P
to whites, the ordinance will accelerate the flow of
non-Indians into Indian land in the West.
November
Mohegan missionary Samson Occom
establishes Brothertown.
During a weeklong ceremony, the Christian In-
dian settlement of Eeayam Quittoowauconnuck,
also known as Brothertown, is opened as a home
for recent converts. The community is founded by
Samson Occom, a Mohegan who has ministered to
Indians throughout New England for 25 years (see
entries for 1769 and 1772). Built on Oneida land
in central New York, Brothertown is conceived by
Occom as a haven where Christian Indians can re-
treat from the corrupting influence of white settlers.
He will devote himself to promoting Brothertown
and raising funds for the community until his death
in 1792.
“Behold a loving Jesus, see him
cry,
With earnestness of soul, ‘Why
will ye die?’
My kindred Indians, come just
as you be,
Then Christ and his solution
you shall see.
If you can go on and still reject
Christ’s call,
‘Twill be too late, his curse will
on you fall;
The Judge will doom you to
that dreadful place,
In hell, where you shall never
see his face.”
—from Samson Occom’s Sermon
Preached at the Execution of Moses
Paul (1772)November 18The Cherokee sign the Treaty
of Hopewell.
At Hopewell, South Carolina, Cherokee leaders
sign a treaty that places them “under the protec-
tion of the United States of America and of no
other sovereign whatsoever.” The United States
promises to order Americans who have settled in
their territory to leave and to protect the tribe’s
lands from further white encroachment. Despite
this guarantee, the new nation will do little to
stem the tide of white settlement in the Chero-
kee’s lands.1787May to SeptemberThe merits of Indian governments are
debated at the Constitutional
Convention.
To strengthen the weak central government es-
tablished by the Articles of Confederation (see
entry for 1781), state representatives gather
in Philadelphia to draft a constitution for the
United States. Benjamin Franklin proposes a
unicameral legislature following the model of
the Grand Council of Iroquois Confederacy (see
entry for CA. 1400), whose egalitarian approach
to government Franklin has long admired. John
Adams resists Franklin’s efforts with “Defence of
the Constitutions of Government in the United
States of America,” an essay sent to the conven-
tion from Europe, where Adams is serving as an
ambassador. Adams maintains that Franklin and
other students of Indian political life want to “set
up governments of... modern Indians.”
Although he promotes the British constitution
as a better model for the new U.S. government,
Adams does recommend further study into Indian
governments as examples of political systems in
which “real sovereignty resided in the body of the
people.”