Traitor

The story of John Dunn Hunter’s remarkable life, tragic betrayal, and disgraceful murder.

John Dunn Hunter was many things: a frontier hero, a writer, a celebrity at home and abroad, and, ultimately, the victim of a deadly conspiracy. Born to white parents in 1800, he was captured as a young child by the Kickapoo and later raised by the Kansa and then the Osage. As a young man, he left his Osage family and crossed the Mississippi into the United States, where he became an ardent and persuasive voice in favor of Indigenous sovereignty in the face of western expansion and the removal of native populations.

In this gripping biography, Andy Doolen chronicles Hunter’s compelling life and disgraceful murder. Often referred to as the “white Indian,” Hunter published a gripping account of his life story and held court with esteemed figures of his day, from Presidents Jefferson and Madison to the Duke of Sussex and visionary reformer Robert Owen. But advocating for the rights of Indigenous people and nations painted a target on his back. Officials in the War Department accused him of being an imposter and the author of a hoax, but Hunter never had the chance to defend himself. He was in Texas at the time, one of the leaders in a pan-Indian movement for sovereignty, when he was assassinated in the infamous Fredonian Rebellion.

Although Hunter could not have known it at the time, he was at the vanguard of a movement for an inclusive vision of democracy that embraced Indigenous rights and humanity rather than excluding and denying them. Hunter’s story is a stark reminder of the work that still must be done to fulfill the promises of the American experiment.

Author Biography

Andy Doolen is a professor of English and American studies at the University of Kentucky. He is the author of Territories of Empire: US Writing from the Louisiana Purchase to Mexican Independence.