Dummer's War (1722–1725) was a series of battles between the New England Colonies and the Wabanaki Confederacy (specifically the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, Penobscot, and Abenaki), who were allied with New France. The eastern theater of the war was located primarily along the border between New England and Acadia in Maine, as well as in Nova Scotia; the western theater was located in northern Massachusetts and Vermont in the frontier areas between Canada (New France) and New England.The Nova Scotia theater of the Dummer War is named the "Mi'kmaq-Maliseet War". John Grenier. The Far Reaches of Empire: War in Nova Scotia 1710–1760. University of Oklahoma Press. 2008.
The root cause of the conflict on the Maine frontier concerned the border between Acadia and New England, which New France defined as the Kennebec River in southern Maine.Campbell, Gary. The Road to Canada: The Grand Communications Route from Saint John to Quebec. Goose Lane Editions and The New Brunswick Heritage Military Project, 2005. p. 21. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British control after the Siege of Port Royal in 1710 and the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 (not including Cape Breton Island), but present-day New Brunswick and Maine remained contested between New England and New France. New France established Catholic missions among the four largest Native villages in the region: one on the Kennebec River (Norridgewock), one farther north on the Penobscot River (Penobscot Indian Island Reservation), one on the Saint John River (Meductic Indian Village / Fort Meductic),Grenier, John, The Far Reaches of Empire. University of Oklahoma Press, 2008. and one at Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia (Saint Anne's Mission). Similarly, New France established three forts along the border of New Brunswick during Father Le Loutre's War to protect it from a British attack from Nova Scotia.
The Treaty of Utrecht ended Queen Anne's War, but it had been signed in Europe and had not involved any member of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Abenaki signed the 1713 Treaty of Portsmouth, but none had been consulted about British ownership of Nova Scotia, and the Miꞌkmaq began to make raids against New England fishermen and settlements. The war began on two fronts as a result of the expansion of New England settlements along the coast of Maine and at Canso, Nova Scotia. The New Englanders were led primarily by Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor William Dummer, Nova Scotia Lieutenant Governor John Doucett, and Captain John Lovewell. The Wabanaki Confederacy and other Native tribes were led primarily by Father Sébastien Rale, Chief Gray Lock, and Chief Paugus.
During the war, Father Rale was killed by a force of New England militia at Norridgewock. The Native population retreated from the Kennebec and Penobscot rivers to St. Francis and Becancour, Quebec, and New England took over much of the Maine territory.New Englanders safely settled the land, but Massachusetts did not officially lay claim to the entire Penobscot watershed until the treaty of 1752. In 1759, the Pownall Expedition led by Governor Thomas Pownall established Fort Pownall on Cape Jellison within Stockton Springs, Maine.
Background
Dummer's War is also known as the Fourth Anglo-Abenaki War. The three previous Indian Wars were King Philip's War (or the First Indian War) in 1675, King William's War (or the Second Indian War), and Queen Anne's War (or the Third Indian War) from 1703 to 1711.
Queen Anne's War ended with the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. The colonial borders of northeastern America were reshaped as a result, but the treaty did not account for Indian claims to the same area. French Acadia was ceded to Great Britain which established the province of Nova Scotia, although its borders were disputed. The area disputed by the European powers consisted of land between the Kennebec River and the Isthmus of Chignecto (encompassing the eastern portion of Maine and all of the Canadian province of New Brunswick). This land was occupied by a number of Algonquian-speaking Indian tribes loosely allied in the Wabanaki Confederacy, which also claimed sovereignty over most of this territory and had occupied portions of the land before the colonists.
Massachusetts Governor Joseph Dudley organized a major peace conference at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In negotiations there and at Casco Bay, the Wabanaki objected to British assertions that the French had ceded their territory to Britain in eastern Maine and New Brunswick, but they agreed to confirm the boundaries at the Kennebec River and to establish government-run trading posts in their territory.Morrison, Kenneth (1984). The Embattled Northeast: The Elusive Ideal of Alliance in Abenaki-Euramerican Relations. University of California Press. The Treaty of Portsmouth was ratified on July 13, 1713, by eight representatives of the Wabanaki Confederacy, however, which asserted British sovereignty over their territory.Calloway, Colin. The Western Abenakis of Vermont, 1600–1800: War, Migration, and the Survival of an Indian People (University of Oklahoma Press, 1990) Over the next year, other Abenaki tribal leaders also signed the treaty, but no Miꞌkmaq ever signed it or any other treaty until 1726.
Encroachment of settlements and fortifications Following the peace, New England settlements expanded east of the Kennebec River, and significant numbers of New Englanders began fishing in Nova Scotia waters. They established a permanent fishing settlement at Canso, Nova Scotia, which upset the local Miꞌkmaq, who then began raiding the settlement and attacking the fishermen. In response to Wabanaki hostilities, Nova Scotia Governor Richard Philipps built a fort at Canso, Nova Scotia, in 1720. Massachusetts governors Joseph Dudley and Samuel Shute built forts around the mouth of the Kennebec River: Fort George at Brunswick (1715),Fort George replaced Fort Andros which was built during King William's War (1688). Fort Menaskoux at Arrowsic (1717), St. George's Fort at Thomaston (1720), and Fort Richmond (1721) at Richmond. The French built a church in the Abenaki village of Norridgewock in Madison, Maine on the Kennebec River, maintained a mission at Penobscot on the Penobscot River, and built a church in the Maliseet village of Meductic on the Saint John River.
In a meeting at Arrowsic, Maine in 1717, Governor Shute and representatives of the Wabanakis attempted to reach some agreement concerning encroachment on Wabanaki lands and the establishment of provincially operated trading posts. Kennebec sachem Wiwurna objected to colonists establishing settlements and constructing forts; he claimed sovereign control of the land, while Shute reasserted colonial rights to expand into the territory. The Wabanakis were willing to accede to existing settlements if a proper boundary was delineated, beyond which settlement would not be allowed. Shute responded, "We desire only what is our own, and that we will have."
Over the next several years, New England colonists continued to settle in Wabanaki lands east of the Kennebec River, and the Wabanakis responded by stealing livestock. Canso was established as a fishing settlement disputed by all three parties but fortified by Nova Scotia and primarily occupied by Massachusetts fishermen. Miꞌkmaq and French forces attacked it in 1720, further raising tensions.Rawlyk, George (1973). Nova Scotia's Massachusetts. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 129 Shute protested the presence of the French Jesuit priest Sébastien Rale, who lived among the Kennebec tribe at Norridgewock in central Maine, and he demanded that Rale be removed. The Wabanakis refused in July 1721 and demanded that hostages be released (who had been given in surety during earlier negotiations) in exchange for a delivery of furs made in restitution for their raiding. Massachusetts made no official response.
The Wabanakis then went to extraordinary lengths to produce a written document reasserting their sovereign claims to disputed areas, delineating the areas that they claimed, and threatening violence if their territory was violated. Shute dismissed the letter as "insolent and menacing" and sent militia forces to Arrowsic. Belmessous, Saliha (2011). Native Claims: Indigenous Law Against Empire. New York: Oxford University Press. He also asserted that the Wabanaki claims were part of a French intrigue, based on Rale's influence, to further French claims to the disputed areas.
Undeclared war
Governor Shute was convinced that the French were behind Wabanaki claims, so he sent a military expedition under the command of Colonel Thomas Westbrook of Thomaston to capture Father Rale in January 1722. Most of the tribe was away hunting, and Westbrook's 300 soldiers surrounded Norridgewock to capture Rale, but he was forewarned and escaped into the forest. They found his strongbox among his possessions, however, which contained a secret compartment. Inside that compartment they found letters implicating Rale as an agent of the government of Canada, promising Indians enough ammunition to drive the British colonists from their settlements.
Shute reiterated English claims of sovereignty over the disputed areas in letters to the Lords of Trade and to Governor General Philippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil of New France. Vaudreuil pointed out in response that France claimed sovereignty over the area, while the Wabanakis maintained possession, and he suggested that Shute misunderstood the way in which European ideas of ownership differed from those of the Indians.
In response to the raid on Norridgewock, the Abenakis raided Fort George on June 13Goold, William, Portland in the Past, pp. 184–185 which was under the command of Captain John Gyles. They burned the homes of the village and took 60 prisoners, most of whom were later released. The Encyclopedia of North American Indian Wars, 1607–1890: A Political ... edited by Spencer C. Tucker, James Arnold, Roberta Wiener, p. 249 On July 15, Father Lauverjat from Penobscot led 500 to 600 Indians from Penobscot and Medunic (Maliseet) and laid siege to Fort St. George for 12 days. They burned a sawmill, a large sloop, and sundry houses, and killed many of their cattle. Five New Englanders were killed and seven were taken prisoner, while the New Englanders killed 20 Maliseet and Penobscot warriors. After the raid, Westbrook was given command of the fort. Following this raid, Brunswick was raided again and burned before the warriors returned to Norridgewock.
In response to the New England attack on Father Rale at Norridgewock in March 1722, 165 Miꞌkmaq and Maliseet fighters gathered at Minas (Grand Pre, Nova Scotia) to lay siege to Annapolis Royal. Grenier, John. The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier, 1607–1814. 2003 Lieutenant Governor John Doucett took 22 Miꞌkmaqs hostage in May to prevent the provincial capital from being attacked. In July, the Abenakis and Miꞌkmaqs blockaded Annapolis Royal with the intent of starving the capital.Murdoch, Beamish. History of Nova Scotia or Acadia, p. 399 The Indians captured 18 fishing vessels and prisoners in raids from Cape Sable Island to Canso. They also seized prisoners and vessels working in the Bay of Fundy.William , notes that the three Boston newspapers printed 13 separate stories between June 25 and September 24, describing violent altercations along the east coast of mainland Nova Scotia.
On July 25, Governor Shute formally declared war on the Wabanakis. Lieutenant Governor William Dummer conducted the Massachusetts involvement in the war, since Shute sailed for England at the end of 1722 to deal with ongoing disputes that he had with the Massachusetts colonial assembly.
Eastern theater (Maine and New Hampshire) 1722 campaign