Indians
Many Indian nations and tribes tried to stay out of the American Revolutionary conflict and war. Some sided with the Americans, and those who fought with the British were not the king's pawns: however, they allied with the Crown as the best hope of protecting their homelands. The American colonists were constantly encroaching on the Native American’s land. The British government had made a deal with the Indians and in some way tried to protect their land from the colonist through protection by the Royal Proclamation of 1763. It attempted to restrict colonial expansion beyond the Appalachian Mountains, and had alienated many American colonists. Indians knew that the Revolution was a contest for Indian land as well as for liberty.
- American Indians fought in the American Revolution to try and keep their lands
- Killing of women and children by the Indians outraged Colonists, many of whom then join up to fight the British