At the end of 1776, the only militant Cherokee were those who migrated with Dragging Canoe to the Chickamauga towns and became known as the Chickamauga Cherokee. The second phase lasted from 1783 to 1794. The Cherokee served as proxies of the Viceroyalty of New Spain against the recently formed United States of America. Because they migrated westward to new settlements initially known as the Five Lower Towns, referring to their location in the Piedmont, these people became known as the Lower Cherokee. This term was used well into the 19th century. In 1786, Mohawk leader Joseph Brant, a major war chief of the Iroquois, organized the Western Confederacy of tribes to resist American settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. The Lower Cherokee were founding members and fought in the Northwest Indian War that resulted from this conflict.