The Stockbridge Indian community struggled to survive after losing 40 men in the Revolutionary War. Like all soldiers’ widows, Stockbridge women endured tremendous hardship without their spouse’s support. Stockbridge veterans and widows were also denied bounty lands promised to other Continental soldiers.
Finding themselves increasingly marginalized by colonists in their town, they turned to the Continental Congress for help. Believing their “Active part in the War…deserved better treatment” this memorial unsuccessfully petitioned for assistance protecting their land.
