The Outposts

When the American Revolution began in 1775, neither the British nor the Americans wanted to involve the native tribes. "This is a family quarrel between us and Old England," the U.S. Congress told the Iroquois Confederacy. "You Indians are not concerned in it."

The Indians didn't want to take sides. "We will not suffer either the English or Americans to march an army through our country," Guyasuta, the ranking Iroquois chief in the Ohio River Valley, declared at Pittsburgh in 1776.

The native...