ABSTRACT
Much of the Appalachian land from New York to Alabama was occupied by Indians upon arrival of European whites in the Atlantic colonies in the early seventeenth century. The northern Appalachian uplands were occupied by major Indian linguistic groups at the turn of the seventeenth century. The Algonquins lived along the lower Hudson Valley, the eastern third of the Mohawk lowland, and the Susquehanna basin of eastern Pennsylvania. The Indians had greatly altered large acreages within the Appalachian uplands by farming and by their use of fire for hunting. After the French and Indian War of the late 1750s and early 1760s, the British government moved to consolidate control over the Appalachians. As European contact with Appalachian Indian groups increased from brief trading meetings to lengthy interaction through adjacent residence or martial confrontation and negotiation, the image of the Indian held by whites changed.
