Covenant Chain

The Covenant Chain was a series of alliances and treaties developed during the seventeenth century, primarily between the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois) and the British colonies of North America, with other Native American tribes added. First meeting in the New York area at a time of violence and social instability for the colonies and Native Americans, the English and Haudenosaunee councils and subsequent treaties were based on supporting peace and stability to preserve trade. They addressed issues of colonial settlement, and tried to suppress violence between the colonists and Indigenous, as well as among the Indigenous, from New England to the Colony of Virginia.