Kuskusky Towns and Early Western Pennsylvania Indian History, 1748-1778
DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, Indians throughout eastern North America came under increasing pressure from Euro-American colonies. This was especially true for native societies living on the borders of Anglo-America. The growing conflict between Great Britain and France after 1689 threatened not only the peace of their respective American colonies, but also the survival of many Indian nations, from the Iroquois of New York to the Cherokees and Creeks of the southeast, who found themselves living between the imperial giants. Of equal concern to the Delawares and Shawnees of eastern Pennsylvania was the rising tide of colonial settlement that threatened to appropriate and extinguish the natives' political indepen dence and cultural identities.