Native Nations and the Revolution

For most Native nations, the American Revolution was a threat rather than a liberation. Britain's Proclamation of 1763 had tried to limit colonial settlement west of the Appalachians, so independence promised to remove a barrier to land-hungry settlers. Many nations, including most of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, sided with Britain, while the Oneida and Tuscarora largely supported the Patriots, splitting a confederacy that had lasted for centuries.

In 1779 the Sullivan Expedition destroyed dozens of Haudenosaunee towns and crops. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 transferred lands to the Mississippi to the United States without consulting Native nations. Mohawk leader Joseph Brant led many followers to Canada. Comparing outcomes shows that revolutions could expand liberty for one group while accelerating dispossession for another, a pattern also visible in Latin America.