Ideals and Realities
Millions of Native Americans were in the New World before Europeans ever stepped foot on its shores. Did any of them fight in the Revolutionary War?
What is the reality?
After the Seven Years’ War (also called the French and Indian War), the British government issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763. This proclamation declared that the lands west of the Appalachian Mountains would be off-limits to colonial governments. This angered many American colonists, who desired to expand their territory into western lands.
When the Revolutionary War began in 1775, General Washington employed some gunmen from eastern Indian tribes. General Gage of the British Army followed this example. Most of the Iroquois Confederacy, for example, fought with the British. They also fought those few Iroquois who aligned with the Americans.