Chronology of American Indian History

September 8

The English Board of Trade recommends
intermarriage between Indians and whites.
In correspondence with the British Crown, the
English Board of Trade suggests that the in-
termarriage between Indians and colonists be
encouraged. Marriages between Indian women
and French men are common, but they are practi-
cally unheard of in the English colonies, largely
because of the colonists’ sense of superiority over
Indians and their societies. The board, however,
sees intermarriage as the easiest way of securing a
meaningful peace between the English and their
Indian allies.

1722

The Tuscarora join the Iroquois
Confederacy.
For the first time since its founding, the Iroquois
Confederacy (see entry for CA. 1400) invites a
new tribe, the Tuscarora, to join its ranks. The
Tuscarora, who share cultural traits with the other
Iroquois tribes, probably lived in Iroquois terri-
tory before migrating southward to what is now
North Carolina in about 500 B.C. The tribe began
moving north to live with their Iroquois rela-
tives following the Tuscarora War (see entries for
SEPTEMBER 1711 and for MARCH 1713), during
which the English decimated their population
and took most of their southern lands.

June

Dummer’s War breaks out.
Possibly incited by the French, a group of Eastern
Abenaki attack English settlements near present-
day Brunswick, Maine. The warriors burn several
houses and take several of the inhabitants captive.
Dummer, the acting governor of Massachusetts,
sends in troops to battle the tribe (see entry for
AUGUST 1724). The conflict will continue until
1727, when the Eastern Abenaki, receiving little

support from their French allies, can no longer af-

ford to fight the English.

1724

August

English colonists destroy an Eastern

Abenaki village.

The Massachusetts colonial government orders

troops to attack Norridgewock, a village of the

Eastern Abenaki. The troops are also instructed

to arrest Sébastien Râle, a French Jesuit priest

who founded a mission in Norridgewock. Mas-

sachusetts officials believe Râle has encouraged

the Abenaki to attack colonial settlements in the

larger conflict known as Dummer’s War (see entry

for JUNE 1722). As the soldiers storm Norridge-

wock, Râle joins the Indian residents in battling

the intruders. The troops kill the missionary and

at least 80 Indians before setting the village ablaze.

They later parade through the streets of Boston,

displaying 26 Indian scalps (including 14 from

slaughtered children) as trophies of victory.

1726

Gulliver’s Travels lampoons European

notions of civilization.

In Jonathan Swift’s satire Gulliver’s Travels (sub-

titled Travels into Several Remote Nations of

the World), the title character’s final journey is

to the land of the Houyhnhnms, horselike crea-

tures who live in peace and harmony. Gulliver

describes England’s “civilized” society to them;

the Houyhnhnms are baffled by its violence and

its social and economic inequities. Many scholars,

seeing the Houyhnhnms as representing American

Indians, interpret this section of Swift’s book as

a satire on the arrogance of the English in con-

sidering themselves superior to North America’s

indigenous peoples.