Question

Why did Native Americans help the French in wars with the British?

Answer 1

It made political and economic sense for some to do so.

Explanation:

First off, not all Native Americans supported the French during the colonial wars. Most Algonquian speakers supported the French and most Iroquois supported the English. In general, the key concepts here are economic power and political power.

The fur trade dominated colonial relations from the Ohio Valley and the Upper Midwest. Whoever controlled the economy of that area would have both economic and political power. The Iroquois were positioned to control trade via the Great Lakes. Algonquian speakers were able to go around them and deal directly with Europeans. Iroquois leaders attempted to push into the interior using British guns while Algonquians pushed the Lakota out of Minnesota and onto the plains.

Many Algonquians intermarried with the French and created a new ethnic group, the Metis who also aligned with the French, in part, because both were Catholic.

For further reading: see Richard White, The Middle Ground