Pennsylvania Scalp Bounty Proclamation, April 22, 1780
Historical Context
Summary
Throughout the Revolutionary War, bounty rewards for killing, scalping, and capturing Indigenous soldiers and civilians were offered by both Continental and British government and military officials. Support for bounty laws was further encouraged by a 1777 raid near Kittanning, Pennsylvania by Westmoreland County militiamen who scalped five Native people, most likely members of Lenape Nation. When news reached colonial officials, Pennsylvania Colonel Archibald Lochry asserted that bounties served “a good end,” and settlers were “determined to exert themselves that way.”
In 1778, British forces and allied Six Nations soldiers mounted a series of attacks on Continental forces and settlers in New York and Pennsylvania. The Continental army and settler militias soon retaliated and launched scorched earth campaigns of ethnic cleansing in Haudenosaunee, Six Nations homelands.
In May 1779, as fighting continued in the region, American Colonel Archibald Lochry wrote to Joseph Reed. Esq., President, and the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, regarding a proposed scalp bounty: “You desire sir, in your letter, if the inhabitants on the frontiers would desire a reward on Indian scalps – I have consulted with a number on this head who all seem of opinion that a reward for scalps would be of excellent use at this time, and give spirit and alacrity to our young men, and make it their interest to be constantly on the scout.”