Native Americans & the American Revolution

The Revolutionary War profoundly affected the approximately 250,000 Native Americans in British North America, just as it did the colonists. The stakes were high for the more than 80 tribes east of the Mississippi River, and most initially remained neutral. 

Whether they sided with the Rebels, Redcoats, neither, or both, most did so for the same purpose—to preserve their lands and sovereignty. Regardless of how they chose to act, Native Americans saw many losses during the American Revolution, which had long-lasting effects on tribal lands, culture, and identity.

The Stockbridge Indians were a mixed community of Mohican, Housatonic, and Wappinger people who had sought refuge in the “praying town” of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. They made common cause with the Americans and fought alongside the colonists–as minutemen and Continental soldiers–in the hope it would protect their lands and sovereignty. In 1778, a company of Stockbridge Indians was ambushed by British forces near Kingsbridge, NY. Their position is marked with a “D” on this map. The skirmish, which killed as many as 40 Indian soldiers, devastated the Stockbridge community.

The Stockbridge Indian community struggled to survive after losing 40 men in the Revolutionary War. Like all soldiers’ widows, Stockbridge women endured tremendous hardship without their spouse’s support. Stockbridge veterans and widows were also denied bounty lands promised to other Continental soldiers. Finding themselves increasingly marginalized by colonists in their town, they turned to the Continental Congress for help. Believing their “Active part in the War…deserved better treatment” this memorial unsuccessfully petitioned for assistance protecting their land.
 

The American Revolution caused a schism among the Cherokee along generational lines. Young Cherokee warriors saw the Revolutionary War as their best opportunity to preserve tribal sovereignty and win back lost land. They allied with the British and attacked unlawful American settlements, which triggered retaliatory colonial violence. 

With decades of experience navigating rival colonial powers and their wars, older chiefs like Okana-Stoté sought peace. In 1761, he was commissioned as a captain in service of the French during the Seven Years War and saw the profound consequences that war had for the Cherokee. Seeking to avoid a similar fate for his people, Okana-Stoté attempted to engage in diplomacy throughout the Revolution to little avail.