Deerfield, Franklin, The Colony of Massachusetts Bay, British Colonial America is far inland from the Cape Cod Bay For several decades during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Deerfield was the northwestern-most outpost of New England settlement. It occupies a fertile portion of the upper Connecticut River Valley now known as the Pioneer Valley. It was vulnerable to attack because of its position near the Berkshires highlands. For these reasons it was the site of intertribal warfare and several Anglo-French and Indian skirmishes during its early history At the time of the English colonists' arrival, the Deerfield area was inhabited by the Algonquian-speaking Pocumtuck nation, who settled a major village by the same name. English colonists arrived in 1673, and Deerfield was incorporated in 1677. Settlement was the result of a court case in which the government in Boston returned some of Dedham to Native American control in exchange for land in the new township of Pocumtuck, on which Dedham residents could settle. The Dedham settlers' agent, John Plympton, signed a treaty with the Pocumtuck, including a man named Chaulk. But he had no authority to deed the land to the colonists and appeared to have only a rough idea of what he was signing. Native Americans and the English had different ideas about property and land use; this, along with competition for resources, contributed to conflicts between them [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deerfield,_Massachusetts ]