ABSTRACT
In the eastern woodlands, mission work intensified in the eighteenth century during the years of the Great Awakening sweeping over the colonies in the 1730s and 1740s, even creating Native American preachers who spread biblical teachings among their own people. However, there was another spiritual awakening among native peoples at mid-century, one that involved the revival of native spiritual practices to ward off the destructive forces of colonialism. A Delaware prophet Neolin passed on a prophecy about the Master of Life and spiritual cleansing that ultimately ignited a sacred war under the leadership of the Ottawa chief Pontiac. After the Seven Years’ War when Native Americans resisted the English victors’ thrust into the Ohio country, Pontiac spread Neolin’s prophecy to ignite a new phase of war, one that brought various native peoples together across tribal lines to resist the British. In this climate of Indian raids on British forts, known as Pontiac’s War, British commanders searched for ways to defeat Pontiac and his pan-tribal warriors. And once the British defeated Pontiac’s forces, imperial leaders moved quickly to establish new boundaries to protect the settler frontiers of their colonies. Following over a half century of negotiation, land dispossession, trade, and warfare, the year 1763 marked a clear break with this past. Indian-European relations would never be the same again.
