Could the British Empire have co-opted North American tribes?

Well, they certainly did in OTL, but I'm talking about martial races here:

Ethnic-racial stereotyping is not unique to South Africa. Elsewhere in the world certain ethnic groups, with popular military history, have often been selected as the best combat material. These include the Gurkhas, Bedouin, Scots, Sikhs, Ibans, Berbers, Cossacks, Maori, Mongols, Kurds, Zulus, Irish and Montenegrins (Enloe 1980:26). During the colonial era, the British in East Asia identified distinctive characteristics for the various population groups in the subcontinent. For instance, Pathans were regarded as independent and calculating, the Dogras were shy and proud, the Gurkhas playful and comical, yet crazed and bloodthirsty in battle, the Sikhs prone to scheming and plotting yet tenacious in defence, while the Jats were viewed as stolid and dense. This resulted in the overrepresentation of some ethnic groups. In Burma, the Arakanese, Chins, Kachins, Shans and particularly the Karens were dominant in the armed forces. In Iraq, the British relied on Kurds, Assyrians and Yazidis. The northerners dominated in the defence forces of Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Uganda (Horowitz 1985:446--7).
http://www.unisa.ac.za/default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=11593

Make sure you read the Wikipedia article first. It would appear that a "martial race" wasn't just a people who had a powerful military and fighting tradition. To some extent, it was also about political plays to divide and conquer the native peoples against each other. So perhaps they would have considered the Iroquois a martial race, but not the French-allied Huron.
 
Well, they certainly did in OTL, but I'm talking about martial races here:


http://www.unisa.ac.za/default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=11593

Make sure you read the Wikipedia article first. It would appear that a "martial race" wasn't just a people who had a powerful military and fighting tradition. To some extent, it was also about political plays to divide and conquer the native peoples against each other. So perhaps they would have considered the Iroquois a martial race, but not the French-allied Huron.
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Ya, I've often thought that in a different world, the Iroquois would be an 'infantry' martial race and most any Plains nation could be a 'cavalry' martial race. Certainly, the (non-plains) Cree and other forest nations are mostly unlikely to fit that category. (I suspect that a telling detail is whether adult males self-describe as braves/warriors or hunters.)
 
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I suspect that a telling detail is whether adult males self-describe as braves/warriors or hunters.

That's true of most tribes, even ones that often get misportrayed as pacifist like the Hopi. (They and the Zuni do fight and will fight when attacked and even have warrior societies. For the Hopi they're called the Sword Swallowers.)

For that matter, many tribes had no problem with women who chose to become warriors, though most women didn't.

Back to the original question: Is SR asking if there are tribes who would've become Gurkha like mercenaries for the British?

There were individuals as mercs in some of the tribes after US independence, as their options began to dwindle. Some Shawnee and Delaware for example, fighting in the US Mexican War under Kirker.
 
well, the Martial Race theory branded the Bengalis as unwarlike- yet the Bangladeshis in the MUKHTAR BAHINI in 1970-71 fought like hell in their war of independence against the West Pakistani army...

hmmm, as to martial races theory in north America- very interesting: well, WI the British in Canada after 1763 began co-opting specific Iroquois, then later Plains tribes, combat regts for service in the crown's army ? Then after Canadian independence, said outfits from First Nations warriors remain in the Canadian army a la Gurkhas in the British/British Indian army or even the NZ Army's Maori bn- seeing service as shock troops in the 2 world wars...

it must be said too that, as late asthe Vietnam War, there was a similar theory in the US armed forces that native Americans made inherently better fighters due to their innate wild nature...
 
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