LOCALadk Magazine

Around the October fire stood an eclectic band of individuals in character—Native Americans, of course, but also Scottish traders, British allies and men in search of adventure. Hollywood typically depicts the lines of conflict as White vs. Red, but the reality was far more complicated. By the time of the French and Indian War, both races had been living side by side for a century, McCormack said. ey traded, intermarried and formed alliances in ways that did not fit into easy categories. "It was a very complex society at that time," McCormack said. "People growing up together on the frontier were like family." e French and Indian War was part of the Seven Years War, which in itself is considered to be the true first world war. e French, British and their surrogates did battle in not just North America and continental Europe, but in the Caribbean, South America, Africa, the Indian subcontinent and the Philippines. In North America, the war was framed largely as a fight between English colonists' intent on pushing west, and French- allied Native Americans not disposed to be pushed. But again, the lines weren't that neat and clean. underhawk's Mohawks—part of the Iroquois Confederacy—sided with the British colonists, as did some other tribes to the south and west. Waterways being the interstates of the time, the war manifested in New York, largely as a struggle over control of Lake Champlain, the French gaining the early advantage only to be pushed back as British expeditions headed north, taking French forts in Ticonderoga and Crown Point. "is is where worlds collided," McCormack said. Playing smaller roles were the Dutch, who were more interested in trade than conquest, and frontier trappers and explorers. Chris Morris, who was portraying a Scottish fur trader, said commerce in the 1700s ran parallel to conflict. An area of specialty for Alex Nischa Meechgalanne Warrington LOCALadk 29

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