Documentary ponders ‘betrayal’ of aboriginal dreams after War of 1812

A new U.S. documentary being aired Monday ahead of next year’s bicentennial of the War of 1812 puts a different spin on the enduring debate over who won the historic battle between British Canada and the fledgling United States, instead highlighting the unambiguous defeat suffered by North America’s aboriginal nations as a result of the war.

The two-hour film, produced by the Buffalo, N.Y.-based PBS affiliate that has millions of viewers in southern Ontario, casts the native allies of the British-Canadian forces — led by the heroic Shawnee chief Tecumseh — as fierce and effective fighters in resisting American invasion attempts.

But the resulting deadlock in the war, which left North America’s borders intact after 2 1/2 years of fighting, also ended Tecumseh’s dream of a confederation of Indian nations with large, secure territories and a status comparable to the British colonies and American states.

The documentary, simply titled The War of 1812, “clearly deals with the fact that the one group that lost heavily is the natives,” Canadian military historian Peter Twist, a consultant on the film, told Postmedia News.

He said the strategic alliance between Tecumseh and British commander Isaac Brock was “absolutely crucial” to the successful thwarting of American invasion attempts early in the war.

But Brock’s death in October 1812 at the Battle of Queenston Heights and Tecumseh’s death a year later at a battle near present-day Chatham, Ont., led eventually to a breakdown in British-native relations and the “betrayal” of aboriginal dreams for a better future in the postwar era.

“The tragedy for them was that the hope had been to form a native buffer state” that was rejected in peace negotiations, said Twist.

In the film, native historian Wolf Thomas said the Indian nations “lost our land base” and “lost our culture” in the immediate aftermath of the war. “They no longer needed us to fight their wars anymore.”

And Jim Hill, manager of heritage operations with the Niagara Parks Commission, is shown remarking that both American and Canadians citizens remember the War of 1812 as a victory for their respective nations.

“But I think it’s generally agreed that it’s the First Nations people of North America who lose the War of 1812.”

The film premieres a day before the Heritage Minister James Moore and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson are scheduled to make a major announcement at Fort George in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., about federal funding for War of 1812 commemorations. Millions of dollars have already been spent upgrading and expanding heritage sites linked to the war, and another infusion of funding is expected in the coming months to further ready historic forts and other sites for a potential tourism boom.

In the lead up to the bicentennial, both Canadian and American officials have been emphasizing the two centuries of virtually uninterrupted peace between the two countries since the War of 1812 ended in 1814 (though the Battle of New Orleans was fought in early 1815 before word of the signing of a peace treaty had been received in the southern U.S.)

In 2009, a survey conducted by the Association for Canadian Studies showed that about 37% of respondents believed Canada won the War of 1812, with just nine per cent giving the victory to the U.S.

Another 15% called the war a draw with no clear winner, but the single largest group of respondents — 39% — said they knew too little about the war to form an opinion on who won.

Also in 2009, the Assembly of First Nations appealed to the Canadian government to make special efforts to commemorate the aboriginal contribution to the preventing the American conquest of Canada.

“The 1812 War bicentennial presents a national milestone opportunity for the government of Canada to revitalize relations with indigenous nations,” an AFN resolution stated at the time. “The contributions and sacrifices of the indigenous nations and warriors in the battles of the 1812 War have been ignored. These failures have resulted in the oppression and underdevelopment of First Nations, missing Canadian history and omissions in Canadian education.”

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Source: National Post