Existing comment:
Indians and Alliances:
The people of the Iroquois Confederacy fought on both sides during the northern campaign.
At the outset of the war, the six Iroquois nations pledged their neutrality: "We are unwilling to join on either side of such a contest," declared the Oneida in 1775, "for we love you both -- old England and new." But shortly afterward, the Mohawk and most other Indians sided with Britain; the Oneida and Tuscarora sided with the patriots.
The Iroquois were politically, militarily, and diplomatically savvy. Both the British and the Americans considered the Iroquois "unreliable allies, recognizing that Indian nations entered their alliances to protect their own people, territory, and autonomy. |