Assimilation
Not all of the tribal leaders chose such a direction. Handsome Lake, a Seneca who lived in what is now western New York, chose to blend, or assimilate, the Seneca culture with that of the white settlers. Handsome Lake had previously fought alongside the British battling against the colonists during the American Revolution. After fighting the colonists, Handsome Lake was confined to a reservation, or an area that the federal government set aside for Native Americans who had lost their homelands. As ironic as it may seem, in 1799, Handsome Lake urged Native Americans to focus on traditional rituals rather than engage in war. In his opinion, their lands and lives had been devastated as a result of their own calls to battle.