Down the Warpath to the Cedars is the most recent book-length treatment of the Battle of the Cedars, an engagement fought between Great Britain, the burgeoning United States, and a multiplicity of Indigenous nations around present-day Quebec at the beginning of the American Revolution.
Anderson’s primary aim is to illustrate the vital, independent role played by the Haudenosaunee Six Nations, the Seven Nations of Canada, and the Mississauga at the Cedars, a goal at which he succeeds. He appropriately emphasizes complex inter- and extrarelations between various Haudenosaunee and Mississauga peoples, and he rightly notes, “Each village responded differently, based on its interest and spheres of influence.” There are, for example, contrasting reactions between the prominent pro-American Kahnawake faction led by Atiatoharongwen of Kahnawake and the predominantly pro-British Lake of Two Mountains Kanestake, both of which belong to the Seven Nations of Canada. Anderson superbly demonstrates the motivations behind their support...
