 Following a series of attacks during the 1750s by Indians on German pioneers and other immigrants who had begun relocating to, and settling in, various parts of Pennsylvania, including west of the Susquehanna River, colonial government leaders began receiving petitions from hundreds of those settlers for protection.In response, the Province of Pennsylvania spent eighty-five thousand pounds to erect a chain of blockhouses and forts along the Kittanning Hills from the Delaware River to the province's border with Maryland.Those military installations were then manned with between 20 to 75 members of the provincial militia.