Nations At War - Episode 13

Today, we are finishing up Nations at War for August.  This episode is only twenty minutes long and was not combined with another episode to create a longer episode.  It was a sum-up episode on how migration changed the First Nations.  I will do this episode and then will write about the whole series as a wrap-up.

Even before Europeans came over, the First Nations migrated over North America.  Eventually, European settlers came over and the First Nations had to choose sides.  The French had secured alliances with the First Nations because they practiced gift giving.  First Nations kept pressure upon the British and kept settlement at bay.  However, the French did not like guerilla tactics.  During the French and Indian War, this attitude would lead to the collapse of the French Army.  After the French were defeated, the British were free to travel west. 

However, even though the French were defeated, their First Nation Allies fought back against British expansion.  Jeffry Amherst, a British General had ended the French practice of gift-giving and built forts on native lands.  He treated the First Nations as a conquered people; however, this was not reality.  The First Nations fought back and fought back hard.  William Johnson, an Irish diplomat reported Amherst and his warmongering to the authorities.  Amherst was removed and King George III declared the west of the Appalachian Mountains free from the settlement.

However, the Americans did not take these rules lightly and fought back against the British.  Again, the First Nations were caught in the middle.  Each nation had to choose aside.  The Americans would win the war and the British would concede American territory as well as the territory of the First Nations.  The First Nations continued their fight against the Americans and when the Americans discovered that the British were supplying weapons, they had additional ammunition to fight the British again in the War of 1812.

However, the British were weak because they were fighting in Europe against Napoleon.  The Americans believed that the war would be quick.  They were wrong and the First Nations allied with the British to fight the Americans.  The Americans sought to take Canada but would lose.  Instead, they focused on expanding west. 

It was in the west; the Americans would meet up with the Lakota Sioux and they would fight back against the United States to stop settlement.  The US Army would try to stamp their control on the Great Plains.  How else did migration affect the tribes?  Continue to watch this episode to find out.

Nations at War - Over All
Nations at War was long series to review but, in the end, I am glad that I did.  There were ups and downs with the flow of the First Nation story.  At times it felt like there was plenty of information repeated over and over again throughout the episodes.  Certain episodes should have been longer.  Particularly the episodes on the Lakota Sioux, the tribes of the Northwest Pacific, and the Iroquois could have gotten a longer episode.  The episode on Russia and Alaska was an education because you never really heard of Russia attempting to colonize anything.

Additionally, it would have been interesting to see episodes on the Cherokee, Cheyenne, and tribes of the Southwest.  I am sure that migration would have affected them too, why not address it in this series?  Maybe there will be a second series and those tribes will get addressed.  Overall, there was some good research material in the series and other episodes could be shown in the classroom.

As for David Lyle, it took him a while to warm up but, in the end, he was the perfect narrator for this series.  It would have been interesting to see him on the ground in the places that were discussed.  It also would have been great to see him handle longer episodes with his storytelling.  I hope that he will narrate more documentaries in the future.