 The opportunity to trade for furs and to broker political alliances also attracted both British and French traders and the town became a key center in dealings between Native American tribes and Europeans.During the 1740s and 1750s, both the British and the French became increasingly concerned about the growing Native American settlements in the region, including Lower Shawneetown's neighbors, Logstown, Pickawillany, and Sandusky.Historian Richard White characterizes such "Indian republics" as multiethnic and autonomous, made up of a variety of smaller disparate social groups