3 comments about A Man of Distinction Among Them: Alexander McKee and the Ohio Country Frontier, 1754-1799.

1. Alexander McKee's legacy is a victim of the truism that history is written by the victors. His name is unknown to all but the specialist and aficionados of his period, yet had his side won the American Revolution he would be remembered as a bold cultural hero, and perhaps Mel Gibson would even have made a movie about him. In `A Man of Distinction Among Them', Larry Nelson has stepped into the void left by Mr. Gibson's absence, and has recorded a chronicle of McKee's life and career.
   
   McKee served for nearly fifty years with the British Indian Department, and as Nelson writes, "participated in events that had defined Great Britain's imperial interest in the Great Lakes frontier from the capture of Fort Duquesne to the surrender of Detroit." The mixed race son of Thomas McKee, an Irish Indian trader, and a Shawnee Indian mother (who may have been a white captive raised among the Shawnee) McKee first came to prominence serving as an interpreter for Colonel Henry Bouquet in his negotiations with Native tribes during the French & Indian War. He later became a protégé of George Croghan, who had been a business associate of McKee's father. Croghan had been renowned as the King of the Indian Traders, and Sir William Johnson, the head of the Crown's Indian Department in North America, had made him his chief deputy serving the western tribes of the Ohio country. McKee served as Croghan's chief lieutenant until Croghan's retirement from the department in 1771, when McKee replaced him.
   
   While McKee's service had been competent, his genius did not fully emerge until forced by the events of the American Revolution. His allegiance was uncertain at the start of the war, as he was torn between loyalty to the Crown and his own interests as a large landholder on the frontier of Pennsylvania. But in 1778, events moved to force his hand, and he made his escape from Pittsburgh to a British frontier post in the Ohio country. From that point on, he became the single most valuable asset the British had in gaining the alliances of the western tribes, inflaming them against the Rebels, and helping to coordinate their attacks on the frontier into a coherent military strategy. His efforts continued through the end of the Revolution, and into the post Revolutionary period, when he was one of the chief architects of the British Indian policy that encouraged and supported Indian efforts against the Americans in the Indian War of 1790 to 1795. It was not until the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 ended that war and forced the British surrender of Detroit and their other frontier outposts that the frontier became safe from the genius of Alexander McKee.
   
   Though McKee had a long and fascinating career, Nelson's book is slim, at just 187 pages. This is caused by the lack of personal information on McKee, as the book deals almost exclusively with McKee's times and his public career. There is apparently almost no surviving information on McKee's youth, schooling, or personal life. Nelson makes a fair attempt to judge McKee's character and personality from his public actions, but is limited from going in depth by the silence of the historical record on these issues. Nelson's writing style is serviceable, not brilliant, but should be sufficient for anyone with an interest in his subject. His book is an important contribution, as it gives us a study of a pivotally important man who had been overlooked and neglected, and I recommend it highly for those interested in the colonial frontier, French and Indian War, American Revolution, or the Old Northwest.
   
   Theo Logos



2. Written in a readable style, "Man of Distinction among Them", tells of the British and their negotiations and treaties with the Indians during the period of the French and Indian Wars and afterwards. McKee is the British Indian Agent who works and lives among the Indians in the lands west of the Ohio River and also in the Detroit area. It is a fascinating view of the colonial period and of the British perspective in dealing with the indians that sets the tenor for US relations after the colonial period.



3. Alexander McKee died in 1799. A few months after his funeral, Soloman McCulloch remembered that several hundred Indians arrived at the gravsite. Assisted by McKee's son, Thomas, they began "a slow, measured, and dignified dance that celebrated the memory of their departed friend. The ritual began in the morning and continued throughout the night and well into the following day. Simon Girty confided to MuCulloch that in all his years amont the Indian tribes, he had seen the ceremony conducted only twice before. The Indianse reserved the ritual, he claimed, 'Only for men of dintinction among them'" Alexander McKee (1735-1799) is an often overlooked character in historical accounts of the Ohio Frontier, particularly because he worked for the British Crown, thus was on the "wrong" side to be glorified in American History.

   McKee's father was an Irish immigrant, his mother a Shawnee, and he was a fur trader like his father. He was equally cuturally adept among the Europeans and Indians. The Indian nations were themselves very diverse and independent, having different culture, language, and interests. Present also were British, American colonists, French, Spaniards, Dutch, all looking to profit in one way or another from the resources or land in the Ohio Frontier. Alexander McKee worked his way up in the Indian Department, employed by the British Crown to oversee Indian affairs. Serving in various capacities for nearly fifty years, he was educated by experience and motivated by alleigance to the Crown, but with sympathies to Indian interests. McKee was an important contributor to the Ohio Frontier. He exploited his extensive knowledge of differences in cultures and language, and became a valuable tool in the evolution of the frontier throughout the Revolutionary War and afterward as inevitable migration by settlers to the West. At the beginning of his career, McKee's cultural identification was primarily with the Indian nations, whom he considered his people, His keen negotiating skills and knowledge of Indian customs, as well as his own economic self interests, led him to become a wealthy, respected member of both the British community and the Indian nations, but now more culturally aligned with the British. As the political climates and land boundaries were constantly evolving, McKee was instrumental and influential in those changes.

   McKee's life is a micro example of the tremendous diversity of cultures that was present in the Ohio Frontier in the 1700's, and how those cultures were integrated into what Ohio would become. He was instrumental in the evolution of those changes, as he spent his life negotiating the self interests of many factions for a mutually satisfying resolution. This is an interesting, engaging book by Dr. Larry L. Nelson, rich in history and a personal look at a man who was a contributor to that history.

1 comments about Red Blood: One (Mostly) White Guy's Encounter With the Native World.

1. I am one of those "older environmental extremists" who well remembers Bob Hunter and the original (and best!) gang of Greenpeacers from Canada. In fact, it was a picture of Bob Hunter and Paul Watson in a Zodiac zooming in front of a Soviet whaling boat's harpoon cannon that awakened me to environmental activism. That was 1975, and Bob has been one of my heroes ever since. He was There, man! I actually got to work for Greenpeace in 1977 and was fortunate enough to meet Bob; in fact we shared a few beers and a few joints in the back of my van at a Save The Whales rally. Great Guy! Since then I have found and read all of his books - man can that guy write! Funny as hell, real enjoyable reading. I would like all current "Greenpeace" staff and members to read this great new book, to learn about their roots and the Elders. Great to have you back in print, Bob!

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2 comments about First Across the Continent (The Oklahoma Western Biographies , Vol 14).

1. This is a well-written, concise (200 pages) biography of Alexander Mackenzie, the great Canadian explorer, best remembered for two important journeys made in western Canada, one to the Arctic Ocean in 1789, the other to the Pacific in 1792-93. Mackenzie was born in Scotland in 1762 and came to America as a teenager. He lived first in New York State around Johnstown, but moved to Montreal in 1778, where he entered the fur trade. By the 1780s, Fort Chipewyan, on the southern shore of Lake Athabasca, had become an important fur trading post, and this became Mackenzie's base of operations for his two explorations. The first, in 1789, took him north to Great Slave Lake and the river that would later bear his name, down which he ventured to the Beaufort Sea. Three years later he journeyed west from Fort Chipewyan along the Peace River and then over the Continental Divide to the Fraser and finally overland to the Pacific near Bella Coola. Thus Mackenzie and his men became the first to travel to the Pacific from an interior post on the continent (basically the first to cross the continent from sea to sea). He wrote an excellent account of his travels in 1801 (Lewis and Clark studied it thoroughly), much of it having to do with the Indians he encountered and which also included a history of the Canadian fur trade. He was knighted in 1802 and settled in Scotland. Although the book is a full biography, Gough focuses on the two journeys, the itineraries of which he has made extensive explorations of his own, and details the routes carefully, explaining much of what the explorers would have seen and experienced. He's a compelling writer and the book is a most interesting one. Highly recommended.



2. Pretty good book. Gives a rather matter-of-fact account of MacKenzie's life. Not alot of detail or passion in either of his 2 great voyages. Interesting in all the other people brought into the story. Now I want to read about Peter Pond, MacKenzies' predecessor. Short and a quick read.

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