EVEN THOUGH AMERICAN INDIANS ARE OFTEN referred to as a monolithic people, this is not the case. There are many sovereign Indian nations today, as there were during the time of the American Revolution, when Indian nations had treaties with England, Spain, France, and the newly formed United States. Today, tribal citizens can be citizens of their tribes, of their states, and of the United States simultaneously.
Before the Revolutionary War, land—and who owned it—created massive conflict. The Proclamation of 1763 said that lands beyond the Appalachian mountain range, considered the frontier, were out of bounds for colonial governments. The Crown, which asserted sovereignty over the lands, had “reserved” them for the indigenous tribes that lived there. This angered the colonists, especially those bent on settling and speculating that territory themselves.
Meanwhile, the colonists hoped to keep the war between themselves and England. The Second Continental Congress, in a speech to the Six Nations (a confederacy of Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora tribes) said in July 1775, “This is a family quarrel between us and Old England. You Indians are not concerned in it. We don’t wish you to take up the hatchet against the king’s troops. We desire you to remain at home, and not join on either side, but keep the hatchet buried deep.”
During the war, relationships among colonists, indigenous tribes, and England were complicated. Some Indian nations remained neutral, some took sides, and some—such as the Iroquois Confederacy—were divided.
The question before Indian nations then was how best they might protect their land and sovereignty in the face of conflict between the colonies and England. The nations that sided with the English did not do so because they were fighting for the Crown, but rather because they saw a British victory as their best chance to keep their land safe from American colonists and land speculators who viewed tribal lands as sources of potential profit.
In New England, tribes tended to support the colonists. Some volunteered to serve as minutemen, even before the war started. One of the first men killed in the conflict, Crispus Attucks, had both African and Wampanoag ancestry. Other Indians supported Washington’s army at the siege of Boston, and in New York, New Jersey, and Canada.
Mohawk Indians, who were members of the Iroquois Confederacy, remained aligned with the British, along with most Cayugas, Onondagas, and Senecas. But members of the Oneida and Tuscarora nations joined the American side, making the Revolution a devastating civil war for the Iroquois.
Cherokee Indians on the Appalachian frontier were incensed at colonial land grabs. The Creeks and Catawbas sided with the British for this reason as well.
In Ohio country, the Senecas and Shawnees intended to be neutral, as did the Delawares, who signed a treaty in 1778 that promised “perpetual peace and friendship.” But in 1782, after Americans massacred Indians in Gnadenhutten, Ohio, these Indians allied with the British and continued to resist American expansion long after the Revolution ended.
After the war, the 1783 Treaty of Paris made no provision to protect the land of the Indians who’d allied with England. As a result, land that England had claimed as territory—east of the Mississippi, south of the Great Lakes, and north of Florida—was ceded to the United States for future expansion. Tribes that had allied with the states, meanwhile, including the Mohicans and Oneidas, also lost land.
George Washington called on Alexander to intervene in violations of treaties by American states. These violations were a federal matter because the treaties were between the United States and sovereign Indian nations. In one case, when Alexander asked Washington for leave to care for his seriously ill toddler, Washington let him go but pleaded for advice on how to deal with Georgia citizens who were encroaching on Creek territory and trying to set up their own government there. Alexander told Washington to reassure the Creek leaders that the United States wouldn’t stand for such intrusions.
Alexander advocated for peaceful relations with Indian nations, and he lent support to the Hamilton-Oneida Academy, which was meant to educate Indian children, a progressive position for the time. But he also supported policies of Washington’s that eventually led to loss of land and forced migration for Indian tribes. And he served as Washington’s right-hand man during the war, when Washington’s devastating fighting techniques earned him the name “Town Destroyer” with members of the Six Nations.