ion of a confluence of man and sacred nature. Papounhan, as well as Seneca prophet Handsome Lake, "delivered a message of reform, not revolt." In calling for behavior modification on the part of Indians and exhorting them to abandon European goods and ways, these prophets seem to have anticipated the possibility of stemming the tide of white settlement.
Other leaders recognized that behavior reform would not stop white incursions, and they began to advocate armed resistance. Martin cites the Delaware Prophet Neolin, who called for armed revolt and who was an influence on the chief Pontiac, who formed a coalition of Anishinaabeg, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Menominee, Huron, Delaware, Shawnee, Seneca, Mesqualkie, Kickapoo, Macoutens, Wea, Sauk, and Miami warriors. Pontiac's uprising in 1762 yielded victories in the Ohio Valley against British forces; however, a combination of Britain's victory in the Seven Years War in 1763, which enabled the British to concentrate their forces against the Indians, and the toll taken by smallpox and other diseases against Pontiac's forces resulted in suppression of indigenous control over the land.
Some Indians attempted to structure their resistance in terms of European-style diplomacy, but that had as little effect against white settlement as violent resistance and social reform. Alexander McGillivray, whose mother was Creek, tried to "protect Creek lands and independence in a region of competing and threatening international, intertribal, and state ambitions." He rejected US land claims based on the Treaty of Paris because no Indians had participated in negotiations, and he sought the guarantee of Spain (which held Florida until 1821) for Creek land rights. That, however, clashed with the realities of white expansionism originating in Georgia, as well as US land agreements signed with the Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw. In 1790, McGillivray took a Creek delegation to New Y
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