Colonel John Butler has recruited a regiment of Loyalists, while Seneca chiefs Sayenqueraghta and Cornplanter have recruited primarily Seneca warriors, and Joseph Brant has recruited primarily Mohawks for what has become a guerrilla war against the American frontier settlers.

By April 1778 the Seneca were raiding settlements along the Allegheny and Susquehanna Rivers, and by early June the three groups meet at the native village of Tioga, New York.

Butler and the Seneca decide to attack the Wyoming Valley, while Brant and the Mohawks (who had already raided Cobleskill in May) target settlements further north.

American military leaders, including Washington and Lafayette, have also sought to recruit Iroquois, primarily as a diversion to keep the British in Quebec busy.

These recruitment attempts, however, have met with more limited success.

The Oneida and Tuscarora are the only tribes of the Six Nations to become Patriot allies.