alternatehistory.com

Is it possible to have a PoD to make it where the Iroquois (properly the Haudenosaunee) not, for the most part, support the British during the ARW and instead say to themselves "We're going to set up White-man's type of gov'tal structure" and petition to represent at the Continental Congress? Even if they don't get immediate representation and allow to sit and vote, they can go the way of Vermont- constant whining and complaining wanting to join. Instead of Washington ordering the Sullivan Expedition to wipe them off the face of the Earth and receiving the name of Town Destroyer (actually he'd still have that nickname, it was his great-grandfather and was still passed down to him by the Native Americans), we could instead see Washington accepting the help.

Butterflies could be enormous. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois#/media/File:5NationsCession.jpg a map of when the Haudenosaunee relinquished their massive 11 state and 1 Canadian province claims. Now of course NY will have a problem with this. Giving up Vermont was hard enough. Giving up potential access to Lake Erie and Ontario... Does the Erie Canal still happen? If not this can have ripples as far as St Louis and Chicago. And affects the history of RRs since the first successfully commercial steam railroad was from Albany to Schenectady to supplement the Erie Canal.

As a 14th state, do we see more rights for Native Americans? Better treatment, more "Indian states" out west? Or do Whites just begin to outnumber the Iroquois in their "own" state and it just becomes another White state, with some unique customs and more Indian pride (an earlier version Arizona or New Mexico). As a state they won't be able to hold back Americans who want to move there.
Top