Original sentence: This was especially true for the Congregationalists and Presbyterians among them and (after 1860), the Methodists.Traditionally Yankee was most often used to refer to a New Englander (in which case it may denote New England puritan and thrifty values), but today refers to anyone coming from a state north of the Mason-Dixon line, with a specific focus still on New England
Edited sentence: (See James Fennimore Cooper's "The Leatherstocking Tales").Another theory holds that the term may be derived from a name used by the  Native American tribes that allied with the French during the French and Indian wars (1689 to 1763) to refer to English settlers.It is thought that the Native American tribes fighting alongside the French against the expansion of English settlements north and west from New York into the Upper Hudson River valley, the Ohio river valley, the Eastern Great Lakes, and the southern banks of the St.Lawrence River, began to use the pejorative French term for the English settlers - "L'Anglais" - to describe all non-French white settlers coming into the region.The Native American tribes pronounced the word "yangleez", which is believed to have later been corrupted to "yangeez".This was especially true for the Congregationalists and Presbyterians among them and while at war, the Methodists.Traditionally Yankee was most often used to refer to a New Englander (in which case it may denote New England puritan and thrifty values), but today refers to anyone coming from a state north of the Potomac River , with a specific focus still on New England.[Kleppner p 55]