Council with Native Americans Letter

On Jan. 28, 1777, Colonel John Bull of Pennsylvania wrote to General Thomas Wharton about preparations for a council with the Mohawk, the Cayuga, the Seneca, and the Muncie, Quinault, and Nanticoke people in the upper Susquehanna River Valley. Fighting to preserve their independence and land, both the British and the revolutionary governments pressured each American Indian nation to choose a side in the war. About 200 men, women, and children met in Easton, Pennsylvania, with representatives of the Continental Congress, like John Bull. They spent days professing neutrality in the conflict between Great Britain and the United States, and the American Indian leaders requested that illegal squatters be removed from their land. Anger over such encroachments, which Pennsylvania authorities ignored, led many Native Americans to side with the British in the Revolutionary War. Although the Oneida decided to support the Continental Congress, the council increased distrust between American Indian settlements and colonial settlers leading to continued fighting during the Revolutionary War.

Letter Details

• Letter
  John Bull
  Pennsylvania
  January 28, 1777
  Paper, Ink
  Museum of the American Revolution, 2003.01.113