In Albany New York in 1722 the English gave official recognition to the Iroquois Confederacy which was made up of the six main Iroquois tribes in the Hudson River Valley and to the west. The Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora made up the six nations.

At the dawn of the American Revolution in 1775 the Six nations were determined to remain neutral in the conflict. They had fairly good relations with the British, mainly due to the flow of trade and exorbitant gifts that the Great White Father (King George) heaped upon them.  The Americans were unable to outspend the British and had a nasty habit of armed conflict with the Iroquois. Ultimately these were the reasons why the Six nations came into the war on the side of the British, and it did not end well for them. (The Oneida and Tuscarora did come in on the side of the Americans.)

They took part in most all of the British campaigns in the Hudson River Valley acting as light infantry and scouts.  The penchant for the Natives to torture prisoners and scalping their victims was frowned upon by both sides. officially the British attempted to retrain such activities, but unofficially several British officers were known to pay the natives for scalps taken during battle. The Americans were appalled by the activities of the natives and held the British responsible. In fact a passage in the Declaration of Independence outright accuses the Crown of stoking the violence between the two groups.  at the same though, Patriot leaders were able to use the actions of the natives to fuel the propaganda furnace that burned bright and kept the fires of rebellion burning.

In 1779 looking to knock the Iroquois out of the war, General Washington sent General John Sullivan on an expedition against the Six Nations. Sullivan and his troops burned a number of Iroquois villages and devastated their food supply. In the 1784 Second treaty fo Ft. Stanwix the Six Nations pretty much broke into its separate components and reached agreements with the US Government. Several tribes stayed in the New York region on reservations, the Onondaga, Seneca, Tuscarora and Oneida. The Mohawk and Cayuga ended up in Canada.

Being on the losing side of the war did not go well for the Six Nations, but the odds were good that even had the British defeated the Americans, further conflict between the settlers and the natives would have been unavoidable as the pressure of the colonists moving inland, whether they be British or American, would have led to issues.

Ironically the Six Nations were one of the oldest democratic governments in existence at the time it was all but wiped out by the newest democratic government. Of course in this brief article we can only touch a little on the role that the natives played in the war. If you would like to find out more start here

https://www.nps.gov/revwar/About_the_revolution/american_indians.html