Lancaster Treaty of 1744

The Lancaster Treaty of 1744 offers students a close look at colonial-Indian relations in North America. The treaty minutes offer some of the best historical evidence of Iroquois perspectives on colonial power and diplomacy. James Merrell uses the treaty minutes, published by Benjamin Franklin shortly after the end of the negotiations, to illuminate critical issues in the mid-eighteenth-century struggles between and among Indians and colonial empires. These issues, including competing colonial claims, land use and tenure, diplomacy, and cultural exchange, bring complex colonial worlds to life for students. Accompanying the treaty minutes are four documents by European and colonial observers who visited the Iroquois before, during, or after the treaty negotiations, shedding further light — and some ambiguity — on Indian-white relations in this period. A list of major figures, a chronology of events, questions for consideration, a selected bibliography, and an index further enable students’ exploration of this event.