CHAPTER II 



THE INDIAN WARS, 1784-1787 



AFTER the close of the Revolution there was 

 a short, uneasy lull in the eternal border war 

 fare between the white men and the red. The In 

 dians were for the moment daunted by a peace 

 which left them without allies; and the feeble Fed 

 eral Government attempted for the first time to aid 

 and control the West by making treaties with the 

 most powerful frontier tribes. Congress raised a 

 tiny regular army, and several companies were sent 

 to the upper Ohio to garrison two or three small 

 forts which were built upon its banks. Commis 

 sioners (one of whom was Clark himself) were 

 appointed to treat with both the Northern and 

 Southern Indians. Councils were held in various 

 places. In 1785 and early in 1786 utterly fruitless 

 treaties were concluded with Shawnees, Wyandots, 

 and Delawares at one or other of the little forts. 1 

 About the same time, in the late fall of 1785, 

 another treaty somewhat more noteworthy, but 

 equally fruitless, was concluded with the Cherokees 

 at Hopewell, on Keowee, in South Carolina. In 



1 State Department MSS., No. 56, p. 333, Letter of G. 

 Clark, Nov. 10, 1785; p. 337, Letter of G. Clark to R. Butler, 

 etc. ; No. 16, p. 293 ; No. 32, p. 39. 



