KGNU & Boulder Bookstore Radio Book Club

The epic story of the alliance forged between Colonel Peter Schuyler and the Five Nations of the Iroquois as English forces joined with the Iroquois against the French and their Indigenous allies.

Empire and Frontier presents a powerful episode of early American history, revealing the very human story of friendship and alliance between Colonel Peter Schuyler and the Iroquois during King William’s War (1689–1701). Like Philbrick’s Mayflower and Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon, this new book reveals how fragile alliances and cross-cultural diplomacy changed the course of empires in North America.

At the heart of the book is Peter Schuyler, a Dutch-American mayor of Albany, Indian Affairs commissioner, and militia colonel who earned deep trust among the Iroquois. Decades ahead of his time in his respect for Native diplomacy and sovereignty, Schuyler helped forge and sustain a fragile alliance between English colonists and the Haudenosaunee (Five Nations of the Iroquois) during a decade of brutal warfare. That alliance, known as The Covenant Chain, not only blocked French ambitions in the region, but also shaped the political and military landscape of the American frontier for the next one hundred years.

Told through multiple perspectives, the book also follows two unforgettable Indigenous figures during the conflict. Lawrence, a Mohawk war captain, serves as Schuyler’s compatriot on the battlefield, working for and navigating the survival of his people. Hilletie van Olinda, a biracial Mohawk-Dutch woman, becomes a key translator and diplomatic go-between, using her language skills and cultural fluency to mediate between the Iroquois and English.

Across a decade of war, espionage, and political intrigue—from the 1689 Leisler’s Rebellion and 1690 Schenectady Massacre to the climactic Grand Settlement of 1701—these intertwined stories reveal the human cost and political complexity behind one of early America’s most consequential alliances.