Autumn
Ninety Moravian Christian Lenni
Lenape (Delaware) are murdered in the
Gnaddenhutten Massacre.
Mohawk war leader Joseph Brant (see entry for
NOVEMBER 11, 1778) tries to persuade a group of
Lenni Lenape (Delaware) converts to the Moravian
sect to help his warriors raid white settlements in
western Pennsylvania. When the Moravian Indians
refuse, they are advised to leave the area if they want
to stay out of the warfare. Harsh winter weather,
however, forces them to stay. In their villages, they
are set upon by American troops led by Colonel
David Williamson. He orders his soldiers to execute
90 Moravian Indian women and men by striking
them in the head with mallets. The governor of
Pennsylvania condemns the mass execution, known
as the Gnaddenhutten Massacre, but no action is
taken against Williamson and his men.
1782Thomas Jefferson excavates an Indian mound.
An enthusiastic student of American Indian life,
Virginia statesman Thomas Jefferson systematically
excavates a small mound along the Rivanna River in
Virginia. He unearths several layers of human bones
and artifacts sandwiched between layers of earth. In
his detailed records of his excavation, possibly the
first in archaeological history to observe the strata of
rock with great care, Jefferson writes, “That [Indian
mounds] were repositories of the dead, has been ob-
vious to all; but on what occasion constructed, was
a matter of doubt.”
August 19
Indian raiders meet the Kentucky militia in
the Battle of Blue Licks.
The Kentucky militia follows a group of Indian raid-
ers to Blue Licks Springs. The troops pursue the
Indians against the advice of Daniel Boone (see en-
tries for MARCH 10, 1775, and for SPRING 1778),
who recommends that they call for reinforcements
before proceeding. Lying in wait, the Indians ambush
the militiamen as they approach. Approximately 100
soldiers are killed, in one of the worst defeats of the
militia’s campaign in Kentucky.1783England cedes land to the United States in
the Treaty of Paris.
In the treaty of Paris, which ends the American
Revolution, England cedes its lands from the Ap-
palachian Mountains to the Mississippi River to the
new United States. The provision spells disaster for
the Indians in the region. By the Proclamation of
1763 (see entry for OCTOBER 7, 1763), the British
government had prohibited white settlement in the
area. The U.S. government, however, will ignore
this edict and soon open the ceded region to a flood
of land-hungry whites.1784Russians establish a settlement in Alaska.
On Kodiak Island, Russian fur trader Gregory
Shelikov founds Three Saints, the first permanent
non-Indian settlement in Alaska. Through the ef-
forts of Shelikov and his employee Alexander
Baranov, the Russians will dominate the fur trade
in the region. They will brutally exploit the in-
digenous populations, compelling entire villages
through threats and force to hunt and prepare pelts
for them. (See also entry for 1799.)Iroquois led by Joseph Brant begin moving
to Canada.
At the insistence of Mohawk leader and British loy-
alist Joseph Brant (see entries for NOVEMBER 11,
1778; JULY 1777; and NOVEMBER 1775), the Eng-
lish government grants a tract of land on the Grand
River in Ontario to Indians who fought on their
side during the American Revolution. Brant and
his followers will found the present-day town of