There was no “Indian policy” toward our rebellion, or colonial policy toward the Indians. On the frontiers of white settlement, white settlers lived among, traded with, and had relations with a dozen or more nations. Each had its own characteristics, traditional hunting lands, trading patterns, history of amicable relationships and grievances with the English settlers, and foreign policy aims. And, significantly, each had its own set of allies and enemies among other Indian nations.
The white settlers on the frontier were a mix of Patriots and Loyalists, so the conflict was extremely complex: with British officers dealing directly with the Natives and Loyalists, Native tribes who had their own neutral relations with or grievances against white settlers, and a nasty civil war between white Patriots and Loyalists. Indeed, even some powerful tribes were divided, including the Iroquois, with the Oneida and Tuscarora siding with the Americans and the Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, and Onondaga supporting the British. Although the conflict on the frontier didn’t involve armies of thousands of men blasting away in set-piece battles, the warfare was carried on intermittently throughout the war.
Although by June 1776, there was not yet consistent Indian warfare on the frontier, Thomas Jefferson listed it as one of the grievances against the King in the Declaration of Independence:
“He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”
Many, including the once mighty Cherokee, were weakened from years of contact and intermittent warfare with English settlers. The first major outbreak started on July 1, 1776, when Cherokee warriors, encouraged both by British agents and northern tribes, attacked colonial frontier settlements in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. American militias struck back hard, burning more than 50 settlements and destroying crops and food stores. The Cherokee signed a treaty relinquishing all their land claims east if the Blue Ridge and, except for one militant band that moved west, remained relatively quiet the test of the war.
Later in the war, the fighting was particularly sharp along the New York and Pennsylvania frontiers. In 1778, Loyalists and Iroquois allies conducted a series of raids along the frontiers of New York and Pennsylvania. One fight with long-lasting consequences was the so-called “Wyoming Valley Massacre.” On July 3, 1778, a force of British Loyalists and Iroquois warriors overwhelmed a small force of Patriot militia in northeastern Pennsylvania. During the retreat, the Iroquois tomahawked and scalped many Patriots and then burned many settlers’ homes, chasing off the remaining survivors and temporarily ridding the Valley of white settlers.
The massacre was a tactical military victory for the Loyalists and Iroquois, but it had long-term consequences. Propaganda spread widely, frightening settlers on the frontier but angering everyone. A series of tit-for-tat retaliations followed, with colonists burning Indian villages and further raids on colonial settlements. Another massacre a few months later at Cherry Valley in central New York – where non-combatants supposedly were deliberately targeted – led to even more lurid propaganda.
With more and more frontier settlements abandoned, New York Governor George Clinton warned in 1779 that the continuation of these raids might push the New York frontier back to the Hudson River.
But these raids had more than local impacts. The raids also deprived the Continental army of food and manpower and the requirement to protect frontier settlements threatened to dissipate Washington’s forces. On May 31, 1779, Washington authorized General John Sullivan to conduct a scorched earth campaign against the “hostile tribes of the six nations of Indians, with their associates and adherents.” His orders stated,
The immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible. It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more.
Sullivans force marched from northeastern Pennsylvania through the New York-Pennsylvania border and Finger Lakes region, easily defeating the warriors who stood in their way. By the end of the campaign, Sullivan’s army had destroyed more than forty villages and had destroyed at least 160,000 bushels of corn and other crops while losing only 40 men. Noticeably missing however, was the presence of any Indian captives, one of the main goals of expedition.
One unintended consequence was that many Indians who may have stayed neutral were now pushed to the side of the British. And while the Indian raids temporarily were ended, they returned in 1780 with larger and more destructive raids against American settlements. The Sullivan campaign had destroyed the Iroquois’ self-sufficiency and made them dependent on the British.
In the end, whether they allied with the British or Americans, frontier Indians paid heavily. American victory led to a flood of western settlement and further land losses.
