Largely due to Hollywood films, when Americans think of
“Indian wars”, they think of what we now call the West, particularly the Great
Plains, or the “new” Southwest. Really,
though, the wars of the Europeans against the Native Americans/American Indians
east of the Mississippi lasted longer, involved greater numbers in combat, and
saw far more brutality.
The first wars of Europeans and American Indians occurred
during the century of Spanish occupation which preceded that of the rest of
that Continent.
Battle of Mabila,
1540
Though De Soto’s conquistadors fought many battles in their
three-year trek (1539-1542), the one fought at Mabila in central Alabama
against by the coalition under the paramount mico Tuskaloosa was by far the
worst of them all.
Napochi War, 1560
In 1560, Spaniards under Tristan de Luna left their
recently-founded home at Nanipanca, or Santa Cruz, on the Alabama River in
search of trade with the town of Coosa, at Coosawattee, Georgia, the dominant
chiefdom inland. Once there, they were
“invited” on a war expedition against the “Napochi”, living in what is now the
Chattanooga area.
After burning the town of Opelika at Audobon Acres, the
combined army moved on the village of Tasqui near the mouth of Citico Creek and
crossed the river, where they met a force from the large town of Tasquiqui at
the Hampton Place site on Moccasin Point.
After a parlay, the locals, ancestors of the Tuskegee, agreed to resume
tribute to Coosa.
Carolina Revolt of 1569
The tribes of the Spanish province of Carolina (named for
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor), which stretched from the seacoast of South
Carolina into East Tennessee, in La Florida rose up and destroyed all the
inland forts of the Spanish and massacred the garrisons, save for one lone
survivor. The then capital of La Florida on Parris Island, Santa Elena, was the
only settlement and fort untouched.
Escamacu War, 1576-1579
The Orista (Edisto) and the Escamacu (Ahoya) in Carolina and
the Guale on the seacoast between the
Savannah and Altamaha Rivers rose up to expel the Spanish, especially their
hated missions. It ended with Santa
Elena burned to the ground.
Guale Revolt of 1582-1583
The Guale again rising up against the Spanish, until the
peace treaty the next year.
Guale Revolt of
1584-1585
The treaty of 1583 didn’t last very long. By now you’re getting the idea that the Guale
did not like the Spanish very much.
There’s more.
Juanillo’s Revolt,
1597-1601
Another uprising by the Guale, after they became an
organized province of La Florida. It
began over denunciation of polygamy by a Spanish friar.
Guale Revolt of 1608
Five micos of the Guale rose up against the Spanish colonial
and Church mission systems. The
short-lived revolt led to the reintroduction of slavery.
First Powhatan War,
1610-1614
Essentially a war of conquest by the colony of Virginia against
the Powhatan Confederation, it ended with much of the confederacy’s territory
in English hands.
Calusa War, 1614
After the Calusa, who dominated all of South Florida, killed
five hundred of the Mocoso on Tampa Bay in retaliation for Spanish incursions,
the Spanish responded with a punitive expedition against them.
Second Powhatan War,
1622-1632
Begun when the Powhatan massacred a third of the colony in a
surprise attack. The war lasted for ten
years, with two tribes of the Confederation, the Accomac and the Patawomeck,
fighting on the English side.
Beaver Wars, 1628-1701
Largely a war over which nation would control European trade
in the North, the nations also fought over resources and to replenish their
depleted ranks. Begun by the attack of
the Mohawk of the League of the Iroquois upon the Mahican, the Beaver Wars
disrupted life of the nations and tribes in all of eastern North America and
some west of the Mississippi.
The fighting covered all of the north, plus West Virginia,
western Virginia and Maryland, and Kentucky in the Old Southwest. The Beaver Wars ended with the Great Peace of
Montreal in 1701, signed there because New France had been a party to the conflict
as allies of several of the nations and tribes involved, thirty-eight counting
the French and the Iroquois.
First Susquehannock
War, 1642-1652
The colony of Maryland declared war on the Susquehannock of
the Susquehanna Valley over trade issues.
With help from the colonies of New Netherlands and of New Sweden, the Susquehannock
emerged victorious.
Third Powhatan War,
1644-1646
This war essentially ended the confederation and made the
Pamunkey the leading tribe among the remaining groups.
Guale Revolt of 1645
More of a labor strike than an armed revolt, the Guale
Indian workers on Spanish missions and plantations walked off their jobs to
their towns in the backcountry in defiance of the friars and their own chiefs when
the colonial government ran out of money to pay them.
Apalachee Civil War,
1647
The Apalachee occupied South Georgia between the Altamaha
River on the east and the Flint River on the west. In 1647, traditionalist chiefs rose up
against Christianized chiefs and the intrusion of Spanish spiritual beliefs and
mores into their daily lives. As allies,
the rebels had a band of the Chisca, the name by which the Spanish knew the
Yuchi as far back as De Soto.
First Choctaw Civil War, 1647-1650
Long running disputes over trade with European colonials between the Okla Tannap (Eastern Division) and the Okla Hannalli (Six Towns or Southern Division), who traded with the French of Louisiane, via-a-vis the Okla Falaya (Western Division) who had recently begun to trade with the English of Virginia, broke into war after the charismatic Western Division leader, Red Bones, was assassinated. The Western Division had the support of the English, the Chickasaw, and the Chakchiuma; the Eastern Division had the support of the French; the Six Towns remained neutral. The Eastern Division was much larger, however, and in the end won. Over a thousand Choctaw died, either hundred of them warriors, and dozens of towns were destroyed.
First Choctaw Civil War, 1647-1650
Long running disputes over trade with European colonials between the Okla Tannap (Eastern Division) and the Okla Hannalli (Six Towns or Southern Division), who traded with the French of Louisiane, via-a-vis the Okla Falaya (Western Division) who had recently begun to trade with the English of Virginia, broke into war after the charismatic Western Division leader, Red Bones, was assassinated. The Western Division had the support of the English, the Chickasaw, and the Chakchiuma; the Eastern Division had the support of the French; the Six Towns remained neutral. The Eastern Division was much larger, however, and in the end won. Over a thousand Choctaw died, either hundred of them warriors, and dozens of towns were destroyed.
Erie-Iroquois War,
1651-1664
Though accounts of the war between the Erie and the Iroquois
give the beinning and ending dates as 1653 and 1656, in truth the war began in
the winter of 1651-1652 when the western Iroquois attacked, unsuccessfully, the
Atrakwaeronon, one of the Erie subtribes.
The next summer, with contingents from all Five Nations, the destruction
of the Atrakwaronon as a cohesive unit succeeded. In 1653, the Erie counterattacked, destroying
one of the two Seneca towns. Though the
Iroquois countered the next year, 1654, by destroying the capital town of
Arrigha, or Rigue, causing the diaspora of the Riqueronon subtribe, by 1655 the
Five Nations were begging the French for military assistance. Many historians count the capture of the town
of Genaienton in 1656, but the Jesuit Relations, the informants of which were
the Iroquois themselves, make clear the war lasted until at least 1664. Even then, the final group of the Erie
remaining in the north did not surrender until 1682.
Descendants of the former Erie assimilated or enslaved by
the Iroquois became the core of the mixed group of Iroquoians known as the
Mingo or Blue Mingo in the eighteenth century.
Other Erie, particularly the Riqueronon subtribe (whose name was often
synonymous with the whole confederacy), went south to the “country of the
Muscogui”, as John Norton put it, with a stopover in Virginia.
First Battle of
Bloody Run, 1656
Shortly after the destruction of Arrigha by the Iroquois, a
large body of northern Indians that colonial records refer to as the
“Richahecrians” invaded Virginia and took up residence on the upper James
River. Two years later, Virginia sent a
force of colonial rangers accompanied by a hundred Pamunkey to dislodge
them. The resulting battle was a
disaster for the Virginian forces. Later
in 1670, the Richahecrians were found in the Blue Ridge mountains in the west
of Carolina by a Virginia emissary who referred to them as the Rickohockans.
Timucua Rebellion,
1656
The Timucua were a native people that at the time of Spanish
first contact made up between ten and twelve nations that occupied all of North
Florida. Like the Guale before them, they
revolted against the forced labor system in 1656.
Second Susquehannock
War, 1655-1657
Fought between the province of Maryland and the Susquehannock,
now at the head of Chesapeake Bay and without their Dutch and Swedish allies.
Iroquois-Shawnee War,
1662-1672
Having eradicated or chased off many of their previous
targets, the Iroquois turned their attention on the Shawnee of the Ohio
Valley. Finally tired of the attacks, the Shawnee divided into several
bands, and dispersed. The Chillicothe and Kispoko migrated to the
Cumberland River; the Hathawekela moved to the Savannah River upstream from the
Westo; the Mekoche sought asylum near the Mascouten; the Piqua gained refuge
among the Lenape, who were already subjects of the Iroquois.
Coosaw War, 1671
This was fought against the new colonists led by the inland
Coosaw tribe of Cusabo.
First Westo War, 1673-1674
First Westo War, 1673-1674
The Westo began attacking Carolina in 1673. The
hard-pressed English imported the Esaw for support. The war ends in December 1674 with an
alliance between the two major parties and a trade monopoly with Carolina for
the Westo.
Stono War, 1674
Another war fought with the Carolina colonists, this time
led by the Stono tribe of Cusabo.
Chowanoke War, 1675
The Chowanoke launch attacks against Carolina, and the
colonists only end the fighting after losing many people.
Third Susquehannock
War, 1676-1677
Instigated by the Doeg (the Nanticoke under another name),
this war involved the colony of Maryland, and helped spark Bacon’s
Rebellion. At the end, the surviving Susquehannock
took refuge with their erstwhile rivals, the Iroquois.
Bacon’s Rebellion,
1676
Both a rebellion against the colonial government at
Jamestown and a war of eradication and/or expulsion against local Indians, its
leader was Nathaniel Bacon. Afterwards,
the Occaneechi joined the Saponi, the Nanticoke became part of the Nanzatico,
and the Pamunkey gained the Rappahannock and the Chickahominy as tributaries in
compensation for Bacon’s unprovoked attack upon them.
Guale War, 1675-1680
In 1675, the English colony of Carolina (named for Charles I
of England) began a campaign to eradicate the Spanish missions on the Atlantic
coast of what is now Georgia. The Guale
were north of the Altamaha, the Mocama south of it; both were targets. Carolina primarily used proxies, the Westo on
the Savannah River and some of the Lower Creek.
The remnants formed the core of the Yamasee.
Second Westo War, 1680-1682
English Carolina and the Hathawekela band of Shawnee (on the
Savannah River since 1674) joined forces to eradicate the Westo. After the destruction of their town, the
Westo moved to the Chattahoochee and the Shawnee took their place as trading
partners.
Winyah War, 1682
Carolina and the Shawnee attacked the Winyah, primarily for
slaves.
Iroquois-Catawba War,
1680-1759
After defeating the Susquehannock and absorbing them into
the League, the Iroquois turned their attentions south for warring, scalping,
and slave-raiding. Though for the most
part marauding indiscriminately, their favorite targets were the Catawba. The Catawba fought back, even raiding the
north. George Washington noted that
large war parties going one way or another were a common sight. The final peace came after the Treaty of
Albany in 1759.
First Cherokee-Creek
War, 1690-1710
As the ranks of the Cherokee swelled from assimilation of
new refugees from the north and local remnant populations and they began to
spread out, the Creek towns, not yet a confederacy but in league, felt the
threat and attacked. The war lasted
until around 1710.
Catawba-Shawnee War, 1690-1707
Back by Carolina, the Catawba begin attacking
the Hathawekela Shawnee on the Savannah, often in conjunction with
the Yamasee. After the climactic battle in 1707, the Hathawekela
disperse to the Creeks, the Lenape, and most to their Chillicothe and
Kispoko cousins on the Cumberland.
Cherokee-Lenape War,
1698-1708
With the upper Ohio County, including at that time the
Allegheny Valley, deserted, some Cherokee, apparently a fairly substantial
group, returned to the north. The main
town was known as Allegheny, and stood at the confluence of the Kiskiminetas
and Allegheny Rivers, what is now Schenley, Pennsylvania. The Lenape began attempting to drive them out
in about 1698, probably encouraged to do so by an invitation of the Iroquois to
settle in western Pennsylvania. In 1708,
Allegheny is destroyed (later rebuilt with other occupants), and the survivors
returning south, and the Lenape settle the region.
Cherokee-Iroquois
War, 1701-1768
After the Beaver Wars ended, the Iroquois turned their
martial and slave-raiding attention south, and one of their chief targets were
the former Erie reimagined as the Cherokee.
The wars ended with the Treaty of Johnson Hall in 1768, mediated by
Superintendent of Northern Indians William Johnson.
First Apalachee War,
1702-1704
English Carolina turned its attention to the west of the
coast and began attacking the Apalachee and their Spanish missions. In addition to their own militia, they used
Yamasee and Lower Creek warriors.
Timucua War, 1706
Using the same allies, English Carolina penetrated into
northern Florida to eradicate the missions among the Timucua and decimate the
dwindling tribe. Within a short time,
the survivors fled to the seat and fort at San Agustin.
Second Apalachee War,
1708
Another invasion of Apalachee territory by Carolina and the
Yamasee.
Mobile War, 1708
In support of the Alabama, the Cherokee, Abihka, and Catawba
invaded the Mobile Bay area with them, intending to drive the French at La
Mobilia and Fort St. Louis there, then capital of La Louisiane, into the
sea. For some reason, their four
thousand warrior strong force instead settled for torching the nearby town of
the Mobile tribe.
Cumberland Valley War,
1710-1715
In 1710, the Chickasaw in the west and the Cherokee in the
east launched a war of expulsion against the Chillicothe and the Kispoko bands of the Shawnee on the Cumberland
River. The impetus came when part of the
Hathawekela band moved from the Savannah to the Cumberland to join their
cousins beginning in 1707.
Tuscarora War, 1711-1715
The southern band of Tuscarora joined with several Algonquin
tribes to attack the settlements of North Carolina over territorial
encroachment and slave raids. They and
their allies faced the militias of North Carolina and South Carolina, the
northern Tuscarora, the Apalachee, the Yamasee, the Catawba, the Cherokee, and
many others. After the war, the southern
Tuscarora migrated north to become the sixth nation of the Haudenosaunee, where
some of their cousins from the northern band later followed.
First Yamasee War, 1715-1717
The Yamasee opened the war with a massacre on the
frontier. Several other Indian nations
joined in, including Cherokee, Catawba (often in conjunction with the former),
Lower Creek, Apalachee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Yuchi, Shawnee, and others. Against them were the colonial militias of
South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia.
The Tugaloo Massacre of a number of Creek leaders brought the Cherokee
over to the side of the colonists.
There was no decisive victory by either side, but the
Yamasee were greatly reduced as were the Apalachee, both moving south, and the
Lower Creek returning from the Ocmulgee River and Ochese Creeks to the
Chattahoochee River.
First Natchez War,
1716
Uprising by the Natchez in Mississippi, the last remain
vestige of the Mississippian culture which once dominated all the Southeast and
much west of the Mississippi, against the French colonists of Louisiana.
Cheraw War, 1716-1718
In the midst of the Yamasee War, the province of North
Carolina declared war on the Cheraw living on its borders with Virginia, which
refused to do likewise. After the close
of the war, they joined the Catawba to escape attacks by the Seneca.
Second Cherokee-Creek
War, 1716-1755
Begun over the Tugaloo Massacre, hostilities between the two
nations lasted until 1755, ending at the Battle of Taliwa in North Georgia.
Chickasaw-Choctaw
War, 1721-1760
Provoked by the French colonial authorities at Fort
Toulouse, sending their Choctaw allies against the British-allied Chickasaw.
Second Natchez War,
1722-1724
Low intensity warfare between the Natchez and the French
colonists, particularly the settlers.
Second Yamasee War,
1727
Carolina attacked the Yamasee refuge near San Agustin,
burned the town, slaughtered most, carried some away as slaves. The survivors later joined the Seminole.
Third Natchez War,
1729-1731
The final uprising of the Natchez began with the capture of
Fort Rosalie and massacre of its garrison.
With Choctaw and Tunica allies, the French destroyed the Natchez as a
people, deporting captives to the Caribbean as slaves, most of whom had been
pro-French, while the rest fled to the Chickasaw. The Chickasaw also fought the French, raiding
well into Upper Louisiane, joined by the Cherokee in 1730.
Chickasaw War of 1736
The French with their Choctaw, Illini, and Quapaw allies launched
attacks on the Chickasaw at two different points. They lost badly. Their goal had been to destroy the Natchez
who had taken refuge with the Chickasaw.
Chickasaw War of 1739-1740
The French ascended the Mississippi, established a fortified
camp at Chickasaw Bluffs (Memphis), but never got around to attacking the towns
just to the east, returning south without firing a shot.
King George’s War, 1744-1748
Though fought mostly in the north between the Great Britain,
the northern British colonies, and New France, the war included participation
of British allies the Chickasaw and the Cherokee, who focused their efforts on
Detroit and the native allies of the French in Upper Louisiane.
Second Choctaw Civil War,
1746-1750
During these years, the Choctaw fought a bloody civil war
among themselves between the pro-French Eastern and Six Towns divisions and the
pro-British Western division. It ended
with the Choctaw remaining allied to the French.
Chickasaw War of 1752
Another would-be campaign by the French against the
Chickasaw that came to naught.
French and Indian
War, 1754-1763
Fought mostly in the north, the war in the Southeast
primarily involved Shawnee attacks on the Virginia frontier until they switched
sides in 1758 and the Anglo-Cherokee War and Anglo-Creek War.
Cherokee-North
Carolina War, 1755-1756
Disagreements over trade and encroachment of settlers from
the colony into Cherokee territory led to a period of hostilities that ended when
the Crown called the Cherokee to join the effort against the French and their
Indian allies.
Chickasaw-Shawnee War
of 1756
The Chickasaw expelled the Piqua band of Shawnee who had
been invited by the Cherokee to settle on the Cumberland a decade before.
South Florida War,
1757
The Lower Muskogee invaded South Florida out to the Keys,
killing and enslaving most of the surviving natives. Those few who escaped were relocated to the
Caribbean by the Spanish, and those Lower Muskogee who stayed became the
nucleus of the Seminole.
Chickasaw-Cherokee
War, 1758-1769
Begun because of an attack by the Cherokee upon the Lower
Chickasaw on the Savannah River (where they lived from 1730 to 1775), the
tensions had built since the settlement of the Piqua band of Shawnee on the
Cumberland. The final battle at
Chickasaw Old Fields in Alabama was a bad loss for the Cherokee.
Anglo-Cherokee War,
1759-1761
Though it started over dissatisfaction over their treatment
by the British army while on the campaign to take Fort Dusquene (Fort Pitt),
the Cherokee had a pro-French faction based in Great Tellico, supported by a
forward post at Long-Island-on-the-Tennessee between the Coushatta at the head
and the Kaskinampo at the foot. Small
raids on the Virginian frontier began in 1758, but the war did not fully break
out until the next year.
The Cherokee involved primarily came from the Lower Towns on
the headwaters of the Savannah and Coosa and the Overhill Towns on the Little
Tennessee River against the provinces of South Carolina, North Carolina, and
Virginia. It ended with the Treaty of
Long-Island-on-the-Holston with Virginia and the Treaty of Keowee with the two
Carolinas.
Anglo-Creek War,
1759-1763
Sparked by the smallpox deaths of a number of micos at Fort
Prince George near Keowee, the pro-French faction within the Creek Confederacy
declared war against the provinces South Carolina and Georgia. The faction, led by Great Mortar, had already
returned to the former home of the Coosa at Coosawattee, in support of the
pro-French Cherokee. They were opposed,
though not with arms, within the Confederacy by a pro-British faction led by
Emistisigua. It ended with the Treaty of
Augusta (1763) with Georgia and the cession of coastal land.
Creek-Choctaw War,
1765-1775
This war between the Creek and Choctaw escalated in 1768
when the Chickasaw joined the side of the Choctaw. John Stuart, Indian Commisioner for the
South, almost brought about peace in 1770, only to be undone by four Lower
Creek murdering a number of Choctaw. The
British Indian Department managed to secure peace between belligerents in the
face of the brewing American Revolution.
End of an era,
beginning of a transition
In the Treaty of Paris (1763) at the end of the French and
Indian War, Great Britain gained all of New France east of the Mississippi went
to Britain (east Louisiana, Canada, and Bermuda), plus Florida in exchange for Louisiana
west of the Mississippi and the return of Cuba and the Philippines to the
Kingdom of Spain. The disposition of its
new territory, especially in the case of the former east Louisiana, contributed
much of the rancor and dissatisfaction that led to the rebellion of thirteen of
Britain’s sixteen North American colonies as well as to the same sentiments of
the Indian tribes and nations there toward those same colonies.
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