taught in schools. This apparently was a contributing cause the the American Revolution. Pontiac was an Ottawa war chief who led one of many Native American struggles against British military occupation, in particular in the Great Lakes region. He was one of the prominent leaders in the conflict referred as Pontiac's War 1763-1766 resulting from dissatisfaction with British policies. He was promised their old ways – and previous lives – would return and flourish. Pontiac never bought the pitch: “it is important for us, my brothers, that we exterminate from our lands this nation [British] which seeks to destroy us.” Here’s some history of “Pontiac’s Rebellion” Conspiracy of Pontiac, by Gari Melchers, 1921. Courtesy the Library of Congress [LC-D416-872]. In May 1763, Native American in the Great Lakes and Ohio River Valley went on the offensive and overran Britain’s westernmost fortifications, from Fort Edward Augustus in present-day Wisconsin to Fort Presque Isle in western Pennsylvania. While historians dispute whether “Pontiac’s Rebellion” started as a coordinated or spontaneous assault, the war quickly spread throughout Native America. From the beginning, Indigenous strategy revolved around besieging the western forts, cutting off all communications and reinforcements, and subduing the surrounding settler communities. For the most part, the offensive was successful, and by the end of June 1763, only three forts remained – Niagara, Detroit, and Pitt. British responses proved sluggish, since Amherst believed Indigenous peoples incapable of concerted action. It was not until the following year that the empire launched expeditions to try and relieve the pressure on the surviving garrisons. Even then, British forces scored only minor victories, which were offset by continuous raids in western Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. The war only came to an end in early 1765 when French aid failed to materialize for Native Americans, the prospect of the Iroquois Confederacy’s intervention on behalf of the empire, and – more significantly – promises by imperial administrators to conform to Native understandings of their alliances and recognize Indigenous sovereignty. The legacies of “Pontiac’s Rebellion” were many. Most important, the conflict enabled Native Americans to endure as major players in the geopolitics of North America during the eighteenth-century by compelling the British to reevaluate its “Indian Affairs” and give in to Native demands for fear of a prolonged war. Similarly, it featured one of the greatest examples of pan-Indian resistance to colonization and provided precedents for future pan-Indian movements like the “Northwest Confederacy” of the 1790s and Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa’s coalition in the early nineteenth-century. The violence also produced unforeseen consequences. Those who bore the brunt of the violence were Americans settlers; scholars estimate that over five hundred civilians lost their lives. The mortality and resulting trauma incited indiscriminate attacks against Native populations during and after the conflict, including the infamous Paxton Boys massacre of the Conestoga (Susquehannock) Indians. In addition, what emerged in the colonies was a culture of “Indian-hating” – or the “anti-Indian sublime”3 – in which Europeans of different religions, ethnicities, and political affiliations rallied together, despite their dissimilarities, against a Native “Other.” And when the British Empire took measures to defend Native sovereignty, like enforcing the Proclamation Line of 1763, the colonists vented their frustrations upon the empire, all of which contributed to the revolutionary storm brewing in the American colonies between 1763 and 1775. Bryan Rindfleisch Marquette Universtiy

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This apparently famous quote led me to discover an historical North American precedent for accepting Project 2025’s offer of redemption through the merger of religion and politics as promoted by the Republicans. I’m always interested in learning any history that was never taught in schools. This...

4h ago