THE SIX NATIONS & THE REVOLUTION
Inhabiting the Great Lake region for thousands of years prior to European arrival, the history of the League of Six Nations and its individual groups is incredibly complex. As explained by historian Maeve Kane, the larger confederacy “expanded and diffused as political and military conditions required,” reflecting different group involvement throughout the course of its administration (Kane 84). For the purpose of our analysis, we will be examining the confederacy during and immediately after the American Revolution, in which it was constituted by the Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscarora. While these individual nations, Kane further describes that they “differed politically, socially, religiously, and economically, they shared matrilineal accountings of descent and clan organization and maize agriculture” and were connected by “common cultural and political goals” (Kane 90).
the 18th C. to Today Source: Haudenosaunee Guide
The Revolutionary War
Throughout the course of the Revolutionary War, Patriots and Loyalist forces relied heavily upon the League of Six Nations, in which their inclusion in this external conflict would fracture their confederation. Unlike their British counterparts, colonial agents first advocated to the League of Six Nations to remain neutral in the war (Stone XV). While the Haudenosaunee would declare their neutrality in response to this in 1775, historian Colin Calloway explains that external conflict between the British and Americans would soon result in “dissension and disruption… [generating] division and confusion, not untied tribal action” (Calloway 26).
Such divisions and alliances would differ between nations, spurring hostility within the confederation and ending their peaceful confederation as allies during and after the American Revolution.
The League of Six Nations
Click each image below to learn more about the individual nation’s that made up the confederacy and how they experienced the American Revolution.
Then continue on below to see the impact of the revolutionary war on the six nations.
Treaty Between the United States and the Six Nations Signed at Konondaigua, New York, with the Instrument of Ratification Signed by President George Washington and Secretary of State Edmund Randolph on January 21, 1795. Source: National Archives
Aftermath of the Revolution on the Six Nations
The League was left out any negotiations for the Treaty of Paris in 1783 and was forced to sign separate agreements with the United States (“The Six Nations Confederacy during the American Revolution”). The tribes that worked with the English during the war were admonished and gave up swathes of their traditional land (“The Six Nations Confederacy during the American Revolution”). This greatly when combined with the territory that was destroyed during the war led to severe loss of culture and traditional spaces. Despite clear boundaries being established over time these territorial rights were eroded with the Westward expansion following the war.
This Westward expansion would eventually help contribute to the Ohio Indian War which would not end until 1794 (“The Six Nations Confederacy during the American Revolution”). Due to the Revolutionary War and the following treaties a notable population of the League of Six Nations fled to Canada where some of them reside today (Parrott). Overall, the aftermath of the Revolutionary War fractured the League of Six Nations and led to the loss of vast amounts of traditional land or in the case of some migration to Canada.
