The Cutting-Off Way - by Wayne E Lee

About the Book

"The cutting-off way of war recasts Indigenous warfare via the lived realities of Indigenous people. Lacking deep reserves, subject to coercive military recruitment, and wary of heavy casualties that tended to amass from siege warfare, Indigenous warriors generally sought to surprise their targets, and the size of the target varied with the size of the attacking force. Lee demonstrates how it worked, detailing Indigenous warfare from precontact through the American Revolution"--

Book Synopsis

Incorporating archeology, anthropology, cartography, and Indigenous studies into military history, Wayne E. Lee has argued throughout his distinguished career that wars and warfare cannot be understood by a focus that rests solely on logistics, strategy, and operations. Fighting forces bring their own cultural traditions and values onto the battlefield. In this volume, Lee employs his "cutting-off way of war" (COWW) paradigm to recast Indigenous warfare in a framework of the lived realities of Native people rather than with regard to European and settler military strategies and practices.

Indigenous people lacked deep reserves of population or systems of coercive military recruitment and as such were wary of heavy casualties. Instead, 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 found getting water, 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 the COWW paradigm, including a deep look at Native logistics and their associated strategic flexibility, Lee demonstrates how the system worked and evolved in five subsequent chapters that detail intra-tribal and Indigenous-colonial warfare from pre-contact through the American Revolution.

Review Quotes

"The Cutting-Off Way deserves to become an influential and widely read book. Lee provides a carefully crafted study. He frequently explores and engages with the scholarship in a magisterial and nuanced way. . . . [A] must read for anyone interested in the history of early modern Indigenous, North American, and Atlantic warfare."--American Historical Review

"Deeply researched and broadly sympathetic, [The Cutting-Off Way] provides an important new take on the ways, means, and ends of warfare among the Haudenosaunee, Lenape, Cherokee, Creeks, and their neighbors, will stimulate new lines of inquiry in the future."--Journal of American History

"A compelling and engaging exploration of the system of Indigenous warfare that evolved in the Eastern Woodlands of North America both before and after contact. . . . The Cutting-Off Way reveals a careful and nuanced reading of the past aimed at recentering Native Americans' understanding as central to these multi-faceted experiences."--Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

"A resource for any reader interested in the early colonial era of North America, the cultural and military power and eventual plight of the Native Americans of the Eastern woodlands, as well as for anyone interested in irregular warfare. . . . [A] must-read."--Journal of America's Military Past

"A concise, lucid summary of Native American military operations, the product of a lifetime's study of the violence in eastern colonial North America. For any scholar eager to quickly and effectively summarize the dynamics of how Native Americans waged war, this is an essential text."--North Carolina Historical Review

"This book is remarkable. . . . It is poised to become an instant classic."--Journal of Southern History

"The Cutting-Off Way is thought provoking, deeply researched, and very well written. It should prove a valuable addition to the shelves of early American, Native American, and military history scholars alike."--H-AmIndian

"The Cutting-Off Way is too rich to summarize fully here. . . . An archaeologist in his own right, Lee draws on that field as well the latest works in anthropology and history to craft a compelling ethnohistorical analysis."--Ethnohistory

"An ambitious and thoughtful reassessment of Native American war-making before and after permanent European settlement in the early 17th century...Lee draws upon extensive new evidence to engage with existing scholarship and investigate previously unexplored territory."--Wall Street Journal

"One of the benefits of studying the military histories of non-European groups is that it reminds us that there are very different means of waging war, as well as reasons for doing so. In The Cutting-Off Way, Wayne E. Lee argues that the fluid, Native American style of war was quite alien to the European soldiers who encountered it . . . . The aims of their wars were also different, argues Lee."--New York Times Book Review