When the American Revolution erupted, both the
English and the colonists initially sought guaran-
tees of neutrality from Indian tribes. Neither side
wanted Indians to join their ranks; given their his-
tory of abuses against Indian peoples, they did not
trust armed warriors to attack only the enemy.
Yet the thousands of fighting men Indian
groups could recruit proved too attractive not to
exploit. As in the French and Indian War, Indian
tribes were soon pressured to become involved in a
non-Indian conflict. Although the colonists and the
English made active efforts to woo powerful Indian
groups, tribes generally chose sides less on the basis
of their promises of friendship than on the Indians’
own sense of which group posed them the smaller
threat.
The tribes most affected by the revolution were
those of the Iroquois Confederacy. Most Iroquois,
including notably the Mohawk led by Joseph Brant,
sided with the English, with whom they had a long-
standing trade relationship. When factions of the
Oneida and Tuscarora broke ranks and became al-
lies of the colonists, the unity of the centuries-old
Iroquois Confederacy was endangered. Ironically,
the American Revolution nearly destroyed the very
political organization that Benjamin Franklin had
proposed as a model for the union of states the co-
lonial rebels hoped to establish.
At the end of the war, the new United States
made no distinction between their Indian allies and
those of the English. All tribes were treated as de-
feated enemies, and their lands were increasingly
seen by Americans as part of the fruits of their vic-
tory. Immediately threatened were the tribes of the
Northwest Territory (now Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan, Wisconsin, and portions of Minnesota).
Despite the swarm of settlers into their lands,
the Shawnee, Miami, Potawatomi, Ojibway, and
other tribes living north of the Ohio River contin-
ued to resist encroachment. To drive the Indians
out, President George Washington launched three
full-scale military campaigns. A massive number
of troops led by “Mad” Anthony Wayne finally de-
feated the Indian forces in 1794. As a result, the
following year the Indian combatants were com-
pelled by the Treaty of Greenville to sign away
25,000 square miles of land in the Ohio country.
The new U.S. government had finally won its
battle for Ohio, but victory had come at an enormous
price. Facing a possible conflict with the English, who
Surviving in Early America
1776 TO 1829
