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 anthropological 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 condemn colonial officials whose incompetence Adair believed often incited violence between Indians and the English.
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 Appalachians, 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.)
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
Tammany Day celebrations, during which the monarchy is parodied in a mock crowning of King Tammany.
The Second Continental Congress establishes three Indian departments.
The Second Continental Congress establishes three departments to oversee the colonies’ dealings with Indian tribes. The Northern Department is to oversee the Iroquois Confederacy and the Indians living to the north of their lands; the Southern Department is to deal with the Cherokee and all tribes living to the south of them; and the Middle Department is responsible for all Indian groups in between. The Congress appoints three commissioners to the Northern and Middle Departments and five to the Southern Department.
The commissioners are charged with identifying any British agents who try to turn Indians against the colonies and also with attempting to persuade tribes to ally themselves with colonists. Initially, the American officials will be leery of fighting alongside Indians, whom they considered to be undisciplined in war. But there are more than 35,000 Indian warriors in the East, and the American officials come to see the wisdom in attempting to tap this vast fighting force. Despite their efforts, however, the commissioners will largely be unsuccessful at forging alliances, because most Indian groups view the colonists as the greatest threat to their lands and societies. The officials also lack supplies, hindering their ability to earn the favor of Indian leaders through traditional gift giving.
The Iroquois meet with U. S. commissioners at German Flats.
Fearing that the six Iroquois tribes will fight on the side of the English in the American Revolution, representatives of the colonial government meet with Iroquois leaders at German Flats, New York. The Americans, explaining that they will fight a war against England to protect their civil rights, succeed in persuading the Iroquois to declare neutrality in the upcoming war. During the meeting, Benjamin Franklin presents the Pine Tree Flag as the first flag of the United States. The imagery is similar to that of the Great Tree of Peace, an Iroquois symbol used to represent the confederacy (see entry for CA.
The Shawnee negotiate the Treaty of Camp Charlotte.
At a conference at Camp Charlotte, Shawnee leaders agree to a peace treaty that formally ends Lord Dunmore’s War (see entries for APRIL 30, 1774, and for OCTOBER 9, 1774). The Shawnee promise to remain north of the Ohio River, effectively ceding their hunting territory in Kentucky. Soon, however, tribal hunters will violate the treaty terms by returning to their old hunting grounds. The tribe will also break a provision guaranteeing their neutrality in the American Revolution when the Shawnee ally themselves to the British cause in
Mohawk leader Joseph Brant meets with King George III.
With the American colonists threatening to rebel, Joseph Brant, a Mohawk leader and secretary to Superintendent of Indian affairs Guy Johnson, travels to London, England. There he meets with King George III, who assures Brant that the British can win a war with the Americans. He also promises that if the Iroquois help them fight the rebels, the Indians will be allowed to stay in their homelands. Brant returns home convinced that the Iroquois should give the English their support.
Mohawk leader Joseph Brant, in a portrait commissioned by the earl of Warwick in 1776. His costume, a combination of Indian and English clothing, suggests his staunch support for the British. (Library of Congress, Neg. no. USZ62-20488)
“This dispute was solely occasioned by some people, who notwithstanding a law of the King and his wise Men, would not let some Tea land, but destroyed it, on which he was angry, and sent some Troops with the General, whom you have long known, to see the Laws executed and bring the people to their senses [sic], and as he is proceeding with great wisdom, to show them their great mistake, I expect it will soon be over.”
—British superintendent of Indian affairs Guy Johnson to the Iroquois on the cause of the American Revolution
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