Between 1774 and 1789, the Continental Congress served as America’s de facto government — first as a temporary body of delegates addressing colonial grievances against Britain, then as the wartime authority directing the revolutionary effort, and finally as the Confederation Congress that governed under the Articles of Confederation. For Native nations, this fifteen-year arc was not an abstract political experiment. It marked the moment a new, land-hungry settler state consolidated its authority and began legislating the seizure, survey, and sale of Indigenous homelands from the Ohio Country to the Great Lakes. Understanding the Congress’s timeline is therefore inseparable from understanding how Indigenous sovereignty was systematically redefined by a government that claimed the right to dispose of lands it had never owned.
Origins Under British Rule: The First Continental Congress, 1774
The First Continental Congress convened in September 1774 in Philadelphia, comprised of 56 delegates from 12 of the original 13 colonies. It met for less than two months and focused chiefly on the British Parliament’s passage of the Intolerable Acts — also known as the Coercive Acts — punitive measures designed to restore order in Boston after the Boston Tea Party and to punish the colonists.
During this brief session, the Congress compiled a list of grievances sent to King George III and adopted the Articles of Association, which initiated a colonial boycott of British goods. Historian Benjamin H. Irvin of Indiana University Bloomington, author of Clothed in Robes of Sovereignty: The Continental Congress and the People Out of Doors, identifies the Articles of Association as the First Congress’s most important accomplishment. Beyond the boycott, the document authorized local committees to manage the transfer of power between Britain and the colonies.
Unlike later iterations, the First Continental Congress did not consider itself a governing body. The British Empire remained the recognized authority, and the Articles of Association were not law. Still, as Irvin notes, the Congress endorsed the Suffolk Resolves, in which the people of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, resolved ‘to acquaint themselves with the art of war.’ By calling on local communities to establish committees of inspection, Congress readied colonists to cast off British rule and build local government — a framework that would soon be turned westward against Native nations.
The Second Continental Congress: Wartime Government, 1775–1781
The Second Continental Congress began in May 1775, less than a month after the opening battles at Lexington and Concord. This time its role shifted decisively: it became the de facto government of the 13 colonies at war with Britain.
Irvin observes that the delegates ‘wasted no time deliberating the nature or extent of their authority; instead, they convened in the spirit of a council of war.’ The Congress established an army, a navy, and a post office, and issued currency — assuming legislative and executive responsibility without hesitation.
Many delegates from the First Congress returned, including George Washington, Patrick Henry, and cousins John and Samuel Adams. Newcomers included Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and John Hancock. The body’s most significant achievement was adopting the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Irvin lists the establishment of the Continental Army, the printing of continental currency, the recommendation that colonies draft new constitutions, the pursuit of an alliance with France, and the disavowal of Parliament as the works by which U.S. independence was achieved.
For Indigenous peoples, these achievements carried a dual edge. The Declaration of Independence famously characterized Native peoples as ‘merciless Indian Savages,’ framing them as enemies outside the political community the new nation was constructing. The alliance with France — formalized in 1778 — drew Native nations into a European war not of their making, while the revolutionary state claimed sovereign authority over vast territories inhabited by sovereign Indigenous nations. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Iroquois Confederacy, split under this pressure, with some nations siding with Britain and others attempting neutrality.
The Articles of Confederation and the Confederation Congress, 1781–1789
The Second Continental Congress also produced the first U.S. constitution, the Articles of Confederation, which took effect in 1781 while the war continued. It ended in 1783. The Articles made the Continental Congress an official governing body of the United States, but placed limits on what it could do. Although the Congress continued under the same name and with many of the same members, its powers narrowed considerably.
The Confederation Congress could not tax Americans directly and, in many cases, required nine of the 13 states to approve legislation before a bill could pass. Yet it still left an enduring mark. It chartered the first U.S. bank and, more consequentially for Native nations, called for the seizure of Native land through measures such as the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.
Irvin states plainly that ‘the most consequential actions of the Confederation Congress were the land ordinances of the 1780s. These ordinances encouraged the westward migration of European Americans, who seized lands inhabited by Indigenous peoples, made war against them and ultimately lobbied for their forcible removal.’ The Proclamation of 1763 had attempted to restrain colonial settlement west of the Appalachians; the post-revolutionary ordinances effectively dismantled that restraint. Veterans of the Revolution were granted land bounties in the Ohio Country and beyond — territory belonging to the Shawnee, Delaware, Miami, Wyandot, and others. The resulting confrontation produced the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, and the Treaty of Greenville that followed.
Members who served on the Confederation Congress included James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, both of whom also attended the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. That convention drafted a new constitution, which became law in 1789, replaced the Articles of Confederation, and disbanded the Confederation Congress — replacing it with the U.S. Congress. Under the new Constitution, the federal government gained expanded authority over commerce, taxation, and war, and, critically, over the management of Indian affairs. The Indian Commerce Clause of Article I granted Congress exclusive authority to regulate trade with Native tribes — a provision that would later anchor the Supreme Court’s Marshall Trilogy decisions treating tribes as ‘domestic dependent nations.’
Land, Treaties, and the Long Shadow of the Ordinances
The Confederation Congress’s land ordinances established the survey system — the Public Land Survey — that carved Indigenous territories into geometric townships and ranges, converting homelands into fungible real estate. This bureaucratic machinery, more than any single battle, made large-scale dispossession possible. The Congress also entered into treaties with various Native nations, including the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784), the Treaty of Fort McIntosh (1785), and the Treaty of Fort Finney (1786) — agreements that extracted massive cessions from tribes that often had not been defeated in war and whose signatories sometimes lacked authority to cede communal lands.
The pattern established under the Confederation Congress and the early U.S. Congress — negotiation under duress, purchase for a fraction of worth, and military pressure when tribes refused — set the template for the ensuing century of policy: the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the reservation system, the allotment era, and the twentieth-century attempts at termination. The continental money printed by the Second Continental Congress, meanwhile, had been used in part to finance military expeditions into the interior; the fiscal weakness of the Confederation Congress also encouraged states and speculators to pursue land claims aggressively, each faction displacing Native communities in the scramble for territory.
Historical Context & Key Cultural Takeaways
- Three phases, one trajectory: The Continental Congress evolved from a protest assembly (1774) to a wartime government (1775–1781) to a formal governing body under the Articles of Confederation (1781–1789). At every stage, its authority was built on a claimed right to dispose of Indigenous lands.
- The Articles of Association (1774) created the committee system that organized colonial resistance — the same infrastructure later used to organize settlement and land speculation in Native territories.
- The Declaration of Independence (1776) asserted natural rights for colonists while marginalizing Native peoples in its text, helping to entrench a legal and rhetorical framework that excluded Indigenous sovereignty.
- The land ordinances of the 1780s, particularly the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, were the most consequential acts for Native nations: they encouraged westward migration, authorized the seizure of Indigenous homelands, and provided the administrative framework for dispossession.
- The Constitution of 1789 replaced the Articles, expanded federal authority, and placed Indian affairs under Congress through the Indian Commerce Clause, shaping the legal landscape for the next two centuries.
- Scholarly consensus — reflected in Irvin’s assessment — holds that the Confederation Congress’s land policies, not its fiscal or military provisions, were its most historically significant actions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the Continental Congress?
The Continental Congress was a gathering of delegates from the thirteen American colonies that met between 1774 and 1789. It served first as a protest body against British policies, then as the de facto wartime government, and finally as the formal governing body of the United States under the Articles of Confederation until the U.S. Constitution took effect in 1789.
How many delegates attended the First Continental Congress?
The First Continental Congress comprised 56 delegates representing 12 of the 13 original colonies. It met in Philadelphia in September 1774 and lasted less than two months, producing the Articles of Association and a list of grievances sent to King George III.
What was the most important accomplishment of the Confederation Congress for Native nations?
According to historian Benjamin H. Irvin, the most consequential actions were the land ordinances of the 1780s, especially the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. These measures encouraged westward migration of European Americans, who seized lands inhabited by Indigenous peoples, made war against them, and lobbied for their forcible removal.
Did the Continental Congress make treaties with Native American tribes?
Yes. The Confederation Congress entered into several treaties with Native nations in the 1780s, including the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784), the Treaty of Fort McIntosh (1785), and the Treaty of Fort Finney (1786). These treaties extracted large land cessions, often from tribes that had not been defeated militarily and whose representatives sometimes lacked authority to cede communal lands.
How did the U.S. Constitution change relations with Native nations?
The Constitution of 1789 replaced the Articles of Confederation, expanded federal authority over commerce and war, and assigned Congress exclusive power to regulate trade with Native tribes through the Indian Commerce Clause. This provision became the constitutional basis for later Supreme Court decisions defining tribes as ‘domestic dependent nations’ — a legal status that continues to shape Indigenous sovereignty today.
Why does the Continental Congress matter in Native American history?
Because it was the institution through which the new United States asserted control over Indigenous lands. The Congress authorized land ordinances, signed dispossessive treaties, and established the administrative machinery for westward expansion — setting the pattern for over a century of removal, allotment, and assimilation policies that Native nations continue to resist and reverse.
Conclusion: Cultural Legacy and Contemporary Preservation
The Continental Congress’s fifteen-year arc ended in 1789 with the adoption of the Constitution, but its consequences for Native nations were only beginning. The land ordinances and treaty negotiations of the Confederation era became the legal and administrative foundation for the dispossession of Indigenous homelands across the continent. Yet Native nations were never passive subjects of this history. From the Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s diplomatic balancing during the Revolution, to the Northwestern Confederacy’s military resistance culminating at Fallen Timbers, to the twentieth- and twenty-first-century sovereignty movements, Indigenous peoples have continuously asserted their own political authority, treaty rights, and cultural continuity. Today, tribal governments, museums, and heritage organizations work to document these histories accurately, to repatriate sacred objects and ancestral remains under laws like NAGPRA, and to ensure that the story of American founding is told alongside — and not over — the story of the nations that were here first.
Tribal & Historical Heritage Reference Box
- Primary Indigenous nations affected by Confederation-era ordinances: Shawnee, Lenape (Delaware), Miami, Wyandot, Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, Odawa, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), and other Ohio Country and southeastern nations.
- Key documents: Articles of Association (1774), Declaration of Independence (1776), Articles of Confederation (ratified 1781), Northwest Ordinance (1787), U.S. Constitution (1789).
- Key treaties with Native nations (1780s): Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784), Treaty of Fort McIntosh (1785), Treaty of Fort Finney (1786), Treaty of Fort Harmar (1789).
- Historian cited: Benjamin H. Irvin, Indiana University Bloomington, author of Clothed in Robes of Sovereignty: The Continental Congress and the People Out of Doors.
- Modern preservation & research institutions: National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), Smithsonian Institution; tribal historic preservation offices (THPOs) across federally recognized nations; National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for treaty and congressional records.
