The earliest warriors from Indiana pre-date European contact. French explorers did not reach Indiana until the end of the Beaver Wars in the 17th century. The French soon established trading posts and villages. These remote outposts were defended by local militia and Native American alliances. In 1778, during the American Revolutionary War, the militia of Vincennes, Indiana declared for the United States, and local militia Captain François Riday Busseron commissioned the first American flag in Indiana. The Vincennes militia and Piankeshaw warriors resisted Lt-Governor Henry Hamilton, and in 1779 they supplied and supported United States forces under George Rogers Clark. These militias officially became associated with the United States on 25 July 1788, when Northwest Territory governor Arthur St. Clair published a law organizing the territory's militias.