Before the Declaration. Before the Constitution. Before the colonial charters. The nations documented in this series were here. Their council proceedings, diplomatic speeches, land treaties, correspondence with British and American officials, and oral histories recorded by contemporary observers survive in institutional archives. This series presents them.
First Nations Peoples Archive
1763–1784
Same sourcing rules apply
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The standard history of the American Revolution names the signers and the soldiers. It rarely names the nations whose world was transformed by both sides. The primary source record does not make that omission.
The nations covered in this series were active participants in the founding era, not background figures. They issued diplomatic speeches, negotiated treaties, sent intelligence reports, commanded military forces, and argued in council about strategy and sovereignty. Their documents survive at the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the Public Archives of Canada, the Wisconsin Historical Society, the University of North Carolina's Documenting the American South, and Yale's Avalon Project.
A note on framing: most Native nations that became active participants in the Revolutionary War ultimately aligned with Britain because British policy, particularly after the Royal Proclamation of 1763, was generally viewed as a more immediate restraint on colonial settlement than American revolutionary promises. However, alliances varied widely by nation, region, and even within individual communities, and neutrality was often attempted before it became impossible. This series does not impose a single interpretation. The documents present the range of decisions made and the reasoning behind them, as recorded in the sources that survive.
When the Revolution ended, nearly every Native nation, whether it had supported Britain, supported the Patriots, or tried to remain neutral, faced renewed pressure on its lands. The documents that follow show how each community responded to that new reality.
In 1775 the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee told American commissioners they regarded the conflict as a family quarrel between the English and their children, and wished to remain neutral. The record of that decision, and of its collapse, is in the Journals of the Continental Congress.
One of the most consequential and least read documents of the founding era. Britain drew a line along the Appalachian ridge and told colonists they could not settle west of it. The colonists called it tyranny. Native nations called it a promise. Both were right about different things.
Thayendanegea. Educated in Connecticut, baptized Anglican, secretary to the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, military commander, diplomat. He led four of the Six Nations on the British side and spent the rest of his life trying to secure what that alliance had promised. His letters and Washington's responses are at Founders Online.
While most of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy aligned with Britain, the Oneida and Tuscarora sided with the Americans. At the Battle of Oriskany in August 1777, Oneida warriors fought against their Mohawk brothers. The decision cost them nearly everything. The Continental Congress records document what was promised in return and what was delivered.
Konwatsi'tsiaienni. Mohawk clan mother, consort of the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and the most consequential intelligence figure of the northern theater. A British officer wrote that one word from her carried more weight with the Six Nations than a thousand from any white man. Her letter of October 5, 1779 to Daniel Claus is in the Public Archives of Canada.
Tsiyu Gansini. When Cherokee elders signed away 20 million acres at the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals in 1775, Dragging Canoe refused. He told the colonists they would find the settlement "dark and bloody." He was right. His speech warning of the coming destruction is in the Colonial and State Records of North Carolina.
On May 31, 1779, George Washington ordered General John Sullivan to destroy the settlements of the Haudenosaunee. His words were direct: the immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements. The order is at Founders Online. The journals of the soldiers who carried it out are at the Internet Archive. Both are presented here.
The Treaty of Paris of 1783 ended the Revolutionary War between Britain and the United States. Native nations were not represented at the table. Britain ceded territory it did not directly control. The Treaty of Fort Stanwix, signed one year later, was rejected by the Six Nations council as forced upon delegates without authority. Both treaty texts are at Yale Avalon.