Together, they leave her family's luxurious home to embark on a frontier life on Gil's small Deerfield farm situated in the Mohawk Valley of Central New York.

In July 1776, after the American Revolutionary War has broken out, the valley's settlers have formed a militia in anticipation of conflict, and Gil enlists in it.

As Gil and his neighbors are clearing land for farming, Blue Back, a friendly Oneida man, arrives to warn them that a Seneca raiding party led by a Loyalist named Caldwell is in the valley.

Shortly afterward, a regiment arrives at the fort to announce that Lord Cornwallis has surrendered to George Washington at the siege of Yorktown and the war is over.

A central feature of the plot is the Battle of Oriskany, a pivotal engagement of the Saratoga campaign during the American Revolutionary War, in which a British force drove southward from Canada in an attempt to occupy the Hudson Valley and isolate Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts from the rest of the Thirteen Colonies.

[5][6] The Mohawk Valley of upstate New York had been the traditional homeland of the Iroquois Six Nations, a powerful political and military force in the region prior to the American Revolution.

Increasingly, white settlers entered the area, with a contingent furthest west of primarily German Palatine origin, who had been largely welcomed by the Mohawks resident there.

Nonetheless, the larger Iroquois Confederacy (that the Mohawks were a part of) was quite concerned about the increasing presence and growing numbers of White settlers in their homeland.

[5][6] Contrary to its depiction in the film, Fort Schuyler was situated far from any civilian settlements at the site of an important portage of east-west travel through the Mohawk Valley.

[9] Some sources state that attacks on settlements in the Mohawk Valley lacked a historical basis, and were included in the film because Ford felt obliged to perpetuate the mythology.

While Loyalists and local Native American tribes were a factor in the actual Mohawk Valley campaign,[14] their role was a minor one compared to that of the British Army.

The first one was awarded to Gloversville, New York, where it screened at the Glove Theatre, the flagship venue and headquarters for Schine Enterprise, citing its geographic location of Fort Johnson and Sacandaga.

Prior to the screening, a street parade took place which included several Native American Tribes, The Liberty Boys, and descendants of Douw Fonda.