The History of the History

History is in just a bunch of names and dates and facts.

It's the collection of all the stories throughout human history that explained how and why we got here.

Welcome to the History Unplugged Podcast, where we look at the forgotten, neglected, strange, and even counterfactual stories that made our world what it is.

I'm your host, Scott Rank.

George Washington had many nicknames.

Well, for the most part they weren't nicknames they were honorifics.

One was the American Fabius, named after the Roman General Fabian for his military strategy in the Revolutionary War fighting a war of attrition.

He's also nicknamed after another Roman general since an attice.

He won the war, then became a private citizen instead of seeking power and went back to his farm until the land.

And obviously there's his nickname the father of the country.

But the Eurokoi Indians had a nickname for him that was far less complimentary.

And that was Knoetokarius, and I'll explain what that means in a bit.

Relations with Indians was perhaps more important for George Washington than any other presidential administration.

Indian delegates were regular visitors to the seat of government during his presidency.

Washington dined with leaders of the Cherokee, the Chikasaws, the Creeks, the Mohawk, Seneca's, and many others.

In late 1796 he had dinner with four different groups of Indians on four different days.

And during these meetings he would follow the customs of his Indian visitors,

he would exchange warm-pum pelts, drink punch with them, and spoke from Kalamit pipes.

Washington had to earn the trust of Indian nations because America was arguably never as weak as it was when he was a president.

Indian nations still controlled large areas of the North American continent.

European nations fought over their allegiance and tried to carry their favor.

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