Compromise and Conceit

Being a brief guide to the peoples and concerns of the New World, prepared for the discerning reader of The Ladies Illustrated Quarterly by M Scott Momaday, whose recent novel The Last of the Mohicans, though not in any wise a truthful account of matters Indian, is humbly presented in serialized form in this same publication, for the edification and pleasure of Good Christian Ladies, from this Quarter.

The Fulfiller: Delaware war-chieftain, based on the Western edge of Delaware land, near the French, in Southern Ohio. Fought with the British against the French in the French and Indian War, but his prime interest is to secure land for the Delaware.

Captain Pipe: Delaware war-chieftain, based Further North in Ohio

Magua: Renegade Huron of the Mohawks, has moved South with his tribe in rejection of Huron deals with the French. His treachery against the British in the French and Indian war completed, the British are none the wiser about him and he has returned to deal with them again. A brutal savage possessed only of dark dreams and motives.

The Imposter: A mad Delaware prophet, sadly much loved of the Delaware themselves, who advocates renunciation of French and English goods and Infernalism, and a return to traditional values. Has had some success in convincing the Delaware to negotiate rules of trade with the British, but is neither respected nor feared by any British counsel.

Leaning wood: Cherokee Principal Chief, who has traveled to England and met His Highness King George V. Continually puts on airs for himself, and treats himself as a King when his British contemporaries see him as little more than a court jester. A sad figure.

Half King: An Iroquois tribal leader called the Half-King by the British, fought alongside George Washington at the Battle of Monongahela. Rumoured to have killed the French Ensign Joseph Coulon de Jumonville by taking out his brains and washing his hands with them while saying “Thou are not dead yet, my father” in French. Much hated by the French.