An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People

Indigenous peoples saw European settlers as helpless, but they quickly recognized the settlers’ desire to take their lands. Settlers earned money for bringing in the hair of killed tribespeople, and others pursued “irregular warfare” by burning towns or spreading smallpox (64). This led to the formation of rangers, individual wilderness fighters, militias, and other armed civilian groups that outnumbered George Washington’s Continental Army.

The Powhatan Confederacy, an alliance of over 30 Algonquian-speaking tribes, confronted invasion early in the form of England’s Jamestown colony in 1607. Negotiations between leaders Wahunsonacock and John Smith failed after the colonists’ poor harvest led Smith to threaten the confederacy. Under ex-mercenary George Percy, colonists burned a town, attacked corn fields, and killed a kidnapped Powhatan leader’s family. The Powhatans opposed expansion and killed 350 people in new settlements. This led to further attacks on Powhatan agriculture.

The Pequot of the northeast could not stop early pilgrims due to a smallpox outbreak. After recovering their strength, the Pequot resisted the Plymouth and Connecticut colonies, and the alleged killing of an Englishman led to the Pequot War of 1636-1638. Colonists destroyed villages and food supplies, while Pequot forces attacked Fort Saybrook. The colonists then burned down a Pequot fort on Mystic River containing women, children, and the elderly. The survivors sought refuge in other nations.

The Cherokee Nation covered present-day Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas. During clashes with Spain’s Florida colony in 1739, England’s Highland Rangers attacked Cherokee towns. The Cherokee allied with the French during the French and Indian War, and England assigned civilian forces to destroy towns, including the Cherokee capital Etchoe. After the war, England claimed that it obtained all land east of the Mississippi River despite only signing a treaty with France. During the English colonies’ revolt, the English provided weaponry to the Cherokee, while the separatists threatened them to remain neutral. In 1776, 5,000 separatist rangers wrecked towns and killed fleeing women and children. In the winter of 1780-1781, another force destroyed 1,000 Cherokee homes and 50,000 bushels of corn. Despite Thomas Jefferson’s desire to drive them west of the Mississippi, the Cherokee remained resilient.

King George III declared the Proclamation Line of 1763, which forbade settlers from expanding into Shawnee and other Indigenous lands. Squatters and land surveyors broke the terms, forcing the Shawnee to retaliate. After clashing with Virginia militias, a Shawnee faction surrendered some territory and autonomy. The Shawnee then allied with the British during the separatist war. Afterwards, the US Continental Congress sent soldiers and militiamen to drive them out of the Ohio Valley.

The Delaware practiced pacifism, with many joining the Moravian Protestant church. Despite this neutrality, anti-Shawnee colonial forces attacked a Delaware town. In 1782, a militia methodically murdered 42 men, 20 women, and 34 children in the Moravian Indian village of Gnadenhütten for allegedly harboring settler killers.

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy nations debated about joining the British’s side. However, the separatists viewed all Haudenosaunee as threats. General George Washington took preemptive action in 1779 and ordered the army to annihilate territory in New York and Pennsylvania.

In 1783, the new United States of America gained all territory east of the Mississippi River, south of the Great Lakes, and north of Spanish Florida. The nations on those lands were not involved in negotiations. Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution clarified that Indigenous nations must deal with the federal government rather than individual states, but the Second Amendment ensured that tribes would continue to face armed settlers.

Washington, now president, and Secretary of War Henry Knox sent mixed forces into the Ohio Valley to clear territory for settlement. However, the Shawnee, Delaware, Miami, and Wyandots formed an alliance under the leadership of Tecumseh, Mshekinnoqquah (Little Turtle), and Weyapiersenwah (Blue Jacket). After losing to the alliance’s ambush tactics, the army pursued irregular warfare by destroying Miami towns and threatening to kill women and children. The alliance defied these threats but lost in the Battle at Fallen Timbers, conceding territory in the Treaty of Greenville of 1795. The treaty also promised to prevent further intrusion, but settlers, believing that the military would protect them, quickly broke that promise. Meanwhile, future President William Henry Harrison bribed destitute Indigenous people to give land to the government.

Tecumseh and his brother, Tenskwatawa, wanted a larger alliance that stretched to the Gulf of Mexico. In response, Harrison attacked Prophet’s Town, their organization’s center in present-day Indiana, while the alliance was not prepared to fight. During this, some troops dug up and mutilated corpses. Tecumseh sought British support for an Indigenous-led attack, which became a motivating factor for the War of 1812. The alliance succeeded in attacking forts and driving thousands of squatters from present-day Indiana and Illinois, but strained resources and the death of Tecumseh in 1813’s Battle of the Thames shattered the alliance.

The Muscogee (Creek) Confederacy remained neutral during the colony revolt but aligned with Spanish Florida as more settlers squatted in their territory in present-day Georgia. Amid military and civilian pressure, the US and Muscogee agreed to the 1970 Treaty of New York to exchange the territory for an annual $1,500 payment and protection from settlers. Violations and bribes to Muscogee leaders rattled trust in governance. Meanwhile, a remnant of the Cherokee, the Chickamaugas, settled in Tennessee and refused to concede any more land. In 1784, North Carolina settlers under John Sevier declared themselves the unofficial 14th state of Franklin and entered Chickamauga lands. Despite signing the Hopewell Treaty of 1785 with the Cherokee, the Washington administration encouraged the Franklinites to violate the treaty. They also attacked Tennessee settlements in conjunction with the Shawnee.

Recognizing their mutual problem, the Chickamaugas and Muscogee partnered against the Franklinites. Knox framed the Muscogee fighters under Alexander McGillivray as outlaws who defied the “respectable” leaders of the nation (101). In an attempt to quell tensions on both sides, Senator William Blount ordered a militia to stop a civilian mob. Federal Indian Agent George Seagrove lobbied Muscogee leaders to avoid retaliation, but Knox struggled to convince Georgia citizens to obey federal authority. The Chickamaugas surrendered in 1794 after attacks on food sources by Sevier and other Franklinites.