Reporting diplomacy: Eighteenth-century London newspapers and British perception of the Indigenous peoples of North America

This study addresses how reports of British-Indigenous diplomacy published by the London newspapers between 1700 and 1755 reflected and constructed British understandings of Indigenous political authority. Its analysis of the vocabulary and metaphors employed by the newspapers to refer to Indigenous political actors and their political relationships with Great Britain and her North American colonies suggests that during this period British perceptions of the political culture and authority of the Indigenous peoples shifted from an understanding of complementary correspondence to one of British dominance and Indigenous subjugation. The narratives of importance presented by the newspapers to describe British-Indigenous diplomacy indicate that this shift of perceived political authority affirmed British political and territorial claims in North America against those of both the Indigenous nations and of other Europeans, particularly the French and Spanish. The mark of the perceptions recorded, developed and transmitted by the newspapers can be observed in official colonial policy, such as the Royal Proclamation of October 7, 1763.KEYWORDS: Eighteenth Century Great Britain, North America, Indigenous peoples of North America, Newspapers, Diplomacy.