Indians who lived in the area where Pittsburgh now stands were not powerless pawns of European states that were seeking control of the Ohio Valley.

		Previous articles Smoke, noise a necessity at event (6/27/04) French and Indian War: The story thus far (6/27/04) Finding more information (6/27/04) Related article Re-enactors spur 18th-century economy If you go Tactical demonstrations will be at 2 p.m. today and 1:30 p.m. tomorrow. Visitors will be shuttled to Fort Necessity from lots along Route 40. Tickets are required for all commomoration events and can be purchased at the gate park.

At least two leaders of the Delaware and Shawnee relied on sophisticated diplomacy to play the British and the French off against each other, according to David Dixon, an associate professor of history at Slippery Rock University.

Dixon took part in a scholars' panel yesterday on "The Battle that Set the World on Fire." The discussion at Fort Necessity National Battlefield was part of a commemoration by the National Park Service of the 250th anniversary of the start of the French and Indian War.

George Washington's attack on a French patrol at Jumonville in May 1754 was followed by a combined French and Indian assault on a stockade he had built in the Great Meadow in what is now Fayette County. The skirmish at Jumonville and his surrender of Fort Necessity on the early morning of July 4, 1754, marked the opening battles of what developed into a worldwide war.

About 250 re-enactors representing Virginia and Canadian militia, French marines, British regulars and Eastern Woodland Indians will take part in military exercises this afternoon and tomorrow. They are among 500 re-enactors who will set up camps in the park, located along Route 40, 11 miles east of Uniontown.

Their tactical demonstrations will be part of a four-day event that included the world premiere yesterday of a new short film, "George Washington Remembers." Produced, written and directed by Pittsburgh filmmaker Peter Argentine, it is based on Washington's autobiographical description of his adventures in southwestern Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War.

That manuscript, in Washington's own hand, is on display this weekend in the visitors center at Fort Necessity.

The historians taking part in yesterday's discussion offered British, French and Native American points of view regarding the struggle for the Ohio Valley.

Author Robert Bearor, who has written several books about the French-Canadian fighters, said history is written by the winners. For that reason, Americans often know about the frontier exploits of ranger Robert Rogers but they usually know nothing about the French marines and Canadian militia who defeated him several times.

"We try to tell the other side," Bearor said of his books and efforts as a re-enactor. "Otherwise it's like describing the Civil War and just writing about the Union."

Indian diplomacy began long before the French and Indian War, Dixon said. In the mid-1740s, a Shawnee leader named Scarouady was seeking an alliance against the French with Pennsylvania colonial officials. Scarouady was supposed to act as local governor for the New York-based Iroquois Confederation, who were nominal rulers of the region. Dixon said his real loyalty, however, was to the Native Americans living in southwestern Pennsylvania.

He and Tanaghrisson, another "Half King" who ruled in the name of the Iroquois, both ignored the wishes of their Iroquois masters in efforts to keep French and British forts out of the Ohio Valley.

Ultimately throwing his support behind the British, Tanaghrisson played a major role in launching the French and Indian War, Dixon said. He urged Washington to attack the French, and he personally killed the French commander, the Ensign Jumonville. "His hatchet in the head of Jumonville had ended any chance of reconciliation [between the French and British]," Dixon said.

While Tanaghrisson abandoned Washington at Fort Necessity, Dixon said it was probable that he or other Ohio Valley Indians also saved the 22-year-old Virginian and his troops from being massacred there.

The French commander reported rumors that British reinforcements were on the way and that was why he let Washington surrender on lenient terms.

The Indians wanted Washington to return to the Ohio Valley, Dixon said. That way the British could continue to serve as a counterforce to the French, who were building forts along the frontier. Those fortifications included Fort Duquesne, located at what is now Pittsburgh's Point.