Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768)

In 1768, the Iroquois Indians and the English signed a treaty at Fort Stanwix.

Following the French and Indian War, England issued the Proclamation of 1763. This act kept England's colonists from moving west of the Appalachian Mountains. The land that England claimed between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River was to become an Indian reserve. Despite the Proclamation of 1763, colonists continued to move west of the Appalachian Mountains. Most of these people settled along the Kentucky bank of the Ohio River. Hoping to prevent tensions with the Ohio Country natives, the English government tried to negotiate a treaty establishing a new boundary between the two sides. In this agreement, the Iroquois ceded all of their lands east and south of the Ohio River to the English. While the Iroquois agreed to give up this land, most Ohio Native Americans did not, including the Delaware Indians, the Mingo Indians, and the Shawnee Indians. These tribes claimed that the Iroquois, who did not even live in the Ohio Country, did not have the right to negotiate for the other tribes.

Colonial settlers immediately moved into the region. By the spring of 1774, violence had begun in the disputed area as these Native Americans, especially the Shawnee, tried to drive the English east of the Appalachian Mountains. The Indians' refusal to follow the treaty resulted in increased tensions with the English and conflicts such as Lord Dunmore's War in 1774.