Alright, here we go, a planning thread for Jord's first attempt at a TL.
So, the POD is the survival of
Chief White Eyes of the Lenape(Delaware) tribe in 1778. White Eyes was the first Native American leader to sign a treaty with the US, promising an alliance and possible confederation with the fledgling nation(full text of the Treaty of Fort Pitt
here). IOTL, White Eyes died under mysterious circumstances(army claimed he died of smallpox, his son said he was murdered, it's all very muddled) while leading an American force in the area of Fort Detroit, and his death combined with frontiersmen ignoring the treaty, allowed the pro-British faction within White Eyes' neutral Lenape to come to the fore and a switch in sides was in order.
So, the premise is simple: ITTL, White Eyes survives as a peacemaker between the US and his Lenape, and the treaty is upheld for the most part. I want to see how the US' history changes with this example of an Indian ally from the start.
So, the reason I've got this thread is to get some feedback on the idea, test the waters about likely effects, and see if people actually want me to try my hand at this.
My basic idea was that the US would treat Native treaties as actually binding, and as a side effect lessen the tragedy of OTL Native nations. I'm still looking into the other effects, such as how the pro-American Lenape would affect the Revolutionary War, but for the most part I'm thinking that this treaty is the best chance to get a US that's more just to the Natives.
Of course, nothing's going to be utopic about this. The constant frontier warfare had greatly embittered both sides, and both frontiersmen and Natives won't suddenly settle their differences. Just because the Lenape and a couple other allied tribes are able to get better deals than OTL, don't expect all of them to get off easy. Off the top of my head, the Seminoles and Creeks are probably going to get shafted almost as much as OTL. And prohibitions on settling aren't going to stop some settlers, which was demonstrated in OTL.
Also, for some reason, I'm thinking that these kind of entanglements, as opposed to the "just move them out of our way" mentality of OTL, might slow US expansion a little. Anyone want to refute that? Also, while I'd like to see the Lenape exercise article 6 and get representation with Congress, I'm leery about that happening for a long time(racism and all, plus those frontiersmens' lobby), and I doubt they'd accept a full state status(since that would allow free movement by settlers into their borders), so I'm envisioning something of an early "protectorate"/"devolved parliament" kind of set-up at first where the US controls foreign policy but domestic policy is mostly in the hands of the Natives(who have representatives in Congress to vote on the things that affect their laws?). Thoughts on that?
So, what do y'all think? Do my assumptions about the ramifications seem likely? Should I go through with this?
(Also, if anyone's got a good reference site about the western frontier in the Rev War, that would be immensely helpful. All the info I've dug up has been extremely vague outside of a few battles and often uncited, so I'm nervous about using it in a full fledged TL.)