In 1783, the United States and England signed the Treaty of Paris which officially ended the Revolutionary War. In this treaty, England agreed to give up its claims to all the lands in the Old Northwest Territory. However, trade with the Indians in this territory was lucrative and many of the key English trading posts remained. The Americans lacked the resources to enforce the treaty and the British continued to encourage and support Indian resistance to the influx of American settlers.
In response to the Indian raids in the Ohio region, the United States held a treaty council in 1786 at Fort Finney near the confluence of the Ohio and Miami Rivers. Here the United States dictated a peace treaty to the Indians which demanded the recognition of United States sovereignty, the acceptance of the protection of the United States, and giving up all claims to lands east of the Miami River. While the Shawnees signed the treaty, Miami leader Little Turtle refused to do so.
In 1787, Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance which provided for the administration of the northwestern portion of the former colonies (now the Midwest east of the Mississippi River). Historian Joseph Ellis, in his book American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic, summarizes the Northwest Ordinance this way:
“The clear implication of this landmark legislation was that any Indian presence in the northwest was presumed temporary, this despite treaty obligations with the Ohio tribes that said otherwise.”
Historian Reginald Horsman, in his book Expansion and American Indian Policy, 1783-1812, notes:
“The Northwest Ordinance made it quite clear that, whatever was said to the Indians and however strong the fears of war, the United States intended to settle the area from the Ohio to the Mississippi River.”
In his Encyclopedia of American Indian Wars, 1492-1890, Jerry Keenan writes:
“Officially, the federal government was now obliged to defend this country and to turn back illegal squatters. Yet the enactment of the Northwest Ordinance also provided a source of needed revenue for the hard-pressed U.S. government which sold land to speculators such as the Ohio Company.”
The Conflicts
The conflicts in the Ohio territory can be simplified this way: the United States wanted the land so that it could be sold to pay for the Revolutionary War, while the Indians, who had lived on the land and farmed it for more than a thousand years, did not want to give it up. The Indians were a loose confederacy under the Miami war chief Little Turtle (1752-1812).
Following the Revolutionary War, American settlers began pouring into the Old Northwest and squatting on Indian land. In response, the Indians carried out many raids against the squatters, killing about 1,500 Americans between 1783 and 1790. About the Indian military strategy, Carl Waldman, in his book Who Was Who in Native American History: Indians and Non-Indians From Early Contacts Through 1900, writes:
“Little Turtle encouraged a strategy of concealment and swift, small strikes to confuse the enemy. He also advised his men, after an ambush, even without losses, to retreat farther into the wilderness, and to burn some of their villages. Once the soldiers were weary and far from their supply lines, Little Turtle then ordered attacks.”
By 1790, the American settlers in Ohio were demanding protection from the Indians and so the United States sent in a force of 1,500 militia from Kentucky and Pennsylvania under the command of Josiah Harmar to retaliate and punish the Indians. The American troops burned Indian crops and villages, including the Shawnee village of Chillicothe. Shawnee warriors under Blue Jacket and Miami warriors under Little Turtle constantly harassed the American forces.
In one skirmish, American troops pursued two Indian warriors. The Americans entered a meadow and saw that at one end there was a fire and several trinkets and Indian goods scattered around. The militia gathered at the fire and snatched up the booty. In the woods, Little Turtle and 150 Miami warriors leveled their muskets and fired. The militia threw down their muskets and ran away in panic.
In Indiana, Miami war chief Little Turtle led 2,000 warriors against Colonel Josiah Harmar’s forces near present-day Fort Wayne. The American forces were defeated. Jerry Keenan reports:
“Emboldened by their success against Harmar, the Indians increased their raids throughout the Ohio country settlements.”
In 1791, a large war party of Miami warriors led by Little Turtle, and Shawnee warriors led by Blue Jacket, moved up the St. Mary’s River to attack the encampment of the new territorial governor, Arthur St. Clair (pronounced Sinclair). The large war party was divided into smaller groups of 20 with four hunters for each group assigned to procure food. The Indian army covered 50 miles in four days through sleet and snow.
In the Battle of Missisinewa, which lasted for about three hours, the Americans were defeated. In their retreat they left behind 630 dead and 283 wounded. The Indians lost about 40 warriors. Smithsonian historian Herman Viola, in his book After Columbus: The Smithsonian Chronology of the North American Indians, calls this defeat “the worst ever suffered by American forces against Indians.” Historian Landon Jones, in his book William Clark and the Shaping of the West, writes:
“St. Clair’s Defeat remains the most one-sided loss in the history of the United States military.”
Jerry Keenan writes:
“The defeat was staggering, the worst ever suffered by the U.S. Army up to that time in terms of the numbers engaged.”
Following the defeat, President George Washington chose General Anthony Wayne, known as “Mad Anthony,” to organize an army to defeat the Indians. General Wayne then spent 12 months recruiting and training his army. His strategy was to move into Indian territory and establish a series of forts.
Wayne established Fort Recovery near the site of General St. Clair’s 1791 defeat. In 1794, Little Turtle’s warriors made two attacks on the fort and were repelled both times. Carl Waldman reports:
“Soon after the Indians’ failure to take this post, Little Turtle withdrew from the war, regarding Wayne as too formidable an enemy for his warriors to face without military support from the British.”
The Battle of Fallen Timbers
The Battle of Fallen Timbers, fought in Ohio in 1794 was a decisive defeat for the Indian nations of the region and led to the Greenville Treaty in which the Indian nations gave up most of their land.
Fallen Timbers, near present-day Toledo, Ohio, was a grove of trees which had been felled by a tornado. It was an area about a mile long and 200 to 400 yards wide. Jerry Keenan writes that
“…it was a nightmarish place of dense brush, swampy patches, and second-growth trees.”
It was here that Little Turtle’s Miamis and their allies had hoped to lead the American forces under Mad Anthony Wayne into an ambush. However, an advance unit of Kentucky militia was attacked by Ottawa warriors under Little Otter and Egushawa. Jerry Keenan reports:
“The Indian army had positioned itself to ambush the Americans as they moved through Fallen Timbers. However, the impulsive Ottawas, who attacked from the center, had sprung the trap prematurely.”
In a brief battle (less than an hour), the Indians were defeated. The Indians had hoped that the British would come to their aid, but the British forces never materialized.
The American forces then went on to raze Indian villages and burn crops. The American forces destroyed 30-40,000 bushels of grain.
Historian Landon Jones writes:
“The Battle of Fallen Timbers forever extinguished the Indians’ dream of confining the Americans to the ‘Virginia shore’ of the Ohio.”
Jerry Keenan writes:
“The Battle of Fallen Timbers was one of the decisive battles in the long history of America’s Indian wars. It resulted in the Greenville Treaty which effectively ended the crisis in the region.”
The Greenville Treaty
In 1795, “Mad Anthony” Wayne, not known for his diplomatic skills, dictated the Treaty of Greenville which was signed by Little Turtle (Miami), Blue Jacket (Shawnee) and others. There were no negotiations: the Indians gave up most of Ohio and part of Indiana. In exchange for the land, the Indians were to receive $25,000 in trade goods and annuity of $9,500.
At the Treaty of Greenville, Little Turtle was the principal spokesman for eleven tribes. In his biographical sketch of Little Turtle in the Encyclopedia of North American Indians, Stewart Rafert writes:
“At the treaty grounds he eloquently defended Native American sovereignty in the Old Northwest. He also defined Miami ownership of all of present-day Indiana, the western third of Ohio, and part of Illinois and southern Michigan.”
Under the terms of the treaty, the Indian nations “accepted the political sovereignty of the United States” and the “United States officially recognized the Indian right to the soil.” In his entry on the Miamis in the Encyclopedia of North American Indians, Stewart Rafert reports:
“The Miamis, believing that the treaty guaranteed them sovereignty of their land, pledged peace with the American authorities.”
In his book God Gave Us This Country: Tekamthi and the First American Civil War, Bil Gilbert writes:
“At Greenville the Americans took less than they might have, being confident that by the time there was a demand for more western lands, the Indian populations in them would be much reduced by disease, poverty, and whiskey.”
According to historian Randolph Downes, in his book Council Fires on the Upper Ohio: A Narrative of Indian Affairs in the Upper Ohio Valley until 1795:
“The treaty of Greenville marked the end of the contest for the control of the upper Ohio. Never again were the Indians to menace the white man’s supremacy in that region.”
Indians 101
Twice each week—on Tuesdays and Thursdays—this series present American Indian topics. More eighteenth-century American Indian histories from this series:
Indians 101: Forming Indian policies under President Washington
Indians 101: Queen Anne's War in the North
Indians 101: Russians and Native Americans in the 18th century
Indians 101: The Pueblos, 1700 to 1725
Indians 101: Massachusetts, 1700 to 1725
Indians 101: The Natchez and the French
Indians 101: The Cherokee and the United States, the First Decade
Indians 101: The Lenni Lenape and the Revolutionary War
