Book excerpt: 1775-The conflict between the British Empire and the American colonies erupts in all-out war. Rebels and loyalists to the British Crown compete for an alliance with the Six Nations of the Iroquois, the most powerful Indian confederation, boasting a constitution hundreds of years old. In the Mohawk River Valley, Native Americans and colonists have co-existed for generations. But as the thunder of war approaches and the United States struggles violently into existence, old bonds are broken, friends and families are split by betrayal, and this mixed community is riven by hatred and resentment. To save his threatened world, the Mohawk war chief Joseph Brant sets off in a restless journey that will take him from New York to the salons of Georgian London at the heart of the British Empire.