The congress also sought to settle land claims in the western regions of the nation and build alliances with additional Indian nations. The two issues were intertwined, and both were difficult to resolve. Most Indian nations had long-standing complaints against colonists who intruded on their lands, and many patriot leaders made it clear that independence would mean further expansion.

In the late 1770s, British forces and their Indian allies fought bitter battles against patriot militias and Continental forces all along the frontier. Each side destroyed property, ruined crops, and killed civilians. In the summer and fall of 1778, Indian and American civilians suffered through a series of brutal attacks in Wyoming, Pennsylvania; Onoquaga, New York; and Cherry Valley, New York. Patriots and Indians also battled along the Virginia frontier after pioneer and militia leader Daniel Boone established a fort there in 1775. In the South, 6,000 patriot troops laid waste to Cherokee villages in the Appalachian Mountains in retaliation for the killing of white intruders along the Watauga River by a renegade Cherokee warrior, Dragging Canoe.

Regardless of Indian rights, much western land had already been claimed by individual states like Connecticut, Georgia, New York, Massachusetts, and Virginia. These states hoped to use western lands to reward soldiers and expand their settlements. However, states without such claims, like Maryland, argued that if such lands were “wrested from the common enemy by the blood and treasure of the thirteen States,” they should be considered “common property, subject to be parcelled out by Congress into free and independent governments.” In 1780 New York State finally ceded its western claims to the Continental Congress, and Connecticut and Massachusetts followed suit.

With land disputes settled, Maryland ratified the Articles of Confederation in March 1781, and a new national government was finally formed. But the congress’s guarantee that western lands would be “disposed of for the common benefit of the United States” ensured continued conflicts with Indians.

REVIEW & RELATE

What values and concerns shaped state governments during the Revolutionary War?

What issues and challenges did the Continental Congress face even after the French joined the patriot side?