Subject: "The Indians Won" Timeline 1838-1976 From: "Colin M. Alberts" Date: 1998/08/14 Newsgroups: soc.history.what-if Enough people e-mailed me to warrant my getting out my very old paperback of "The Indians Won", published in 1970 by Martin Smith, and compiling a timeline. Martin Smith later went on to fame as Martin Cruz Smith, the author of "Gorky Park", and a bunch of other mass-market thrillers that have sold like hotcakes and are of generally pretty high quality. TIW was his first book, released when he was 27 years old, and in some ways it shows. The book is transparently a response to the Big Issues of 1970, like Vietnam, civil unrest, "ecology", nuclear weapons, the consumer state, and an FBI cracking down on radical movements; and its purpose is as much to grant Smith a soapbox to address these issues as it is to tell a plausible story. Though in his defense, you could say that most AH has this purpose: allowing us to try to score points based on our own world-view by demonstrating alternatives that try to make people shift their focus a bit from what they've been force-fed from birth. The book's unevenness, more than its implausibility, is probably why AFAIK the novel has never been reprinted in the nearly 30 years since it appeared. Basically, it constantly cuts from a running narrative of military and cultural history during the period 1876 to 1884 to a standard Washington political thriller taking place over a few tense days in 1976. Some attention is given to other years, but not much. There is not so much a POD as there is an alternative Great Man, a shadowy figure from the Mandan tribe who moves among the whites by the name John Setter. A romantic like Garibaldi but a schemer like Bismarck, he arranges for European finance for his lifelong project, a consolidation and confederation of all Aborginals of the US in the Intermountain West and Plains, then cuts the Europeans off once his goals are reached. 1838: French Jesuit missionary Mercure finds a Mandan child who is sole survivor in a village decimated by plague. The child becomes this priest 1851: Father Mercure and Christophe are assigned to Diocese of New York. Christophe meets Garibaldi (then also in New York). Already a fluent linguist, Christophe becomes a revolutionary activist and disappears to South America for ten years, engaging in revolutionary and partisan activities. 1861: Christophe emerges in London and is now known as John Setter (from his Mandan Indian name, Where The Sun Goes). He makes a fortune from a seemingly endless supply of South American artifacts. 1867: Setter arrives in the US and studies Indian affairs in Washington. 1868-1876: Setter travels throughout the west, secretly organizing the Indian insurrection that is to come. He is also preparing operations in Canada and Europe, arranging European finance from shadowy imperialist factors eager to humble the upstart US, and starting the "Canadien Service" to run contraband weapons and supplies to the various Indian tribes. 1876: July: Custer and US 7th Cavalry wiped out in Battle of Little Big Horn. Sept: Generals McKenzie and Crook lead much larger forces in a retalitory invasion. They are defeated by Indians confederated from several tribes and armed with Civil War howitzers, Gatlings, and Winchester repeaters. Oct.: LDS President Taylor announces a Revelation regarding the redemption of the Lamanites, and the Mormon militia, the Nauvoo Legion, joins the Indian forces. The Paiute visionary Wovoka begins to influence Mormon theology. Nov. Hayes beats Tilden in obviously fraudulent election. Winter: General Miles leads another pacification invasion in the Central Plains. General Grierson attempts the same in the southwest desert territories, and other military operations are undertaken in the north (Idaho, etc.). By February 1877 all of these have met with defeat of one kind or another. 1877: The First Great Depression settles over the US. General Phil Sheridan is assigned command of a new offensive against the Indians, with a plan to launch from Kansas and establish a new string of forts through Colorado, Utah and Nevada, all the way through to California. All surviving Indians from Eastern tribes, the Pacific coast and Oklahoma have been quietly evacuating to the west and joining the insurrection. July 1: Sheridan's offensive begins from Fort Leavenworth. July 14: Firemen and brakemen of the B&O RR in Baltimore walk off the job. Over the next few days, this snowballs out of control into a General Strike that paralyzes the country and leads to bloody violence. On 22 July, Hayes declares state of emergency and recalls Sheridan. Communist agitators are blamed, and a Red Scare and arrests follow. Violence and demonstrations increase, and public turns against Sheridan's campaign as "The Railroad War". Sympathy for Indians increases among US intellectuals. "I thought the Revolution was going to come from a cannon not an arrow. I wish Greeley were alive. He would have sent me to the battlefronts in an instant." The Indian Nation now emerging has a population of over 200,000, with half of that number under arms. The Mormons contribute another 10,000 soldiers. 1878: In effort to rally public support and salvage the 1880 elections for the GOP, President Hayes vows to personally lead a grand campaign against the Indians. The huge army forms up in May on the Kansas plains and moves into Colorado. Sheridan will lead a campaign in New Mexico, while Dennis Kearney will lead 7,000 volunteer militia (the "San Francisco volunteers") into Nevada. On May 20 the telegraphic signals to Hayes' army start to come from Sitting Bull himself, urging unconditional surrender. May 30: The Battle of Yellow Buttes. The warrior societies led by They Fear His Horses ("Crazy Horse" to the whites), after a pitched battle, defeat Hayes and force a retreat. Hayes' columns are harassed every step of the way back to Kansas, losing 500 men a day. June 12: News reaches the East that Sheridan's force was wiped out in the desert by 10,000 Apache, Kiowa, Comanche, Pima and Yuma led by He Who Yawns ("Geronimo"), and that Kearney's forces were destroyed by the Paiute, Utes Shoshone and the Nauvoo Legion. June 13: The Indians offer a cease-fire. The Democrats in Congress push for an ultimatum to Hayes that he negotiate. Eventually Hayes lays down his arms and is allowed to return east. He agrees to the boundries as follows: The US acknowledged that the Indians had voluntarily returned control of NV and OK. The Western United States thus consisted of NV, CA, OR and WA. The western border of the Eastern United States was TX, OK, KS, NB, a corner of IA, and MN. 1879-1881: The European financial consortium that funded the Indians realizes that things are getting out of hand, and instigates intrigues among the tribes and with the Mormons. These are quashed. 1881: In response to LDS intrigues, Setter organizes armed pressure on Salt Lake City. Under duress, LDS Pres. Taylor announces a Revelation: the Indians are converted Sons of Laman. Wovoka, having proved his merit as a prophet, is raised to leadership in the Church equal to Taylor. Indian Mormonism is born. 1883: The Indian Nation ("IN") is given a constitutional structure. Each Nation sends to the Council of Chiefs at least one representative, with some tribes (eg Sioux) allowed more chiefs if the Council agreed. The white Mormons were granted one chief. There is an over all IN Chief elected from this body. All votes required a 2/3 majority, the Council could declare war, but not the power to levy taxes. It could interfere in the internal affairs of a tribal nation except on a 4/5 vote. The War Chiefs were elected by warrior societies, and would assign border defense duties and terms for tribes. Sitting Bull is the first IN Chief, Victorio is the first leader of the War Chiefs, and Wovoka is leading the Church. 1884: Chief Taylor dies, leaving Wovoka sole leader of the Mormon Church. Innovations come quickly: the stricture against alcohol is kept, but acceptance of peyote is added. Tavibo was raised to the level of Moroni in the hierarchy. Joseph Smith was declared to have had Indian ancestry. Mormon's new job is as keeper of the Thunderbird. 1880s: many white Mormons remain in the IN, and together with the Cherokee, are instrumental in teaching plains farming and founding Agricultural Universities. 1890 Sitting Bull steps aside as Chief of the Nations; They Fear His Horses becomes 2nd Chief of the Nations (henceforth "IN Chief"). 1880s-1910s: Without an interior to develop, US energies are directed outward. US commits to building first rate navy. War with Spain brings Marianas, Guam, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, and all are annexed. Hawaii is annexed. Statehood for all will follow. The IN, on the other hand, evolves a peaceful, environmentally friendly anarcho-Green economy (based on farming, mining, some industry, and ranching) and decentralized state. But defense needs means the IN stays abreast of modern military technology. IN becomes a close ally of Japan, with numerous Japanese military and economic missions throughout IN territory. 1910 They Fear His Horses steps down as IN Chief. IN military now first with a serious air force. 1917 Infamous Zimmerman Telegram intercepted, published, which relays German attempt to induce IN attack on US in hopes of reclaiming CA, NV, OR and WA. IN never truly contemplates attacking (Kaiser Wilhelm was known as a pre-war anti-Indian racist), but tensions are high, and the US mobilizes, expecting an attack. British cede Jamaica, Bahamas and Bermuda to US as inducement to join Allied cause. US takes Samoa as war prize, annexation follows. 1918 The Agreement of Sacramento. US formally recognizes Indian Nation de jure but makes no specific concession with respect to de facto borders. John Setter dies. 1920s: US maritime expansion and power unparalleled. Economic speculation fueled in new territories and overseas, and Calvin Coolidge campaigns in a sailor hat. Service in Navy Department virtually a prerequisite to higher office. 1929-1937 Second Great Depression strikes industrialized world. Little or no effect in Indian Nation due to its peculiar economic structure, or as Joseph P. Kennedy puts it, "The Indians are too damn dumb to suffer the consequences of modern capital investment." Huey Long advocates universal conscription and war with IN as cure for unemployment. 1937-8 Charles A. Lindbergh tours Indian Nation; reports to FDR that Indian Air Force now almost as strong as German Luftwaffe. President Roosevelt makes first state visit of sitting US president to IN; summit meeting with Inde IN Chief, Francisco. 1941, Dec. 7 Japanese attack US forces, invading US Pacific territories. IN War Chiefs eager to join Axis because of long-standing Japanese ties. War tensions at high tide. FDR on hotline to IN Chief seeking alliance. Water Knife instead announces neutrality. When FDR replies that this effectively means support for Japan; Water Knife demurs and insists that it means the opposite, since any Japanese invasion of the US west coast would have to traverse IN territory to get at the rest of the US, and thus incur IN belligerence. Furthermore, as a token of good faith, IN will impose an embargo on all sides, an action that will only adversely effect the Axis. FDR is satisfied. 1945 Allied victory; US has nuclear weapons. UN chartered; US receives two votes in General Assembly (one each for Western and Eastern portions); After extensive internal debate, IN does not join. US Pacific states now embrace Okinawa, Caroline Islands and Midway. 20th Amendment to US Constitution provides for rotation of Presidency between East and West every four years. 1952 IN Chief Orange Moon announces at press conference that IN has nuclear weapons capability and possession, but refuses to test out of respect for the earth. After initial ridicule, other nations come to believe that IN does in fact have the Bomb. c.1975 US Secretary of State launches peace initiative with IN, attends summit conference with IN Chief Buffalo Rider. Both are assassinated at subsequent public appearance by white stranger who escapes. 1976 US victorious in Vietnam War. Population pressures perceived now to be intolerable, with arguments that there must be some showdown with the IN. Increasing tension with IN, mobilization of National Guard, pressure on US President Nielsen to act while there is still no IN Chief designated by IN Council. Even the Soviets give the US a green light for action. With war seemingly inevitable, an eleventh-hour negotiator arrives in Washington from the IN, having slipped through the Justice Department (the Hoover-like renegade Attorney General is agitating for war). Can this unknown, the young and charismatic Holds Eagles, avert a nuclear conflict in North America? ******************************************* Colin Alberts Arlington, Virginia quod scripsi scripsi (end of original message) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ You can view this message and the related discussion by following this link: http://www.dejanews.com/=zzz_maf/dnquery.xp?search=thread&svcclass=dnserver&recnum=%3cPine.SUN.3.96.980814191128.11249A-100000@access1.digex.net%3e%231/4 We hope to see you soon at Deja News, the discussion network. http://www.dejanews.com/=zzz_maf/