Chronology of American Indian History

A total of 13 of Logan’s relatives have been
murdered by the English; he sets about killing an
equal number of whites. John Connelly, the com-
mander of Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh), sends out a
warning to area whites suggesting that a large-scale
Indian war is in the offing. Responding to Con-
nelly’s alarm, Lord Dunmore sends two columns
of troops out of Virginia to battle Indians in
the contested region, inciting what will become
known as Lord Dunmore’s War. (See also entries for
OCTOBER 9, 1774, and for SEPTEMBER 12 TO OC-
TOBER 12, 1775.)

October 9

The Shawnee fight Virginia troops in the
Battle of Point Pleasant.
A force of about 1,000 Shawnee led by Cornstalk
meet 300 soldiers from Virginia at Point Pleasant
on the Ohio River’s southern bank. In the day-
long battle, the Indians are close to defeating the
Virginians when, mistakenly believing English
reinforcements have arrived, the Shawnee decide
to retreat. The casualties are heavy on both sides.
Among those killed is the Shawnee war chief Puck-
sinwah, who is the father of the future rebellion
leader Tecumseh (see entry for 1808).
The Battle of Point Pleasant is the largest en-
gagement of Lord Dunmore’s War (see entry for
APRIL 30, 1774). Soon after, a force of more than
1,000 troops led by Lord Dunmore approaches the
Shawnee’s villages at the site of present-day Chilli-
cothe, Ohio. Fearing for the lives of their wives and
children, Shawnee leaders agree to a truce on Octo-
ber 26, although another year will pass before the
peace is formally concluded (see entry for SEPTEM-
BER 12 TO OCTOBER 12, 1775).

1775

James Adair’s History of the American
Indians is published.
A Scotch-Irish trader who spent many years living
among the Chickasaw, James Adair writes History

of the American Indians, which will later become

an important source of information for anthropo-

logical research on the tribes of the Southeast. Adair

also takes the opportunity to praise the character

of the Indians he had come to admire and to con-

demn colonial officials whose incompetence Adair

believed often incited violence between Indians and

the English.

March 10

Daniel Boone begins staking out the

Wilderness Road.

Employed by the Transylvania Land Company,

frontiersman Daniel Boone leads a party of 30

west from North Carolina. The group blazes the

300-mile Wilderness Road across the Appala-

chians, through the Cumberland Gap, and into

Cherokee lands. There Boone finds the Cherokee

chiefs most susceptible to bribery and at Sycamore

Shoals on the Tennessee River buys from them

20,000,000 acres in what is now Kentucky and

central Tennessee on behalf of Transylvania. Over

the next 15 years, approximately 100,000 whites

will travel along the Wilderness Road and settle

in this region in defiance of the Proclamation

of 1763 (see entry for OCTOBER 7, 1763). (See

also entries for SPRING 1778 and for AUGUST 19,

1782.)

May 1

The Tammany Society meets in

Philadelphia.

Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin

Franklin, and other influential colonists join

the Sons of King Tammany, also known as the

Tammany Society. Based in Philadelphia, the

organization celebrates American culture as the

blending of the best ideas and traditions of Indian

and European societies. The society is named

after Tamanend, a Lenni Lenape (Delaware)

chief who developed friendly relations with

William Penn (see entry for 1682). Its members’

disillusionment with the king is expressed through