The Delaware and Shawnee moved to Wyoming, and westward to the Ohio. There is no doubt but that the chief factor in the ascendancy of the Iroquois in the affairs of the Province was Conrad Weiser, the famous Indian interpreter and diplomat. All of his sympathy was with the Iroquois. He cared nothing for the Delawares. He came upon the scene just at the time when the pacific policy of Penn was declining. Walton truly says, in his "Conrad Weiser," "Weiser helped Shikellamy sow the seed which drenched Pennsylvania in blood from 1755 to 1764.-Pennsylvania suffered that a nation might live. She brought upon herself after many years a Delaware war, but escaped a Six Nation war, a French alliance with the Iroquois, and the threatened possibility of the destruction of all the English colonies on the coast." This statement is true. In bringing the Iroquois into the foreground in the affairs of the Province the neutrality of that powerful confederation was assured. Weiser was the chief power back of all of these efforts at this time. In the impending struggle between Great Britain and France it was absolutely essential for the preservation of the British Colonies that the Iroquois, as a Confederation, remain neutral. This neutrality was assured by the Province in the recognition of the Iroquois claims for the lands occupied by the Delawares. But, the recognition of the Iroqouis as the owners of the Delaware lands "by right of conquest," lost for Pennsylvania the friendship of the Delaware and Shawnee, who had been driven to the Ohio by the various land sales and by the encroachments of the white settlers upon the lands which had not been bought by the Province. From the time of the Purchase of 1736 the Delawares awakened to a realization of the wrong which had been one to them. They retreated from the Delaware across the Blue Mountains to Wyoming and Shamokin, to the West Branch and to the Ohio, seeking a place of refuge from the rum traffic and the horde of land-hungry settlers. But, no sooner had the lands been bought south of the Blue Mountains than the white settlers began to cross the Susquehanna and then the Kittatinny Mountains, into the lands which had not been purchased from the Indians. Again and again the Delaware and Shawnee complained to Shikellamy, the Iroquois deputy at Shamokin, concerning these "white squatters" who were settling upon Indian lands along the Juniata river and in the Tuscorara Valley, Shikellamy complained to the authorities of the Province, The Governor issued "Proclamations," notices were posted, but still the settlers remained. At the Treaty of Albany in 1754 the Commissioners from Pennsylvania decided that something must be done to silence these complaints, which were assuming a dangerous tone, It was decided that the only thing to do was to buy the lands beyond the Allegheny mountains. This was finally accomplished. At the same time the Agents of the Susquehanna Company, of Connecticut, were working on the quiet through the Mohawks for the purchase of the lands in the Wyoming Valley. The Mohawks had absolutely no more right to sell this land than a Delaware had a right to sell tile lands of the Seneca. This fraudulent deal was carried through. Another sale had been made at the Treaty at Lancaster in 1744, in which the lands westward "to the setting sun" were deeded by the Iroquois to the Colony of Virginia. By this deed Virginia claimed the lands beyond the Mountains including the lands on the Ohio river. Thus in 1754 the Delaware and Shawnee awoke to a realization that all of their lands were gone. The Minisinks, on the Delaware, had been sold in 1736; the lands along the Susquehanna had been disposed of by various sales, and now the lands in the Wyoming Valley and on the Ohio had been sold by the Iroquois. They had not a foot of ground which they could call their own. The chiefs of the Delaware and Shawnee went back to their villages on the Ohio, brooding over their wrongs and waiting for the day of vengeance. This day was not long in coming. Right at the very time when these warriors of the Delawares and Shawnee had been cheated out of all of their possessions, Braddock was slowly cutting his w0 over the mountains of Pennsylvania to Fort Duquesne. Braddock's fearful defeat and slaughter was no sudden "Indian uprising." It was the logical result of long years of injustice to the Delawares, and their kindred, the Shawnee. Braddock had to bear the consequences f the alienation of these Indian tribes. His defeat was not the cause of the bloodshed which followed. It was a result, which neither Washington or Forbes could have avoided had they led this ill-fated expedition. Braddock and his army, and the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia had to pay in blood for the splendid bargains which had been made by the English in the "Walking Purchase," and in the land grab in the Wyoming Valley. Truly, as Tedyuskung said at Easton, after speaking of William Penn's memory, "It is not a small matter that would have then separated us." The Delaware nd Shawnee would have been base cowards had they silently and meekly retreated beyond the Ohio without a struggle. In 1742 the Iroquois had declared that the Delawares were "women," having no right to bear arms or to sell land. In 1755 the Delawares threw away their "'skirts" and took up the arms of a man to avenge their wrongs. They had complained at every Council which was held during this entire period concerning these land sales, the rum traffic und the settlement of lands which had not been purchased from the Indians. When all of these appeals failed they appealed to the only Court in America in which an Indian ever had any standing-the Supreme Court of Arms, the last court of appeal of savage, as well as of civilized man. From 1682 until 1755 the Delawares were at peace with the English in this Province. From 1755 until the last Delaware was driven beyond the Ohio river he was at war, simply because none of his claims had any recognition in any court of Justice. After over 150 years the Red Man, with claims aggregating over a billion dollars, finds himself in exactly the same condition so far as Courts of Justice are concerned, as did the Delaware of 1754 who was expected to meekly move on, when told to do so by some settler who wanted his land. The fearful slaughter of Braddock's troops and the entire route of his army by the comparatively small army of French and Indians opened the eyes of the Delaware and Shawnee. They, for the first time in the history of their relations with the white man, realized their own power. The Indians on the Ohio hesitated no longer but went over as a body to the side of the French. The Iroquois as a Confederation remained neutral, but great numbers of the Seneca, who had been associated with the Delawares, because of the easy access to the villages on the Ohio by way of the Allegheny river, took up the hatchet, and "the dogs of war were turned loose" upon the defenceless frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia. Some of the eastern Delaware remained neutral, through the efforts of the friendly chiefs, but the great body of Delaware west of the Susquehanna river, led by Shingas, Tamaque (King Beaver), and other chiefs, carried death into the white settlements on the frontiers. The West Branch of the Susquehanna, the Allegheny river, and the winding Indian trails across the mountains became veritable "trails of blood." The "Border Wars" of Pennsylvania were caused because the Delaware and Shawnee refused to leave the land which they loved, without a struggle and because every treaty which they had ever made with the white man had been broken. Again and again these people "reserved" by a treaty a place of refuge "which it shall not be lawful for us or our children to sell, or for you or your children ever to buy"-only to find out that no such spot existed on the face of the earth for an Indian. When the tide of Scotch-Irish settlers swept over the mountain ridges and into the valley beyond the "Endless Mountains," seeking to drive "the heathen from the Land of Promise" it is small wonder that the "heathen" refused to be driven—hence the Frontier Forts, and the border warfare which makes the period covered by this work one of the most thrilling in American history. _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com