Simon Girty became one of the most reviled figures in frontier history after deserting to join the British in the Revolutionary War (1775-83). In reality Girty was an individual who served as a cultural broker between the European-American and Native American worlds.

Girty, whose parents were from Great Britain, began his life caught between two cultures when Native Americans captured him during the French and Indian War (1754-63) at the surrender of Fort Granville in central Pennsylvania in 1756. For the next three years Girty was an adopted captive of the western Seneca, learning the native language and gaining a reputation as a hunter. After the British victory in the war, Girty returned to the European-American world, living on the Pennsylvania frontier as a hunter, trader, and interpreter. He also gained a working knowledge of the Delaware and Shawnee language. He thus used his experience with the Indians to serve as a cultural broker.

During the opening years of the War for Independence, he continued his role as an intermediary between two cultures as an Indian agent and sought to maintain the neutrality of the Native Americans in the upper Ohio River Valley. However, by 1778 Girty became disenchanted with the revolutionaries, believing that he had been unfairly treated and poorly rewarded for his services. Along with several other discontent frontiersmen, including two of his brothers, Girty left Fort Pitt on March 28, 1778 and headed for Detroit to join the British.

By switching sides and fighting along side the Indians and British during the remainder of the war, Girty was deemed a traitor. Pennsylvania even placed a bounty on his head. The British, however, valued Girty's efforts with the Indians. Often donning native clothing while with the Indians, Girty was in the thick of the fighting in the Ohio country for the remainder of the war, including the Battle of Blue Licks (August 19, 1782). Although blamed for several atrocities, such as the murder of John Crawford, Girty actually came to the aid of a number of European-American captives. He continued to serve as a British agent in the Northwest after 1783, and joined the Indians in the defeat of Gen. Arthur St. Clair in 1791. He watched, but did not participate in, the Battle of Fallen Timbers (August 20, 1794).

After the British withdrawal from the Northwest in 1796, Girty settled on land near the mouth of the Detroit River in Canada. He remained there most of the rest of his life raising his family. Unfortunately he often drank heavily and suffered a variety of ailments until his death on February 18, 1818.

Bibliography:

Colin G. Calloway, "Simon Girty: Interpreter and Intermediary," in Being and Becoming Indian: Biographical Studies of North American Frontiers, edited by James A. Clifton (Chicago: Dorsey, 1989), 38-58.

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