Catspaw: The Girty, McKee, and Elliott Families, and Indian Negotiations on the American Frontier 1710-1778

Members of the Girty, McKee, and Elliott families were actively involved in Indian-white diplomacy in the American Northwest from before the 1730s to the end of the War of 1812. The involvement included as many as five generations in the families. Family members started out as fur traders with several Indian nations, but their careers gradually evolved into serving as agents and negotiators for the British government. They were actively involved in seven frontier wars and would eventually contribute to efforts to set up what was, in effect, a buffer Indian state located between the United States and British-governed Canada. The book Catspaw covers the first half of the families' involvement in British-Indian affairs. It concludes in the spring of 1778 when members of the three families defected from working with the Americans to joining the British in promoting frontier war against the Americans. To the Americans, the defection was an act of treason. To the British and later the Canadians, it was an act of loyalty.