Timeline of the Beaver Wars

The “Beavers Wars” is a term loosely meaning the wars among indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes region in the seventeenth century, referring to the rivalry among the tribes and nations there over European trade, which was largely based upon traffic in beaver furs.  A corresponding trade developed in the Old Southwest with deer skins. 

While nearly all agree that the end came with the treaty of 1701, different historians date the beginning of the conflicts to varying points in the century, some even tracing the conflicts back to the sixteenth or even fifteenth century. 

The most common date given for the beginning of the Beaver Wars proper is 1638, when the western Iroquois (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga) destroyed the Wenro as an independent entity.  I, however, view this as the beginning of a war of assimilation of Iroquoian-speaking peoples by the Five Nations League of the Iroquois intent on making them all one people of one central fire, a missionary crusade reminiscent of the unification of the Arabian peninsula by Mohammad in the seventh century.  The actual beginning of that conflict within a conflict dates to three years earlier, when the Seneca dispersed the confederacy variously known as the Massawomeck, the Cohnowaronon, and the Attiouandaron (not the same as the “Neutrals”) from its home in the Kanawha and Guyandotte Valleys of western Virginia.

The overall series of conflicts involved warfare of confederacies, tribes, and nations in the Great Lakes area with others in those regions beyond which affected the eventsw in the core area both directly and indirectly.

This timeline extends outside those boundsof time to include events from the fifteenth century through the nineteenth, when the Great Removals occurred, and beyond those bounds of space to include events in the Midwest and Upper Mississippi Valley and in New England.

1400s – Intertribal warfare and harsher living conditions of the weather with the onset of the Little Ice Age.  The first two tribes of the Huron Confederacy, the Attignawantan and the Attigneenongnahac, join together roughly around mid-century.

Further west, the Ojibwe, Ottawa, and Potawatomi encroach the the territory of the Winnebago-Iowa-Missouri-Oto of the Green Bay region.

1500 – The Potawatomi move into the northern Michigan Peninsula, pushing out the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Sutai, and Menominee.  The Menominee move south to become subjects of the Winnebago confederation, the Cheyenne and Arapaho continue west to the Great Plains.

1534-1542 – In three voyages during these years led by Jacques Cartier, the French discover several Iroquoian towns along the St. Louis River: Araste, Hagonchenda, Hochelaga, Hochelay, Satadin, Stadacona, Starnatan, Tailla, Teguenondahi, and Tutonaguy.  Affairs among the native people are dominated by the rivalry of Stadacona, at the later site of Quebec, and Hochelaga, at the later site of Montreal.

1560 – The Arendahronon join the Huron Confederacy.

1570 – The Tahontaenrat join the Huron Confederacy.

Warfare breaks out among the tribes of the Great Lakes region.

In the west, the people who become the Iowa, Missouri, and Oto leave Green Bay and cross the Mississippi to settle in what’s now the state of Iowa before separating into their different tribes and spreading out.

1580 – Basque fishermen, penetrating inland on a rare departure from their practice of staying in their fishing grounds around Newfoundland, report the St. Lawrence River deserted of people.

Late 16th century – A tribe or a band of a tribe whose autonym may be Wendat settle the Great Kanawha Valley, but are driven out by the Iroquois early in the following century.  These are the group that the Virginia Algonquians call the Massawomeck, the Iroquois call the Conowharonon, and certain French maps of 1641-1692 refer to as the Attiouandaron.

1608 - The French under Champlain establish Quebec on the site of the former Stadacona as the seat of New France.  Champlain finds the towns cited by Cartier completely deserted, and makes a trade alliance with a confederacy of tribes who call themselves the Wendat, whom the French later call Huron, though at first they refer to them as the Ochasteguin.

1609 – French troops join their Huron, Algonkin, Innu, and Maliseet allies to attack the Iroquois.

1610 – France’s alliance with the Huron and the Algonkin forces the Mohawk to abandon the St. Lawrence Valley.

1613 – Champlain begins to refer to the Huron as the Charioquois, also spelled Charioquet and Chariocay on maps, which he continues to do until 1632.

1614 – The French at Quebec and the Huron confederacy sign a formal treaty as trade partners.

The Dutch establish Fort Nassau (later Albany, New York) which forms relations with the Mahican as their primary allies and trading partners.

1615 – Etienne Brule accompanies a party of Huron on a mission to the Carantouannais (Scahentoarrhonon), to get them to send 500 warriors for an attack on an Iroquois town.

There is a war between the Iroquois and the Susquehannock this year.

1618 – Treaty of Tawasgunshee between the Iroquois and the Dutch.

1621 – With Dutch firearms, the Iroquois attack Canada and invest Quebec.

1622 – War between the Pequot and the Narragansett.

1623 – War between the Narragansett and the Mohawk.

1624 – The Mohawk begin a war with the Mahican over trade with the Dutch at Fort Orange.

1625 – The Dutch establish New Amsterdam near the foot of Manhattan Island, which  becomes the capital of New Netherlands.  As their primary allies and trade partners, its officials make agreements with the Lenape.

1626 – Recollect brother Gabriel Sagard-Theodat and Franciscan priest Joseph de la Roche d’Allyon attempt to plant a mission among the Chonnonton, but are thwarted largely because of the machinations of the Huron, who fear the Chonnonton may become their trade rivals.

1627 – The Dutch sign an agreement with the growing colony of New Plymouth giving them a monopoly over the fur trade on the New England coast.

1628 - The Mohawk force the Mahican east of the Hudson River and replace them as primary allies and trading partners of the Dutch at Fort Orange (which replaced Fort Nassau).

1629-1632 – Occupation of Quebec and New France by the British allows the Iroquois through their trade with the Dutch to gain an arms advantage.

1629 – The Mohawk attack the Algonkin-Innu trading village at Sillery, beginning the Beaver Wars proper.

1630 – The Petun, allied with the Chonnonton (Neutrals) and the Ottawa, invade the Michigan peninsula seeking sources of beaver, bringing them into conflict with the Asistagueronon.

The Susquehannock force most of the Lenape east of the Delaware River.

Boston is founded by English Puritans, and becomes the main trading center of the English with the tribes of New England.

1631 – The Susquehannock become primary trading partners of Virginia with the north (the Siouan-speaking Occaneechi have the same monopoly for the south).  Their inland supply partners are the Erie and the Shawnee.

1632 – While trading among the Massawomeck, Edward Fleet of Virginia encounters a group of “Hereckeenes” (Erie), who have with them two of the axes brought to Quebec by David Kirke when Canada was briefly in possession of the English, 1629-1632.

1634-1640 – Several epidemics sweep across the Great Lakes region, killing half the population, leaving only it just one third the size it was in 1615.

1634-1638 – The Pequot War in New England, in which the Pequot and the Niantic face the colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Saybrook, and New Plymouth and their Narragansett and Mohegan allies, ends with the Pequot all but dissolved and replaced as trading partners of the New Englanders by the Narragansett.  The Western Niantic are reduced to 100, who join the Mohegan and Pequot.

1634 – The newly established Trois Rivieres becomes the main trade center for New France.

After defeating the Lenape in war, the Susquehannock take over trade with New Amsterdam.

The French negotiate a truce between the Ottawa and the Winnebago allowing the former access to the region beyond to hunt beaver.

In the western Great Lakes region, a virulent smallpox epidemic devastates all the local tribes, especially those most in contact with the French.

The Huron suffer a defeat at the hands of the Iroquois serious enough to be noted in the Jesuit Relation for that year.

Jean Nicollet negotiates a peace and trade agreement between the Winnebago and their Huron and Ottawa would-be antagonists.

Winter 1634-1635 – A small pox epidemic devastates the Mohawk.

1635 – Last mention of the Iroquoian people called Massawomeck, probably the same as the ‘Attiouaronon’ of maps from the period, in Virginia records.

The Chonnonton, allies of the Ottawa, start a war with the Asistagueronon (a name for the Sauk, the Fox,  the Mascouten, and the Potamotami collectively) that lasts until they are dispersed by the Iroquois.

After troubles with the Kickapoo, the Erie are forced to move east, at the same time the Wenro move northwest due to trouble with the Seneca.

War between the Narragansett and the Pequot.

1636 – Attacks by the Mohawk and Oneida drive the Algonkin farther north.

1637 – Attacks by the Mohawk and Oneida drive the Innu toward Quebec.

1638 – With the building of Fort Christina, the Swedes establish New Sweden, and set up trade with the Susquehannock as their primary, and the Lenape as their secondary, trading partners.

The Iroquois attack the Wenro and disperse most of them from their homeland east of the Niagara River.  Some take refuge with the Chonnonton (where they inhabit their own town of Khioetoa), most with the Huron, but a small hardcore contingent fights until 1643, after which they join their cousins among the Chonnonton.

Winter 1639-1640 – A smallpox epidemic sweeps across Huron country.

1640 – The western Iroquois destroy Ehwae town of the Petun.

The Huron win a major victory against the Iroquois.

The Ottawa and the Ojibwe drive the Assegun across the Mackinac Strait after being attacked for their territorial encroachment.

The Chonnonton attack the Asistagueronon, taking 100 prisoners.

Winter 1640-1641 – A smallpox epidemic sweeps through the Chonnonton, the Petun, and the Wenro, the latter of whom were mostly unaffected the previous winter, and probably the Erie.

1641 – The Huron win another major victory against the Iroquois.

The Chonnonton and Ottawa attack the Asistagueronon, taking 170 prisoners.

1642-1644 – War between the Susquehannock and the colony of Maryland.

1642 – The French build a new trading post at Montreal.

By the spring, the Mohawk and Oneida have driven the Algonkin and Innu completely out of the Upper St. Lawrence and lower Ontario valleys.  The Algonquian-speaking Atonontrataronon take refuge with the Huron.

War erupts between French allies the Innu and the Sokoki (western Abenaki) over the fur trade with New France.

The western Iroquois begin raiding Huron villages.

The Mahican start joining Mohawk war parties.

The Winnebago drive off a group of Potawotatmi refugees from the east who settled near Green Bay the previous year.  Later they attack the Fox who have settled on Lake Winnebago.

After a ten-day siege, 2000 Chonnonton and Ottawa take and sack one of the main towns of the Asistagueronon.  They take away 800 women and children for slavery or torture and 70 surviving warriors to be burned, and blind the old men and girdle their mouths, leaving them to wander and die of starvation.

1643-1645 – The Wappinger, or Governor Krieft’s, War, involving the Wappinger, Mohegan, Unami Lenape, and seventeen other tribes on one side against the Dutch, the Narragansett, the Mahican, and other tribes allied with the New England Confederation (Massachusetts Bay, New Plymouth, Hartford, New Haven).  It ends with the Narragansett broken as the major power in the region, the position then going to the Mohegan.

1643 – The Dutch attack the Wappinger refugees on Manhattan Island, igniting a war with the Wappinger, Munsee, and Unami bands of the Lenape, and the Metoac.  The Dutch make an alliance with the Mohawk and the Mahican.

1644 – The Christians of the Weskarini Algonkin take refuge with the Huron confederacy, which joins them together with the Atonontrataronon and the Wenro as the Ataronchronon, making five tribes or nations of Huron to the five nations of Iroquois.

1645 – The French are forced to sign a treaty with the Mohawk, leaving out their native allies.  The Nipissing, Innu, and Algonkin for an alliance, but it has little effect.

Treaty ending the war between the Dutch, Mohawk, and Mohican versus the Lenape bands and the Metoac.

1646 – The Tsouharissen of the Chonnonton dies without a successor, and the tight-knit confederacy begins to unravel.

After a destructive war with the Illinois, combined with epidemics ravaging the single fortified town into which they had withdrawn, the Winnebago are reduced to a population of 4500 from the previous level of 12,000.

1647 – The Micmac, Innu, and Nipissing form an alliance against the Mohawk.

The Huron and Susquehannock form an alliance against the Iroquois.

The western Iroquois destroy the Huron town of Atahontaenrat and cause the Arendaronon Huron to abandon their villages, some seeking refuge among their fellow Huron, others being assimilated by the Iroquois.

The Seneca destroy the Chonnonton town of Aondirronon.

1648 – A traditionalist faction among the Huron attack the Jesuit missions among them, but their revolt collapses in the face of stiff resistance from their Christian compatriots.

The Iroqouis destroy the town of Teananstayae and its Jesuit mission of St. Joseph, dispersing the Attigneenongnahac, who take refuge in Ile d’Orleans, and destroying two of villages of the Attignawantan Huron, who take refuge with the Petun and the Chonnonton.

The alliance between the Erie and the Chonnonton collapses.

1649 – After the Iroquois destroy the mission towns St. Ignace and St. Louis, the Huron burn their remaining fifteen and leave their area, the remaining tribes going their separate ways, the Atahontaenrat to the Chonnonton, and the Ataronchronon to sanctuary at Christian Island in Georgian Bay, moving the next year to Lorette (now Wendake) north of Quebec.

The Iroquois destroy the Petun’s chief town, Eharita; some Petun flee south to the Chonnonton, while the rest, including the refugee Huron and Wenro among them, concentrate in their two most northern towns.

Mid-to-late 1600s – War with the Anishnaabe and the Cree forces the Lakota west of the Mississippi River, but they remain east of the Missouri River due to the Arikara, the Mandan, and the Hidatsa west of it.

1650 – The Petun, Huron, and Wenro in the two northern towns follow their Ottawa allies west to Mackinac Island.  The Huron contingent includes most of the Attignawantan.

The western Iroquois tribes (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga) begin a war with the Chonnonton while the Mohawk and the Oneida start attacking the Nipissing and the Algonkin.

In response, the Susquehannock join the war against the Iroquois, and find themselves fighting the Mohawk and the Mahican.

Edward Bland of the Province of Virginia encounters the Tuscarora, Nottway, and Meherrin in a journey to learn the interior.

In the fall, the Iroquois destroy the Chonnonton town of Teotondiaton, but lose two hundred of their warriors in the process.

1651 – In the spring, the Seneca, with support from the Mohawk, destroy the Chonnonton town of Kandoucho, and possibly the capital of Andachkhroh, and the confederacy collapses.  Many flee to sanctuary with the Erie, including many of the refugee Huron, some are taken captive or give themselves up to be assimilated, but enough remain free to cause the Seneca serious trouble the next year.  The Antouaronon survivors remain together as a group on the south shores of Lake Erie, just west of the Oniasontke of the Erie confederacy.

Of the former Huron who remain in Chonnonton territory, the Seneca adopt the Atahontaenrat, who willingly surrender and are allowed their own town among the Seneca, Gandougarae, which later includes Chonnonton and Erie surrenderees as well.  The Arendahronon and the portion of Attignawantan among the Chonnonton remove to the Ile d’Orleans.

The eastern Iroquois nearly wipe out the Attikamigues (a band of Cree) at Three Rivers.

The western Iroquois begin go to war against the Atrakwaeronon (a subtribe of the Erie confederacy) in the winter of 1651-1652, this effort ending in a large defeat for the attackers.

1652 – The surviving free Chonnonton ally themselves with the Susquehannock, and they inflict a defeat against the Seneca sizable enough that the latter send their women, children, and elders into refuge with the Cayuga.

In the summer, the western Iroquois again campaign against Atra’kwae, which they destroy this time, claiming to have returned home with a thousand prisoners.

Meanwhile, the eastern Iroquois destroy the Scahentoarrhonon as a tribe.

Winter 1652-1653 – A band of “Petun” (i.e., the Wyandot)  winter at Teaontofai and a band of Chonnonton at Skenchioe; their total number is around eight hundred.

1653 – The Erie confederacy (whom the French also knew as the Nation du Chat) begins a war with the League of the Iroquois with an attack on the Seneca.

The Nipissing abandon their homeland for safety with the Ottawa and the Ojibwe.

The Mohawk begin a war with the Ottawa.

The Wyandot and the Chonnonton bands who wintered at Teaontofai and at Skenchioe gather together with the Ottawa at Aotonatendie along the western shores of Green Bay, with the former two merging as one people.  They later transfer to Rock Island in the bay.

Governor Printz of New Sweden reports to his Chancellor that the beaver trade is disrupted because of the outbreak of a war with the Arrigahaga (Erie) and the Susquehannock, who are now apparently military as well as trade allies.

1654 – The Iroquois destroy the capital of the Erie confederacy, Arrigha (Rique).

Later in the year, a large tribe with 700 warriors settles on the falls of the James River above Jamestown, whom the locals call the “Rickahechrians”.

1655 – A delegation from the Onondaga representing all the Five Nations of the Iroquois arrives in Quebec petitioning the French for troops to help protect them from the Erie.

The Iroquois destroy the Erie town of Kentaienton as the climax of an invasion led by a war chief named Achlongeras.

The Dutch conquer New Sweden.

The western Iroquois launch a war with the Illini for harboring Wyandot refugees, forcing them west of the Mississippi in the next year.

The eastern Iroquois renew their treaty with the Dutch.

1656 – The French sign a treaty with the western Iroquois tribes.  The Susquehannock make peace with the Mohawk and Oneida.

In the past two years, the Iroquois have destroyed 19 towns of the Kentaientonga, a subdivision of the Erie whose seat was Kentaienton, breaking the power of the Erie and destroying them as a power in the Great Lakes region, though sporadic resistance continues.

The Mohawk attack the Huron who have taken refuge on Ile d’Orleans, or Sainte-Marie, which the Huron call “Minigo”.

The Jesuits build Mission Sainte-Michel at the town of Gandougarae, the town of the adopted Iroquoian-speakers among the Seneca.

Colonial rangers from Jamestown, supported by a force of Pamunkey, attack the Richahecrian (Riqueronon, aka Erie) village of 600–700 warriors in the vicinity of Richmond, Virginia, and are soundly defeated in the Battle of Bloody Run.

1657 – The Arendahronon and the portion of the Attignawantan living on Ile d’Orleans travel south and surrender to the Iroquois; the Attigneenongnahac remain behind.  The Onondaga adopt the former while the Mohawk adopt the latter.

1658 – The killing of a Jesuit ambassador and the expulsion of priests from the Iroquois territory signals an end of the peace with the French and a resumption of warfare.

The eastern Iroquois again attack the Susquehannock, who turn to the Shawnee for support, and enlist their subject peoples (Lenape, Nanticoke, Conoy, Saponi, Tutelo). 

Seeking more distance from the Iroquois, the Wyandot move further west to Lake Pepin on the Mississippi River, where they come into conflict with the Dakota, leading them to move yet again, this time to Black River.

1659-1660 – The First Esopus War, involving the Esopus and the Dutch of New Netherlands.

1661 – War begins between the Iroquois and the Susquehannock.

The Wyandot (now including the Chonnonton remnant) move again, this time near the Ottawa village of Chequamegon on the south shore of Lake Superior.

1662 – A contingent of Honniasont (Oniasontke tribe of the former Erie confederacy) numbering 800 warriors (plus wives and family) take up residence with the Susquehannock to aid the latter in their war on the Iroquois, on the right bank of the Susquehanna River and north of the fort of the Susquehannock.

The Wyandot, Ojibwe, Nipissing, and Ottawa annihilate a large Iroquois war party in the vicinity of Iroquois Point.

The western Iroquois launch a war agains the Shawnee in the Ohio Valley.

1663 – The Second Esopus War, involving the Esopus and the Dutch of New Netherlands.

1664 – Final defeat of the Erie (according to the Iroquois), who then disperse.  Those who have not already fled to the Wyandot, or moved in with the Susquehannock (Black Minqua), or assimilated into the Iroquois join their Erie and Huron cousins who earlier migrated southeast to asyllum in the “country of the Muscogui” (according to John Norton).

A settlement of the subtribe Oniasontke/Honniasont/Oniasontkeronon survives on the middle Ohio River at least until 1669, according to the journal of Abbe Gallinee.  An anonymous French map in 1682 shows them about a small lake from which a tributary flows into the Ohio, or the Wabash, River near the headwaters of the Kanawha River.  Dr. James Smith’s map of 1720 shows them as “Oniasonke or Nation du Chat” on the Ohio River, and  they continued to appear on maps in that vicinity as late 1772.  This being the case, they most likely became part of the Mingo.

The English conquer New Netherlands.

1665 – The western Iroquois and the French sign a treaty of peace.

The Wyandot settle near the Ottawa at Chedquamegon on Lake Superior.

1667 – The French and all the Iroquois negotiate a peace between them.

The majority of Christians among the Mohawk, many of them adopted former enemies, leave Mohawk territory and establish Caughnawaga near Montreal.

Catherine Gandeaktena, an Erie-born Oneida adoptee married to  François-Xavier Tonsahoten, a Huron likewise adopted, founds Saint-François-Xavier mission at Prairie-de-la-Magdelaine (moved in 1717 to Caughnawaga).  Most of those who gather thence in the coming decades are former Huron, Petun, Chonnonton, and Erie.

1668 – The eastern Iroquois launch a lengthy war against the Susquehannock.

The western Iroquois colonize the northern shores of Lake Ontario with seven villages.

1669 – La Salle’s envoy Abbe Gallinee is told to expect villages of Honniasontkeronon (Oniasontke) and Chaouanon (Shawnee) on the Ohio River “above the falls”, i.e. what is now Louisville.

1670 – The German trader James Lederer encounters the “Rickahockan” in the mountains in the west of what later becomes North Carolina when he travels from Virginia to Catawba territory near the newly-established colony of Carolina.

The Black Minqua are shown on Hermann’s map west of the Susquehanna River, north of the Susquehannock fort and opposite the lands of the Susquehannock east of the river.

1671 – The Wyandot, now at Chequamegon in Wisconsin, come into serious conflict with the Dakota and decide to return to Michilimackinac, especially since a general peace has been established in the region.

1672 – Tired of the attacks by the Iroquois, the Shawnee disperse into several bands.  The Chillicothe and Kispoko migrate to the Cumberland River; the Hathawekela move to the Savannah River upstream from the Westo; the Mekoche seek asylum near the Mascouten; the Piqua gain refuge among the Lenape, who are subjects of the Mohawk.

Looming war with the Dakota convinces the Wyandot and the Ottawa to accept the invitation of Father Marquette to settle among the Ojibwe near the mission of  Sainte-Ignace at Mackinac.

1673 – The Iroquois drive the Mosopelea (Ofo) and the Casa out of the Ohio Valley.

The Augustine Hermann of Virginia published this year contains a notation that the “Black Minquas” were destroyed by the Seneca and the Andaste.

1674 – While Henry Woodward of the Province of Carolina visits the Westo town of Hickauhaugau on the Savannah, he mentions that the Westo are constantly fighting the “Cowatoe” (Coweta) and the “Chorakae”; this is the first historical mention of the Cherokee under that name from any source.

The English province of Maryland forms a peace with the Iroquois.

1675-1678 – King Philip’s War involves the New England Confederation and its Mohegan and Pequot allies against the Wampanoag, Narragansett, Nipmuck, Podunk, Pennacook, and Nashaway.  The Narragansett population falls from 5000 to 500, who join the Eastern Niantic.

1675 – After signing a peace with the Iroquois, the provinces of Virginia and Maryland attack the Doeg and the Susquehannock, defeating them the next year.

1676 – The province of Virginia turns on the Occaneechi, who (along with the Nottoway and the Meherrin) have just helped them in their war against the Susquehannock.  The Susquehannock, meanwhile, have surrendered to the Iroquois and settled among the Mohawk and the Oneida, though a small portion gain refuge with the Meherrin to the south.  All their subjects then become subjects of the Iroquois.

1677 – The Iroquois establish the Covenant Chain, with the Mahican as its first member.

After suffering many setbacks and a drastic loss in population, the Susquehannock surrender to the Iroquois.

1680-1759 – The Iroquois-Catawba War.

1680 – The Iroquois and Miami attack the Illini, wiping out the village of Grand Kaskaskia, sparing none and taking none as captive.  Surviving warriors are tortured to death, and after finding the women, children, and old people on an island several miles away, they slay the old and the children and burn the women at the stake.

1682 – Some six hundred men, women, and children of the “Nation of the Chats” (Erie) surrender to the Seneca near Virginia.  A Maryland report says that they are being pursued and attacked by southern Indians (perhaps Yuchi) and refers to the group as “Black Mingoes”.

1684 – Eight leaders from the towns of Toxaway and Keowee sign a trade treaty with the English of the Province of Carolina.

The Iroquois attempt and fail to take Ft. St. Louis, which historians generally mark as the turning point in the Beaver Wars.

At the same time, the French king takes direct control of New France and sends a regiment of French regular troops.

French cartographer Jean-Baptiste-Louis Franquelin produces a map of the new territory of La Louisiane based on information gleaned directly from La Salle showing Tchalaka, Katowagi, and Taligui on the upper Kaskinampo (Tennessee) River in the Cherokee Country.

1687 – The French-led anti-Iroquois alliance of western Indians (Ojibwe, Ottawa, Wyandot, Potawatomi, Mississauga, Fox, Sauk, Miami, Winnebago, Menominee, Kickapoo, Illinois, and Mascouten) takes the field.  In some of the earliest action, two of the Iroqouis villages north of Lake Ontario are destroyed, and afterwards the rest are abandoned.

The French shift their aim south, attacking the Iroquois homeland, ravaging the lands of the Seneca; the Iroquois retaliate with a war of attrition that last two years, ending in the defeat of the French and their allies.

1688 – Franquelin produces another map of La Louisiane showing the following towns in the same area as earlier: Tchalak, Tamghi, Cattoughi.

1689-1697 – King William’s War.  The primary native combatants are the Wabanaki Confederacy allied with the French and the Iroquois League allied with the English.

1689 – The Mekoche Shawnee leave the Mascouten to join their cousins on the Cumberland, and some of these join their Piqua cousins among the Lenape in 1692.

Late 1680’s-early 1690’s – Cherokee begin cautiously migrating north back to the now deserted Allegheny-Upper Ohio Valley from which they came, centering on the town of Allegheny at the confluence of the Kiskiminetas and Allegheny Rivers, at what is now Schenley, Pennsylvania.

1690 – By this year, the Iroquois are in serious retreat across the region.

1693 – A delegation from the Lower Towns visits Charlestown seeking its help in regaining their people sold as slaves by the Catawba, Shawnee, and Congaree, only to be told they have already been shipped to plantations in the Caribbean.

1695-1700 – The Fox join with the Winnebago to drive the Kaskaskia from southern Wisconsin.

1696 – Louis XIV heeds Jesuit complaints of corruption in the fur trade in New France and suspends it in the Great Lakes region.

1697 – The Hathawekela leave the Savannah River, some to the Cumberland but most to their cousins with the Lenape.

The League of Five Nations allows group of a few hundred former Susquehannock to remove to Pennsylvania and establish the town of Conestoga.

1698-1708 – Cherokee-Lenape War.  The Lenape begin a war to drive the Cherokee out of western Pennsylvania, and eventually settle on Beaver Creek.

1701 – The Great Peace of Montreal is signed by Nouvelle France and thirteen hundred leaders of forty First Nations, ending the Beaver Wars. 

Antoine de Lamonthe Cadillac establishes a single trade post at Ft. Ponchartrain, near Detroit, inviting many tribes to take up residence nearby.  Those doing so include the Wyandot, Ottawa, Potawatami, Ojibwe, Miami, Sauk, Fox, Winnebago, Mascouten, and Kickapoo

Cartographer Guillame de l’Isle uses the name Tarachis for the towns later called Cherokee.

1701-1768 – Cherokee-Iroquois War; the peace in the north gives the Iroquois freedom to attack their former enemies, and vice versa.

1702-1713 – Queen Anne’s War.  Primary native forces involved in the north are the Wabanaki Confederacy and the Caughnawaga Mohawk allied with the French and the Iroquois League allied with the English/British.

1703 – Delegates to the Carolina assembly complain that the Cherokee have been capturing too many of the colony’s settlement Indians for their slave trade with the Province of Virginia.

1705 – Nicholas de Fer publishes a map of La Louisiane with the towns Tchalak, Tatighi, and Katoughi in the upper Kaskinampo River.

In his map of North America, Daniel Coxe first identifies the people as Cherakees.

1708 – According to ethnologist James Mooney, the last town of the “Cherokee” in the upper Ohio region is destroyed and its people driven off by a large party of the Lenape who called its people the Talligewi.

1710–1715 – Cumberland Valley War; the Cherokee and Chickasaw against the Shawnee in the Cumberland Basin, whose contingent has grown too large for comfort.

1710 – Mainland Acadia falls to the British, setting the stage for another war twelve years later.

1712-1726 – First Fox War, involving the Fox, Kickapoo, and Mascouten against the French, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Huron.

1718 – A map by Covens and Mortier shows the location of the Cheraqui.  Ditto for the Delisle edition of this year.

1720s – Descendants of Black Minqua (Erie), Huron, Petun, White Minqua (Susquehannock), and Chonnonton forcibly assimilated into the League begin settling the Allegheny and Upper Ohio Rivers, where they become known as the Mingo, or, occasionally, the Blue Mingo.

1721-1763 – The Chickasaw Wars, a series of conflicts between the Chickasaw and New France, with the aid of its Illini, Choctaw, Detroit Wyandot, and other allies.

1722 – The Tuscarora are accepted into the Iroquois Confederacy.

1722-1725 – Wabanaki-New England War, between the Wabanaki Confederacy on one side and the New England colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Nova Scotia, and New Hampshire, along with the Mohawk, on the other.

1728-1737 – Second Fox War, involving the Fox, and the Kickapoo and Mascouten until those switched sides in 1729, against the French, Illinois, Ottawa, Ojibwe, Cahokia, Peoria, Missouri, Sauk (until 1733), Potawatomi, Wyandot, and Huron.  The Kickapoo and Mascouten began as Fox allies and swtiched to the French side in 1729, while the Sauk sided with the French until 1733 when they changed over to the Fox side.

1729-1731 – Third Natchez War, involving primarily the Natchez, Chickasaw, and Cherokee against the French, Choctaw, and Tunica.  Though primarily fought in the south, the fighting spread north with joint raids by the Chickasaw and Cherokee deep into Upper Louisiane and involved native allies of the French, primarily the Illinois.

1736 – First Chickasaw-French War, involving the Chickasaw against the French, Choctaw, and Illinois.

War with the Ojibwe over trade with the French forces the Eastern Dakota out of their traditional homes around Lake Superior south near the lands of their cousins, the Western Dakota.

1738 – The Wyandot split between the main body who remain pro-French and at Detroit and a smaller pro-British group under Orontony which moves to the Lower Sandusky after refusing to join an attack on the British-allied Cherokee in the south.  There they settle two towns, one, Ayonontout, on Lake Sandusky near Lake Erie (Castalia, OH), and the other, Ostandousket (now Venica, OH), a few miles upriver.

The Detroit Wyandot who remained ultimately acculturated and their descendants live mostly in the Windsor area of Ontario.  Their descendants are the Wyandotte of Anderdon.

1739 – Second Chickasaw-French War, involving the Chickasaw against the French, Choctaw, and Illinois.

1744-1748 – King George’s War.  The primary native forces involved are the Wabanaki Confederacy allied with the French and the Iroquois League allied with the British.

1745 – Orontony’s Wyandot on the Lower Sandusky sign a peace treaty with the Chickasaw and the Cherokee.

1746 – The Cayuga bring the Mississauga (Anishnaabe exonym), or Sissiogaes (Huron exonym), into the Iroquois Confederacy as a refugee nation, so that the League has Seven Nations.

1748 – Orontony’s Wyandot leave the Sandusky Valley to the “White River” (actually the Cuyahoga) to be near other English-allied tribes.

1752 – Third Chickasaw-French War, involving the Chickasaw against the French, Choctaw, and Illinois.

1754-1763 – The French and Indian War.  At the end of the war, France loses all of New France to the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Spain.

1754 – In the Treaty of Albany of this year, the Iroquois cede to the British the Ohio Country, without consulting the tribes who actually live there.

Division within the League over which side to support, the French or the English, leads to the secession of groups, mostly Mohawk, from the Six Nations.  These join with groups outside to form the Seven Nations Confederacy of Canada, comprised of the Mohawk of Akwesasne, the Mohawk of Kahwenake, the Mohawk and Anishnaabeg (Algonkin and Nipissing) of Kanesetake, the Abenaki of Odenake, the Abenaki of Wolinak, the Onondaga of Oswegatchie, and the Huron of Wendake.

1755 – The Mingo at Mingo Flats (WV), allied to the French, are expelled along with other French allies by the Iroquois, settling Mingo Town (Mingo Junction in Steubenville, OH), eventually spreading across the Ohio River to Old Mingo Bottom (Follansbee, WV).

1757-1758 – A smallpox epidemic that sweeps through the Great Lakes region in the aftermath of the Siege and Massacre of Fort William Henry all but ends native participation in the war.

1763 – Pontiac’s War results in King George forbidding settlement west of the Appalachians.

The Scots-Irish "Paxton Boys" of Pennsylvania wipe out the remaining Conestoga.

1768 – The Mingo at Old Mingo Bottom are pushed across river as a result of the Treaty of Stanwix signed by the Iroquois with the British.

Blue  Mingo (Erie, Chonnoton, and Andaste descendants), descendants of Iroquoians formerly assimilated into the Seneca begin settling on the Sandusky River in Ohio Country, where they become known as the Seneca of Sandusky.

1772-1780 – The great smallpox epidemic of these years decimates the Arikara, Mandan, and Hidatsa by two-thirds, opening the way for the Lakota, whom the Cheyenne have introduced to the horse culture of the Plains some four decades prior, to relocate west of the Missouri into the Great Plains.

1774 – After Lord Dunmore’s War, the Mingo migrate west, ultimately consolidating into two groups.  One moves near the Wyandotte on the Sandusky River, where they become known as the Seneca of Sandusky, the other to the Scioto River (Lewistown OH) where, after a large party of Shawnee join them, become known as the Mixed Band of Seneca and Shawnee.

1775-1783 – American Revolution.  Though the Mohawk and the Tuscarora support the rebels, the rest of the League (Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca) support the British, as do the Seven Nations of Canada, the Lenape (at first), the Ottawa, and most of the Shawnee, along with the Cherokee, the Creek, the Choctaw, and the Chickasaw (who later swithc sides) in the south, while the Catawba also supported the American rebels. 

After the war, Joseph Brant leads a large majority of the Iroquois into Canada, where they establish themselves on the Grand River, though the central council-fire is placed on Buffalo River in New York in the old territory.

1775 – William Bartram reports that the Cherokee live in sixty-four towns grouped into five divisions or council fires.

1775-1795 – The Cherokee-American Wars.

1783 – Iroquois, Mingo, Wyandot, Miami, Lenape, Shawnee, Kickapoo, Sauk, Ottawa, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Cherokee form the Western Confederacy at the Shawnee town of Wakatomica.  The next year, the seat of the alliance shifts to the Wyandot town of Brownstown just outside of Detroit.  Later the Creek confederacy also joins.

1785-1795 – The Northwest Indian War, ending in defeat and dissolution for the Western Confederacy.

1807 – A number of Cayuga sell their New York lands and move in with the Seneca (Mingo) of Sandusky.

1811-1813 – Tecumseh’s War, fought by a his confederacy of Shawnee, Iroquois, Ojibwe, Fox, Sauk, Miami, Mingo, Wyandot, Ottawa, Kickapoo, Lenape, Mascouten, and Red Stick Creek (mostly from the Upper Towns of the Creek Confederacy).

1812-1815 – The War of 1812, of which Tecumseh’s Confederacy played a part on the side of the British as well as the Seven Nations of Canada.  The Cherokee, Choctaw, and Lower Creek fought as allies of the United States, and the war included the Creek War of 1813-1814.

1830 – The Mixed Band of Seneca (Mingo) and Shawnee remove to Indian Territory, where they eventually become the Eastern Shawnee Tribe.

1831 – The Seneca (Mingo) of Sandusky remove to Indian Territory to live beside Cherokee Nation West.  After being joined by another contingent of Cayuga, they become the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe.

1838 – The Cherokee Nation East removes to the lands of the Cherokee Naton West in Indian Territory, leaving the Oconaluftee, Nantahala, Snowbird, and Cheoah Cherokee in North Carolina to become the Eastern Band.  The Cherokee in the west later divide between the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and the United Keetoowah Band.

1843 – The Wyandot leave the Sandusky to become neighbors of the Lenape in what is now Kansas but was then Indian Territory.  They survive as the Wyandotte Nation.