How did the Stockbridge Mohicans get Dragged into the French and Indian War?

The front cover of The Mohicans of Stockbridge

The vast majority of Indians fighting in the French and Indian War were allied with France. So why then did the Stockbridge Mohicans ally themselves with the British?

Well, they already were allies with the British. The Christian mission established in 1734 in what is now the state (commonwealth) of Massachusetts came about largely or at least partly, for political reasons. If it seems to you that the British were being deceitful, remember that the thing we call "separation of church and state" had not been invented at that point. So there was no shame in "using" religion to recruit Native subjects to the British Crown. (Some of those subjects later proved to be a great guerrilla fighting force.)

The Indians needed white allies because they were struggling to survive. Meanwhile, the British needed Native allies because they were struggling with the French - for world domination.

Another question is why were individual Indians wiling to fight the French and their Native allies. The answer, if I remember what Patrick Frazier wrote somewhere in The Mohicans of Stockbridge, is twofold: 1) the Indian men still identified themselves as warriors - that was who they were and what they did, and 2) they had debts to pay and fighting was a way to earn money and avoid their creditors.

All of that is the context. Just as important were the real events - initiated by France's Native allies - that brought the white and Native residents of Stockbridge [Massachusetts] into the French and Indian War. These events were described so well by Patrick Frazier in the Mohicans of Stockbridge, that I scanned page 107 for you to read (click on the image to enlarge it):



That page and much of the rest of The Mohicans of Stockbridge is available from Google books.

The long and short of it is that the Scaticokes and Abenakis had been busy in the neighborhood of Stockbridge and Albany, killing cattle, burning buildings, and even murdering an infant and a servant in the town of Stockbridge. Such aggression would not be tolerated. War was on!

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