Algonkian-Manitou Civil War

The Manitou War or Algonkian-Manitou Civil War is actually a blanket term for a quarter-century of political and military conflict between the largely-Human government of the Niswi-Mishkodewinan and the Elven Manitou tribe.

-Background: The Niswi-mishkodewinan "The Council of Three Fires" was founded by the Treaty of Denver as one of the original Native American Nations and a founding member of the Sovereign Tribal Council, as a homeland for the many Algonquian-speaking peoples, including Anishinaabe, Odawaa, and Bodéwadmi (all members of the original Council of Three Fires, which served as a major power in the region for almost a thousand years) as well as related peoples, such as theNēhiraw and the Omàmiwinini*.* Early on the Council established a reputation for multiculturalism, accepting large number of Iroquoian speakers (the six Haudenosaunee tribes of the old Confederation, led by the Kanienʼkéha as well as the Wynadot and others), ejected from the remaining US territory and were accepted as a full member nation of the Council, the *Atiwandaronk* ("Those Who Speak The Language" Iroquois), as opposed to the Algonkian nations, who started calling themselves *Elakómkwik* ("The Family").

Two decades later, a similar event tested the limits of that acceptance. In 2045 charismatic Elven shaman, Adrienne Silvermoon (*Falisté Telepisil*) arrived and gains support of the Atiwandaronk's political branch, the Neutral Nation Party, to bring her followers to the sparsely-populated lands of the Council. Nearly a million elves from the northern and eastern parts of North America gather to form the Manitou Tribe, which becomes a major component of the small nation's population, one-fifth of the Council's total population. This massive migration causes a seismic shift in the form of the nation's government. The Triumvirate is formed to govern the nation, with three Chiefs at the head of the executive branch, each given to one of the three major nations, the *Elakómkwik* select the Civil Chief from their own number, the *Atiwandaronk,* mostly Kanien'keha who form a disproportionate amount of the officer corps of their military, chose the War Chief from their own internal councils, and the "Manitou Nation", Silvermoon's followers, send a Ceremony Chief to the Council. Silvermoon is, of course, selected as the first Manitou Ceremony Chief.

-Timeline of the Troubles:

* 2050: Crop failures in Council territories causes a food crisis. The Council, led by Ceremony Chief Silvermoon, whose people the Manitou in the poor northern lands are put especially at risk, reaches out for foreign aid. Aztechnology steps in to prevent famine and prop up the Council's economy. In return, Aztechnology is awarded exclusive contracts to the Council's main agricultural exports. To call this move unpopular is to understate it. In her own lands an opposition movement among the Manitou, who stand against Aztechnology involvement, make a move to displace Silvermoon as *Raegh* of the *Raén ke'Tolo* (what the Manitou call themselves). However this effort collapses when key members of the opposition movement die under mysterious circumstances over a period of thirteen days.
* 2051: A former supporter of the opposition movement, war hero and military mage (a "*Meraerth ke'Ailiu***"),** Derek Highsun leads a coup against Silvermoon (possibly with the tacit approval of some non-elven elements in the Council government). Silvermoon dies during the coup, reportedly after a spirit she summons turns on her. Civil Chief Bobby Bear and War Chief Okwaho appoint Highsun as the provisional Ceremony Chief, some say because they were backing his rebellion, others says because they were desperate to avoid intervention by the Sioux Defense Force.
* 2051-2061: Resentful of interference in their internal affairs, Manitou elves constantly protest the Highsun administration. Over the next ten years, as they go through four different *Raegha/*Ceremony Chiefs, Derek Highsun, Falia Truesight, Meredeth Ninestars and finally, in early 2060, Laura Hawksford as power shifts between the pro-government Solar (*Maeltish*) faction, followers of Highsun, and the more pro-independence, internationalist Lunar (*Isilmëtish*) adherents of SIlvermoon and back again. Hawksford's rise represents a Lunar ascendance. Fringe members of these movements form extremist groups, such as the Elven separatists of the Meraerth ke'Désach (Warriors of Change).
* February, 2061: A terrorist bomb destroys the Aztechnology building in Mohkínstsis (formerly Calgary AB, in the primarily *Elakómkwik* dominated territory) during a meeting with the Council, killing, among others, Civil Chief Bobby Bear and War Chief Hillborn. Manitou druidic extremists, who had been protesting Aztechnology's exploitation of their nation, are blamed by the Council and there is a sudden upsurge of anti-Manitou anger among the other nations of the Council.
* March, 2061: Bobby Bear's son Joseph Bear provisionally assumes his father's position on the Council, while Doxtator, next highest ranking military officer of the Council Armies, is appointed pro-tem War Chief. They dedicate the Council's resources to finding the Elves responsible (and they do always maintain it is elves).
* November, 2061: The Hudson Bay Incident. Military (largely from the Atiwandaronk elite 'Keepers of the Eastern Door' units) and Aztechnology security forces attack a boathouse, suspected of harboring ecoterrorists, the Mother's Sons. All inside the boathouse are killed, and the some of the dead turn out to be leaders of the Manitou tribe, including their High Shaman Charlie Nightwolf and several Lunar faction leaders, including Councilor Trent Starblade and Marietta Greengrove, a former aide of Silvermoon and suspected leader of the Meraerth ke'Désach.
* December 2061: Ceremony Chief Laura Hawksford calls an emergency policy meeting of the surviving Manitou leaders at the Lynn Lake Great Lodge. After the third day, all media and non-elven persons were excluded, and the elven leaders of the Manitou hold a secret meeting for the next week.
* May 1, 2062: Laura Hawksford and other attendants of the Lynn Lake meeting announce the formation of the "Manitou Council" (*Draesis ti'Tolo* "Wheel of Spirits"), and declares that the Manitou will no longer acknowledge the Council of Three Fires' authority, claiming all lands north of the Kuugjuaq River.
* May 19, 2062: Civil Chief Joseph Bear and War Chief Doxtator issue a statement removing Hawksford from her position as Ceremony Chief and not recognizing the Manitou state as legitimate. A state of war now exists as Council troops are sent north to reclaim the territory. A noted shaman Arnold Halfway Man is appointed as the new Ceremony Chief.

With the declaration of the Manitou Council, the other two Fires quickly moved to suppress the secessionists under personal command of War Chief Doxtator. The Manitou had prepared and the initial fighting ends in a stalemate, enforced by Sovereign Tribal Council Peacekeepers, mostly SDF regulars. This would be the first of four negotiated cease-fires over the next thirteen years (2066, 2068 and 2071). The Manitou has mostly maintained its tentative independence, except for a STC-negotiated occupation in 2066-2067, despite no North American nation recognizing their independence, generally by playing their neighbors (especially Quebec and the UCAS) off the STC.

* 2063: The Manitou campaign stalls out after the disaster at Tadoule Lake. War Chief Doxtator is forced to step down by the Court of Women, replaced by the aggressive Younger Brother Kariwase. Kariwase begins what he calls the "Double Campaign" which combines strategic strikes to destroy warmaking capability with diplomatic and media assaults.
* 2064: The Double Campaign bears fruit and Council troops take much of the southern Manitou territory, including retaking Tadoule Lake and overrunning the Manitou command center at Kuugjuaq, forcing the current *Raegh* of the Wheel, Laura Hawksford, to flee the country, taking refuge in Quebec across the waters. *De facto* command of the Manitou forces falls to charismatic partisan Raven Darkplace, who uses guerrilla tactics to stall the Council advance.
* April, 2066: The Lac Brochet Massacre, makes the Three Fires look bad, attracting the attention of the STC.
* Late May 2066: SDF peacekeepers are sent in and force a cease-fire. They arrest Darkplace and turn him over to the Three Fires Council, who imprison him in Mohkínstsis Prison. A joint Three Fires and SDF task force takes control of the northern territories, forming the MOR, Manitou Occupation Region under the Three Fires Council.
* July 2067: The SDF withdraws, putting the MOR entirely under Three Fires control. A Manitou uprising, the New Wheel Movement, begins, overwhelming the Three Fires forces still transitioning to sole control of the region. Laura Hawksford, with Quebecois backing, returns to the country to lead the rebellion and take back their adopted home territories.
* March 2068: After nearly a year of vicious bloodshed, First Territorial Chief Delas Skyseeker of the neighboring Na-Dené Nén , with support of the STC, negotiates another cease-fire to attempt to get Three Fires and Manitou leaders to the negotiating table.
* June 2068: Diana Silvermoon, adopted daughter of Adrienne Silvermoon, renames herself Chal'han Silvermoon and leads an militant splinter faction, the Moonswords (*Macil ti'Isil*) to break the treaty and resume hostilities. A messy three-way war evolves between the Spirit Warriors of the official Manitou government, Chal'han's Moonswords and the Council's army.
* 2071: After three blood-stained years, SDF and Na-Dene forces manage to force another cease-fire with the arrest of Chal'han Silvermoon.
* August 2072: Hawksford negotiates the release of Chal'han Silvermoon into her custody.
* October 2072: A Manitou raid on Wapusk marks the beginning of another round of hostilities.
* 2073: Joseph Bear steps down at Civil Chief, replaced by their representative on the STC, Madison Golden Eagle. Golden Eagle makes steps towards reconciliation with the Manitou.
* 2074: A devastating magical ritual cripples the Three Fires Council Defense Forces, costing Ceremony Chief Halfway Man his life. This setback shatters the delicate negotiations between Civil Chief Golden Eagle and *Raegh* Hawksford. War Chief Kariwase becomes the dominant force in the Council government and appoints a military shaman from the Atiwandaronk (and a fellow member of the Warrior Societies), Tsis'swakeras, as Ceremony Chief.
* June 4, 2075: The Sovereign Tribal Council sets a date at the Winter Solstice by which both sides have to sit down at the negotiating table before sending in a massive task force that they are beginning to gather, to settle the matter once and for all.
* June 22 2075: The Three Fires Council Triumvirate takes out a massive loan from Aztechnology and prepares a troop surge along the Manitou border.

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