Author: Michael G. Johnson
Illustrator: Richard Hook
Publisher: Osprey Men-At-Arms
When I am starting a new wargame period or project, I like to do some research to familiarize myself with the history, organization, uniforms and equipment of the forces involved. Osprey’s “Men-at-Arms” series is often a great place to start, with detailed information on the equipment and specific tactics that is often wildly dispersed amongst more general histories. As well, the included color plates are always useful for painting reference. When my club decided to start a new campaign set in the Ohio River Valley during the 18th Century, I immediately purchased Osprey’s American Woodland Indians in their “Men-at-Arms” series.
Like all “Men-at-Arms” books, American Woodland Indians is 48 pages long. It has 8 color plates, 2 maps drawn by the author and one or two black and white photographs or illustrations on almost every page.
The text is clear but unfocused. Most of the time the subject changes between paragraphs with no segue to explain the shift. Sometimes this even happens within a paragraph. For example, in a paragraph from the section “Warriors and Warfare,” the author begins by explaining that warfare changed little between the 17th and 19th centuries. Then a description of the equipment a warrior carried into battle is given with an anecdote about Shawnee and Delaware scouts serving the US Army in the West sharing their medicines with white soldiers. The paragraph ends with a brief description of how the Ottawa adopted the calumet ceremony and what a calumet was made from.
Occasionally the author will move from this quick and broad abstract style to a more detailed description of specific examples. These descriptions give a level of detail lacking from the rest of the book, but appear somewhat out of context, with no information on how universal the events or rituals described were. In one section, a description of how a war party is assembled for making a dawn raid on an enemy village is provided. There really isn’t an indication of how common, successful or large these war parties generally were. This is the only specific example of how the Woodland Indians fought and, because of this lack of context, one could assume this is the only way these people fought, despite it being mentioned that many tribes fought alongside Europeans against other tribes and other Europeans.
This shifting of focus and very brief descriptions are endemic throughout the book. It is obvious that the author had a lot of say and everything has been stripped down to the very barest of essences in order for it to fit within the allocated 48 pages. Normally unnecessary information is removed to meet space requirements. Unfortunately there is too much information that falls outside of the mandate of the “Men-at-Arms” series. I agree that there is much more to the Native American tribes then just the warriors, but “Men-at-Arms” books are, to quote Osprey’s website, about the “uniforms, equipment, history and organization of troops.” More information filling within that category could have been included, and in greater detail, if they removed the descriptions of cradleboards and creation. There is no description of tactics aside from the dawn raid. Did the warriors prefer to fight in clearings or dense forest? Did they snipe ineffectually from cover until a warrior was brave enough to charge the enemy, or did they fire a volley and charge, throwing their tomahawks and then using the musket as a club? There is also no description of what quality of muskets Europeans were trading to the Woodland Indians, or how accomplished a Woodland Indian was with a musket.
The best parts of the book are the maps and the color plates. The 8 plates provide plenty of inspiration and reference for painting and modeling, although the images of women and civilians could have been replaced with more paintings of warriors and weapons. The maps are excellent though crowded. The first map is an area map showing the location and movement of different tribes. It is excellent for understanding which tribes were neighbors, and how some tribes moved due to pressure from other tribes or European settlers. Unfortunately it is not 100% accurate as the given present state boundaries indicate that the Canadian Maritimes are actually US territory. The second map shows the location and direction of some of the wars fought in the 17th to 19th century.
Taken as a short introduction to the tribes of the North-Eastern Woodlands during the 17th and 18th centuries, this book is adequate. It gives just enough information to help someone start researching the subject. As a reference on the “uniforms, equipment, history and organization” of the native warriors of the American Woodlands, this book falls short. It has very little detailed information on the history of warfare in this area, or the arms and equipment used. While it is hard to give specifics on uniforms or organization of a group without a formal military, it could definitely provide more information on the significance of some of the decorations worn, type and use of weapons, and more information on how war parties were organized for engagements. Buy it for the color plates and maps, but expect to do the majority of research elsewhere.
Moving To A Monthly Format
Almost as soon as I declared a weekly format for these articles I realized it just wasn’t a realistic goal. In order to meet such a deadline I’d need to be writing new content constantly. Instead, I’m going to move to a monthly format, updating the first Saturday of the month. This’ll give me time to do a good job writing these, as well as have time to paint. I will still be updating the page with the normal daily stuff, so feel free to check in every day.
Don’t worry if you missed the monthly feature, as I’ll be adding them to the article section for posterity.
Tyler
