Wampum Denied

This formative history takes a new look at a dramatic conflict-the war on the Detroit frontier in 1812-13. Powerful key players (Procter, Tecumseh and Brock), their disparate war aims, and the "all or nothing" character of the campaigns they waged still seem larger than life. Yet Sandy Antal's careful reconstruction of Native and national aspiration, vested colonial interest, and territorial aggression, reveals motives and expedients that were as often mundane as heroic. A Wampum Denied reassesses the much-maligned career of Henry Procter, commander of the British forces, traces the Canadian/British/Native side of the conflict (amid a literature dominated by the American view), and casts new light on an allied military strategy that very nearly succeeded, but when it failed, failed spectacularly.