At the age of 16, George Washington was unaware of all the intricacies of Indian diplomacy. He was born in 1732 to a man who was one of the lower gentry of Virginia, Augustine Washington. In his childhood days, George had grown very attached to his older half-brother Lawrence Washington, who instilled him with a great martial desire. By his sixteenth year, the young man from Virginia was extremely interested in learning the ways of the Tidewater aristocracy. He was increasingly interested in land. In 1748, he accompanied his friend George William Fairfax on a surveying mission into the vast frontier lands which the Fairfax family owned. During this trip, he had his first recorded encounter with Indians. On the afternoon of March 23, Washington's group was greeted by the sight of around thirty natives. Washington and his party gave them some liquor which "put them in the Humour of Dauncing of whom we had a War Daunce." Washington's party was "agreeably supris'd."38 A few days later Washington and company were joined by a group of what Washington described as (although they were probably German) Dutch settlers. Washington commented, "I really think they seem to be as Ignorant a Set of People as the Indians."39

All other factors aside, Washington's opinions of the Indians were strongly influenced by his personal desire for western lands. In his 1748 voyage to the west, Washington was struck by the potential of the vast amount of what appeared to English eyes as untapped land. "The economic and social power derived from such a vast estate with so much potential for development must have impressed the sixteen-year-old lad as he made his first trek beyond the Blue Ridge."40 When the young Virginian was an even younger boy, he had written:

These are the things, which once posses'd
Will make a life that's truly bless'd;
A good Estate on healthy Soil,
Not got by vice nor yet by toil....

Throughout his life, Washington felt that his future would be secure if he could hold a measure of economic control on the western frontier, collecting rents from the settlers as they planted their roots on his lands. In this way, he could escape the never ending chain of overseas credit that was plaguing the Tidewater planters.42 That there were inhabitants already on the land did not trouble Washington very much. In 1763 the crown announced the Proclamation Act, establishing a boundary line between the whites and the Indians, in part to end further incursions into Indian lands. Washington, however, sneered at the efficacy of the Proclamation, stating, "I can never look upon that proclamation in any other light. . . than as a temporary expedient to quiet the minds of the Indians."43

Through clever campaigning, Washington managed to win the appointment as adjutant of one of the four military districts of Virginia, with a £100 annual stipend and the rank of major.44 In December of 1753 Governor Dinwiddie sent Washington to the French Fort Le Boeuf with a message for the French which demanded that they leave the Ohio Valley. Washington had volunteered for this assignment, and his patron William Fairfax had recommended him for it. If the French refused, the Crown informed Dinwiddie, the British were to drive them out of the valley by force.45

Having delivered the message, Washington, along with the guide and interpreter Christopher Gist, began what would become a difficult return journey to Virginia. An interesting incident occurred during the trek. An Indian guide was helping Washington and Gist find their way back.46 As Gist recalled,

The Major desired to encamp, to which the Indian asked to carry his gun. But he refused that, and then the Indian grew churlish, and pressed us to keep on, telling us that there were Ottawa Indians in these woods, and they would scalp us if we lay out; but to go to his cabin, and we should be safe,... He said he could hear a gun to his cabin, and steered us more northwardly. We grew uneasy, and then he said two whoops might be heard to his cabin. We went two miles further; then the Major said he would stay at the next water, and we desired the Indian to stop at the next water. But before we came to water we came to a clear meadow; it was very light, and snow on the ground. The Indian made a step, turned about; the Major saw him point his gun toward us and fire. Said the Major, "Are you shot?" "No," said I. Upon which the Indian ran forward to a big standing white oak, and to loading his gun; but we were soon with him. I would have killed him; but the Major would not suffer me to kill him.

In March, 1754, Dinwiddie appointed Joshua Fry as commander of the Virginia regiment, which consisted of six companies. The governor also appointed the anxious Washington as his second in command, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.48 However, Fry, who had fallen off of his horse, died in May, never making it to the headquarters at Winchester. This gave Washington his first true command.49

Washington unwittingly used his command, in effect, to start the French and Indian War. In late May, 1754, Col. Washington was marching west along with warriors under the Seneca Sachem Tanacharisson (called the Half-King by the British) and the Oneida Sachem Monacatoocha. Monacatoocha, sometimes referred to as Scarrooyady, had become influential within the Iroquois Confederacy during the 1740s, and had been present at the important 1748 Treaty of Lancaster. During his journey to Fort Le Boeuf in 1753, Washington was required to seek him out for assistance. Tanacharisson was surely the most powerful individual Indian influence on Washington. He had lived for a long time with the Ohio Iroquois, and throughout his life he was a close ally of the British.50 In 1753, a short time before he accompanied Washington on his journey to Fort Le Boeuf, Tanacharisson had delivered a speech to the commander of that fort, Pierre Paul, Sieur de Marin, stating that he and the Indians which he represented wanted the French to leave the Ohio valley. He proudly stated, "It is true you are a strong body and ours is but weak, yet we are not afraid of you. We forbid you to come any further; turn back to the place from whence you came."51

The young Virginian officer, beginning with his 1753 trek into the wilderness, developed a working relationship with Tanacharisson. Important to this relationship was one of the traits that Washington most valued in a person: loyalty. Early in the war, Tanacharisson was attempting to recruit Delaware and Shawnee warriors for England. During the summer of 1754, before Washington's defeat at Fort Necessity, Washington sent many speeches to Tanacharisson, as well as meeting with him personally. Washington was pleased to learn of Tanacharisson's pleasure at a certain speech, especially because Tanacharisson then sent thirty warriors to join him at Great Meadows.52 Washington, taking the advice of Tanacharisson, gave a medal to the son of the Delaware Queen Aliquippa. (Washington described her son as a "really great Warrior"), and gave him the English name of Colonel Fairfax. Washington was informed that it would please Tanacharisson to have an English name, so Washington dubbed him "Dinwiddie", meaning "head of all."53 Tanacharisson himself gave names to his white associates, almost every important white man had an Indian name. In the winter of 1753, before Washington had arrived at Fort Le Boeuf, Tanacharisson had begun calling Washington "Caunotaucarius", which meant "devourer of villages" or "town-taker." Washington himself had never taken a town, so he thought that the name was a compliment.54 This was also the Indian name of his great-grandfather, John Washington, who had earned the name during the time of Bacon's Rebellion.55

Known to the Indians as "town-taker," Washington marched into the forest, accompanied by both white and Indian comrades. In May of 1754, Washington's force, with its Indian assistants, surprised a French detachment on its way to Virginia. In a brief engagement, the leader of the French party of about fifty men, Lieutenant Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville, was killed. Much to the chagrin of the British officials, they discovered this man had in fact been a French ambassador, on a mission very similar to Washington's 1753 errand.56 This act eventually led to criticism of the young commander; it also triggered a world war. The French used the incident to justify their war against the British Empire.

Soon after the incident, Washington attempted to gain more Indian assistance. In the summer of 1754 Washington presided over a council of many different tribes at Logstown. During the council, which lasted for three days, Washington denied a rumor that the English were coming to kill every member of the powerful Six Nations (also known as the Iroquois); rather, he claimed, the English army was there to maintain Iroquois rights. He told the Delawares that the English were in the Ohio to help them rid themselves of the French, and he offered to house their women and children. When the council ended, Washington wrote in his journal that the Mingo delegation, whom he had distrusted throughout the council meeting, were "treacherous Devils who had been sent by the French as Spies."57 One can only speculate as to how Washington must have felt speaking to the Indians as though they were some of his closest friends.

If Washington ever had any doubts about the value of Indian aides, they were erased at Fort Necessity, near Great Meadows, where he suffered a great defeat. Although the relationship between Washington and Tanacharisson did not end on the best of terms they got along well for the most part. However, the unquestioned loyalty of the Indians that Washington desired was absent when the French attacked Fort Necessity, which was built by Washington and his force.

Fort Necessity was a palisaded fort, but looked more like a hut with a tall wooden fence than a fort, but which the young commander felt could hold off an attack by as many as five hundred men. He hastily ordered the construction of the fort to hold of an expected French attack. Tanacharisson scorned the fort, calling it "that little thing in the meadow." He tried to convince Washington to adopt another plan. Sadly, Washington did not heed his advice.58 Tanacharisson was accustomed to the arrogance of the white culture, but the last straw came just before Washington's defeat at "that little thing in the meadow." On July 2, 1754, Washington and his men, with Indian assistance, were returning to Fort Necessity after scouting the French positions. However, when they arrived, there was no food to be found there. Tanacharisson advised Washington to continue the retreat to a place with food, but Washington refused, claiming that his men were too tired to march any further and that Dinwiddie had sent reinforcements which would soon arrive. At this, Tanacharisson took his men and left. Because of Washington's poor judgement, he had to fight the losing battle at Fort Necessity, in the pouring rain and mud, without the assistance of Indians.59 At the end of the day, Jacob van Braam, a Dutchman who was Washington's translator, met with the French. Washington, along with the British Captain James Mackay who was with him, signed a surrender. Since, however, van Braam did not do a very good job at translation, Washington and Mackay did not realize that they had signed an admission that Jumonville's death had not been an act of war, but assassination.60 This put Washington in the guise of a murderer, not a military leader, and set the stage for the war that was to come. In discussing Washington's defeat at Fort Necessity, Dinwiddie said, "Mr. Washington had many of the Indians with him, but I observe these People remain inactive till they see how Affairs go, and, generally speaking, side with the Conquerors; y't in my private Opinion, little dependence is to be put to them."61

The Pennsylvania trader Conrad Weiser recorded Tanacharisson's reason for leaving Washington. Tanacharisson said that Washington would have commanded "the Indians as his slaves, and would have them every day upon the out scout and attack the enemy by themselves, and that he would by no means take advice from Indians...."62 Tanacharisson said to the Delaware Queen Aliquippa ("Queen" was also a title that the British had given), "The White chief, Washington, is a good-natured man, but he has no experience and will by no means take advice from us. He would rather drive us on to fight by his directions. He has laid at one place from one full moon to the other, yet has made no fortification at all except this little thing here on the meadow.... Why should we endanger ourselves and our people, when the French behave like cowards and the English like fools?"63 Tanacharisson also felt that if Washington had taken his advice about the Fort, he would have surely defeated the French. As to their so-called "desertion," Washington failed to grasp that Indians did not believe there was any such thing as an expendable man. The kind of warfare which the Europeans participated in was barbaric in Indian terms. Tanacharisson was not about to subject his men to a hopeless battle just to keep up the prestige of Great Britain in the forest.64

Washington, who always learned from his mistakes, never again downplayed the use of Indian warriors. Unfortunately for the British, Washington's defeat at Fort Necessity turned virtually all of the Eastern Indians against the English.

In May of 1755 Major General Edward Braddock, late of the Coldstream Guards (but who had never experienced battle), arrived in Winchester, Virginia with a plan to march to and capture the French Fort Duquesne. Despite the promises of Dinwiddie, he found no Indians there (a party of Mohawks was soon sent to determine Braddock's chances of success).65 The attitude of Braddock was similar to that of most Englishmen. Before he left Winchester, the Indian King Shingas inquired what would happen to the Indians when the English had driven the French from the Ohio. Braddock reportedly declared that "no Savage Shoud Inherit the Land." It is no coincidence that Braddock had only eight Indian guides on his way to Fort Duquesne.66 However, the skilled and experienced Pennsylvania trader, George Croghan claimed, with a good measure of believability, that Braddock had offered Shingas' warriors presents and treated them with respect.67

Washington, still charged with martial ambitions, joined Braddock's army as an aide-de-camp. He brought with him his personal knowledge of Indian warfare. Sadly, he failed to impress upon the general the value of learning the forest style of warfare. The Virginian commented that Braddock saw the Indians only, "... as so many new to this country see them, as ignorant painted savages valueless to any campaign."68 Braddock and his staff assumed that standard European tactics could defeat the French and Indians.69 While they had trudged through the thick underbrush, the regulars had heard terrifying stories of the natives of the country who scalped, tomahawked, tortured and killed invaders.70 Braddock apparently would not listen to anyone's advice, not only the advice of the Indians,71 and his stubborn single-mindedness resulted in a terrible defeat. Braddock was mortally wounded in the battle and the British force of 1300 (Washington's estimation) was defeated by a much smaller French and Indian force.72 The men, in the words of one eyewitness "dropped like Leaves in Autumn," as the French and Indians hid behind trees and expertly fired shots at them. Despite the constant orders of the officers to form up in the traditional European fashion, the common lines of battle became no more than target practice for the enemy.73 One survivor wrote "the yell of the Indians is fresh on my ear, and the terrific sound will haunt me until the hour of my dissolution."74 The British forces were simply unable to cope with this "invisible enemy."75 Generals Thomas Gage and Thomas Dunbar indicated that one of the reasons Braddock's force was defeated was the "want of Indians or other irregulars...."76 The governor of Pennsylvania believed that the defeat was due in part to the contempt the British held the Indian manner of fighting.77 Washington himself, while not wounded, had two horses shot out from underneath him, found bullet holes in his jacket, and had his hat shot off his head.78 In the aftermath of the battle, Monacatoocha said of Braddock, "He is now dead, but he was a bad man when he was alive; he looked upon us [the Indians] as dogs, and would never hear anything that was said to him. We often endeavoured to advise him and to tell him of the danger he was in with his soldiers; but he never appeared pleased with us; and that was the reason that a great many of our warriors left and would not be under his command."79