Native American Military History

"Nez Perce group known as 'Chief Joseph's Band'" [Photographer Unknown]

"Galvarino" Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga

Galvanizing Support

     Perhaps the most well-known indigenous resistance among Native Americans was the Great Sioux War which culminated in the Battle of Little Bighorn, but far less people know about the far more successful Arauco War in modern-day Chile in which the indigenous Mapuche successfully fought off Spanish attempts to hammer the native people of modern-day Chile into submission.

     That success was thanks to a war leader known as Galvarino. At the time, native peoples who fought against Spanish colonization often found themselves on the literal chopping block as Spanish soldiers who captured prisoners of war would cut off their captives' hands to symbolize their inability to ever again raise "arms" against the Spanish.

     After Galvarino had both hands cut off, he demanded the Spanish remove his head next, as only death would stop him from fighting back. A Spanish priest pleaded for his life, and the Spanish let him go. From there, the history has since turned to legend. As the story goes, Galvarino returned to his soldiers, jammed two captured Spanish swords into his amputated forearms, and waged a new campaign against the conquistadors.

     What is known is that Galvarino's renewed guerilla warfare campaign was so successful that the Spanish not only accepted defeat, but never again dared to fighting the Mapuche on their own turf. The war became one of the longest wars in history, and cost the Spanish embarrassing losses in both manpower and resources thanks to the work of Galvarino and countless Mapuche warriors who refused to submit.

     Galvarino's legacy would inspire later Mapuche to never submit to foreign rule; even during the Latin Revolutions when further attempts to force indigenous peoples into submission became commonplace. The Mapuche today enjoy far more freedoms than most indigenous peoples in Latin America thanks to Galvarino's refusal to submit.

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Right Hand Woman

     While the Apache Wars are most famous because of the campaigns of Geronimo, there is far less known about his proverbial right hand Lozen- one of only a handful of known Apache warrior women. In campaign of the war known as Victorio's Campaign, Lozen acted as a medicine woman and scout for a warband under the war leader- and Lozen's brother- Victorio. During the conflict which bounced between the US and Mexican border, Lozen provided valuable support as a healer and navigator in the desert terrain. On some occasions, Lozen also took part in the fighting. One story recounts a battle in which Lozen stole a Mexican soldier's horse in the middle of an intense firefight in order to get a new mother and her baby out of the war zone.

     After learning about a crushing defeat in Mexico in which Mexican soldiers killed her brother and several of his soldiers, Lozen rode alone through the desert past US and Mexican army patrols to rescue the remains of her brother's army and get them back to friendly territory on the US side of the border. When Geronimo began his war in 1885, Lozen joined his army as a spiritual leader in order to maintain morale among the troops. The war ended in defeat, and Lozen- with other Apache leaders- went to Florida as a prisoner or war. The US Army later transported her and others to a POW camp in Alabama where she died of tuberculosis due to the squalor of the camp.

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"Huitzilopochtli telleriano" [Unknown Artist]

God of War

     Stories of Aztec priests making human sacrifices to the gods in order to ensure a sunrise the following day often leave the impression that the Aztec sun god was the most important figure of the religion. Instead, Huitzilopochtli- god of war- was the true inspiration behind the brutal practice. Represented by the hummingbird, Huitzilopochtli was a god that represented an extremely violent nation; and perhaps out of necessity.

     The Aztec of modern-day Mexico originated in modern-day Utah and fled the Great Basin southward in search of the better land to call home, eventually settling in and around modern-day Mexico City. Once there however, neighboring nations that long-called the region home were intent on driving the Aztecs out. To survive, the Aztec immigrants were forced to wage brutal wars for their survival. As a condition of their survival, the Aztecs would capture enemy warriors in battle, sacrifice them to the gods, then send the heart of the victim home with the warrior who captured him to eat at the dinner table- all in the name of Huitzilopochtli- the Aztec god of war.

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"Theatrical Release Poster"

The Last of the Mohicans

     Hollywood does not have a great track record when it comes to movies depicting Native American characters. From the early days of cinema, white actors often donned "red face" to portray Native American characters written by white screen writers in a way that painted them more as caricatures than as characters. In fact, several Native American actors of today have spoken about the portrayal of Native Americans in Western films as a form of American Romanticism.

     In 1992, Hollywood released a film adaptation of an early American novel The Last of the Mohicans that tells the story of a white frontiersman raised among the Iroquois of modern-day Upstate New York and his quest to safely escort a British officer's daughter to safety during the French and Indian War.

     While there are several moments of the film that utilize outdated depictions of Native Americans- including an almost shot-for-shot recreation of a scene from Birth of a Nation (yes, that Birth of a Nation); the film's lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis was able to bring a grounded approach to the main character.

     Wes Studi's portrayal of the antagonist additionally- while certainly brutal in his cold malice- also brought a sense of relate-ability to his character. All in all, the film is not perfect, but between the battle choreography and the work of both Day-Lewis and Studi, the film is certainly one of the best portrayals of Native American warfare in film.

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The Creator's Game

     Several sports throughout history have been used to subdue violence- with the Roman emperors famously using gladiatorial games to silence unruly crowds; but one sport indigenous to the United States acted as an international ceasefire. Shortly before the arrival of English settlers to what is today the United States and Canada, five nations along the St. Lawrence River were in a constant state of warfare. Violence was brutal, casualty rates were high, and civilians were caught in the middle. One of the nations' leaders wanted a permanent end to the violence and set about laying the groundwork for lasting peace.

     Hiawatha- known often as "The Great Peace Maker"- used a combination of diplomacy and warfare to force the other four nations' leaders into a meeting in which they could collectively agree to an end to the fighting. As a condition of peace, Hiawatha organized a new sport in which warriors to exercise their need for violence in a way that could prevent large-scale warfare. When the French arrived centuries later, they called the sport Lacrosse.

     In pre-colonial lacrosse, the action was brutal. Athletes would play on a massive field with massive teams, and death on the lacrosse field was no uncommon. Under these controlled environments, members of the five nations could release their aggression however, and the peace not only held; but inspired a sixth nation to join as well. This confederation of nations held together by sport eventually became known as the Iroquois, and several historians cite the work of Hiawatha as the critical action that allowed the Iroquois to survive as a people and political powerhouse to this day.