The American frontier was a brutal place to live in colonial times. It took years of backbreaking work to carve a farm out of the wilderness only to have it incinerated in the next Indian attack. First, the French provoked the Ottawas, Shawnees, and Delawares against the colonists. Then, Chief Pontiac led an uprising that obliterated white forts and settlements throughout the Great Lakes region. The American Revolution brought a menace of another...