Rebellious Younger Brother: Oneida Leadership and Diplomacy, 1750–1800 by David J. Norton (review)

Although the Iroquois Confederacy has been a favourite subject among historians for several decades, it is only more recently that scholarship has been devoted to particular nations within the Confederacy, comprising the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora. Within this group, the Mohawk and Seneca have arguably received the most attention. This is somewhat surprising, as each nation played prominent roles throughout the colonial period and in both the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Addressing this scholarly gap, David J. Norton’s text provides a re-examination of the Oneida in the period before, during, and after the revolution and seeks to arrive at a new understanding of their political, social, and military agency during an era of great upheaval.

As the Oneida were the only nation among the Six Nations that allied themselves with the Americans throughout the revolution, they have often been seen as the ‘culprits’ behind the dissolution of the Confederacy that occurred in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. For many historians, this was often viewed as the result of the pervasive influence of the missionary Samuel Kirkland, who lived and worked among the Oneida in the years leading up to the revolution. While Kirkland did indeed have considerable impact upon the Oneida at this time, Norton examines the significant ways in which the Oneida themselves acted independently of Kirkland’s wishes. He asserts that several Oneida leaders actively tried to uphold the traditional structures of the Great Law of Peace among the Six Nations and to remain neutral in a war between English ‘Father and Son,’ but because of repeated dissatisfaction with English demands for their lands, they were essentially provoked into siding with the colonials, who they felt were more scrupulous in land negotiations. The great tragedy, of course, is that the Oneida suffered terribly after the revolution, despite having sided with the victors. Not only were they relegated to a tiny thirty-two-acre reservation on their traditional lands in New York State, but for several years afterward they were also treated with a certain amount of resentment and disdain by the rest of the Six Nations, who felt betrayed by their former partners in peace.

Norton’s well-researched work begins with a general overview of the Oneida’s role and function within the larger Iroquois Confederacy and moves chronologically through the late eighteenth century, focusing on speeches made by various Oneida leaders rather than on the scholarship based around Samuel Kirkland’s role in their affairs. While the author is aware of the cultural aspects that shaped Oneida social and political views, this work would have certainly benefited from a more nuanced exploration of Iroquoian language and metaphor to better approach the story of the Oneida during this particular period. This is most apparent in his problematic understanding of the Oneida’s role as ‘younger brothers’ within the Confederacy, as well as his puzzling suggestion that they were considered as ‘females’ by the rest of the Six Nations, as evident in statements such as, ‘The trust that the Confederacy placed in the Oneida to maintain a viable “motherly” presence in the southern territory was of significance for the Oneida beyond that of merely being a buffer against colonial encroachment.’ It is quite likely that members of the Iroquois Confederacy today would find fault with such a statement, for cultural knowledge and oral tradition certainly contradict such conclusions. There is, in fact, a notable lack of contemporary Iroquoian perspective anywhere in this work, and this is perhaps the biggest drawback of Norton’s study.

However, the text does provide over forty pages of appendix material that would be highly useful to scholars looking to deepen their understanding of particular individuals who played a role within Oneida, and Iroquois, political negotiations in the late eighteenth century. This material, along with the concise, chronological approach to examining the Oneida nation at a volatile time in North American history...