Three Years War
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[edit] The Three Years War 1722-25
The Three Years War, more commonly known as Dummer's War and also known as Father Rale's War, Lovewell's War, Greylock's War or the 4th Indian War, was the fourth of six Indian wars fought in Maine from 1675 to 1760 between British settlers and the Abenaki Tribe of Native Americans.
With increasing pressure for living space along the coast of Maine and more land being taken from the Abenaki Tribe several Jesuits, most notably Father Sebastian Rasles encouraged the Abenaki (recently converted to Christianity) to defend their land. Conferences were held between 1717 and 1719 between the British and Abenaki but no agreement could be reached. After several violent incidents the governor of Massachusetts, Samuel Shuttle, declared war upon the Abenaki Tribe. This was the first of the Indian wars in which British soldiers vigorously raided Indian villages and camps, in probable reaction to heavy Indian aggression in the first three wars. For example in 1724 a colonial army attacked and burned Norridgewock on the upper Kennebec River in Maine, killing Rasles and mutilating his corpse. The previous wars had weakened the Abenaki and hostilities soon ended in 1725.
The following two Indian wars again saw harder aggression from the British, The French, though officially neutral, harboured sympathies for the Abenaki, and this coupled with circumstances of Rasles' death almost provoked an open rebellion among the French population in Acadia. Though officially the war ended in 1725 fighting continued until 1727. After this fighting several tribes returned to Maine.
