Chronology of American Indian History

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November

Shawnee war leader Cornstalk is killed.
After leading Wyandot, Cayuga, Cherokee, and
Shawnee warriors in a summer raid against white
settlements in present-day Wheeling, West Vir-
ginia, the Shawnee chief Cornstalk (see entries for
OCTOBER 9, 1774, and for JULY 1776) is invited to
Fort Randolph in Pennsylvania to discuss terms for
a peace. Although Cornstalk enters the fort under a
flag of truce, he and four other Shawnee are taken
captive by whites and murdered.

“I desire it may be remem-

bered, that if the frontier

people will not submit to

the Laws, but thus set them

at Defiance, they will not

be considered as entitled

to the protection of the

Government.... For where is

this wretched business to end?

The Cherokees, the Delawares

and every other Tribe may be

set on us in this manner this

Spring for what I know. Is not

this the work of Tories? No

Man but an Enemy of Ameri-

can Independence will do it.”

—Virginia governor Patrick Henry,

expressing his outrage over the

murder of Shawnee chief Cornstalk

1778

The Cook Expedition arrives in the Pacific
Northwest.
An expedition led by British captain James Cook
anchors off the coast of Vancouver Island while

searching for the Northwest Passage—a presumed

water route between the Atlantic and Pacific

Oceans. On the basis of Cook’s exploration, En-

gland will claim lands in what are now Oregon,

Washington, Idaho, and parts of present-day Mon-

tana and Wyoming.

Cook’s sailors obtain 1,500 sea otter pelts

through trade with Indians on the island. The Eng-

lishmen intend to use the furs to make clothing for

themselves, but when they travel on to China they

discover that they can sell them to their Chinese

trading partners for an enormous profit. As the Chi-

nese clamor for furs for use as hats and trim, large

numbers of Englishmen, Russians, and Americans

will rush to the Pacific Northwest to trade with In-

dian trappers.

Spring

Daniel Boone is held captive by the

Shawnee.

A series of Indian raids drive settlers out of most

of Kentucky, except for the settlements at Har-

rodsburg and Boonesboro. During one attack,

Boonesboro’s founder Daniel Boone (see entry for

MARCH 10, 1775) is captured and taken to the

Shawnee village of Chillicothe. There he learns that

the Shawnee leader Black Fish is planning an attack

on the Boonesboro fort. After three months in the

village, Boone manages to escape and rushes to the

fort to warn the inhabitants that the Shawnee are en

route. He reaches Boonesboro in time to help in the

successful defense of the settlement. (See also entry

for AUGUST 19, 1782.)

April

Army troops destroy Chickamauga

Cherokee villages.

After the wounding of Dragging Canoe (see entry

for JULY 1776), his Cherokee followers leave tribal

territory and resettle in abandoned Creek sites along

the Chickamauga Creek, in present-day eastern

Tennessee. To avenge the Indians’ past raids against

whites, 600 troops led by Colonel Evan Shelby