In the mid-eighteenth century, the land between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River was populated by dozens of Native American tribes. The tribes fell into three major groupings: the Iroquois, the Algonquin, and the Southern Indian Confederation. The Native Americans roamed vast areas when they hunted. But they lived in permanent villages, usually near rivers where some of them farmed. Tribal boundaries overlapped, and tribes generally shared hunting grounds peacefully.

The woodland people were shrewd, intelligent, and sophisticated. But their culture was completely alien to that of Europeans. They were portrayed by whites as savages because of their beliefs in magic, personal glory, and the worth of other forest creatures.

For two hundred years, the Indian policies of American governments produced truces, treaties, bargains, and tragedy on both sides. Whites and Native Americans were locked in an uneasy state of...