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Lecture—The Cutting Off Way: Indigenous Warfare in the American Revolution
March 13, 2025 @ 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Historian Wayne E. Lee of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill discusses Indigenous warfare before and during the American Revolution. Throughout the Revolution, Indigenous warriors sought to surprise their targets, and the size of the target varied with the size of the attacking force. A small war party might “cut off” individuals getting water or wood or out hunting, while a larger party might attempt to attack a whole town. Once revealed by its attack, the invading war party would flee before the defenders’ reinforcements from nearby towns could organize. Sieges or battles were rare and fought mainly to save face or reputation. After discussing his “cutting-off way of war” paradigm, Dr. Lee explores Native logistics and their associated strategic flexibility to recast Indigenous warfare in a framework of the lived realities of Native people rather than regarding European military strategies and practices.
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About the Speaker
Wayne E. Lee, Ph.D. is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina. He earned his Ph.D. from Duke University in 1999, and is the author and co-author of several books, including The Cutting-Off Way: Indigenous Warfare in Eastern North America, 1500-1800 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2023); The Other Face of Battle: America’s Forgotten Wars and the Experience of Combat (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021), with historians David L. Preston, David Silbey and Anthony E. Carlson; Waging War: Conflict, Culture, and Innovation in World History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015); Barbarians and Brothers: Anglo-American Warfare, 1500-1865 (Oxford University Press, 2011); and Crowds and Soldiers in Revolutionary North Carolina: The Culture of Violence in Riot and War (University Press of Florida, 2001). In addition to his academic career, Dr. Lee was an officer in the U.S. Army from 1987 to 1992, and served in the 1991 Gulf War.