500 Years of Indigenous resistanceIn 1715, the Yamasee nation rose up against the English in South Car-
olina, but were virtually exterminated in a ruthless English campaign.
In 1720, the Chickasaw nation warred against French occupation,
until France’s capitulation to England in 1763. Similarly, Fox resistance to
French colonialism continued from 1720 to around 1735.
In 1729, the Natchez
nation began attacking
French settlers in Louisi-
ana after governor Sieur
Chepart ordered their main
village cleared for his planta-
tions. In the ensuing battles,
Chepart was killed and the
French counter-insurgency
campaign left the Natchez
decimated, although guer-
rilla struggle was to continue
along the Mississippi River.
In 1760 the Cherokee
nation began their own guer-
rilla war against their ‘allies’
the English, in Virginia and
Carolina. Led by Oconosto-
ta, the Cherokee fought for
two years, eventually agree-
ing to a peace treaty which
saw partitions of their land
ceded after the English colo-
nial forces had razed Chero-
kee villages and crops.
In 1761, Aleuts in Alaska attacked Russian traders following depre-
dations on Aleut communities off the coast of Alaska (the Russian colo-
nizers eventually moved into the Pribilof and Aleutian islands in 1797,
relocating Aleuts and virtually enslaving them in the seal hunt).
Against British colonization, the Ottawa leader Pontiac led an alli-
ance of Ottawas, Algonquins, Senecas, Mingos, and Wyandots in 1763.
The offensive captured nine of twelve English garrisons and laid siege