175-679: The Northwest Indian War (1785–1795), also known by other names, was an armed conflict for control of the Northwest Territory fought between the United States and a united group of Native American nations known today as the Northwestern Confederacy . The United States Army considers it the first of the American Indian Wars . Following centuries of conflict for control of this region,
350-559: A preliminary raid . Natives gathered nearly 2,000 warriors at Kekionga in anticipation of facing Scott's Kentuckians, but Scott instead turned northwest and targeted undefended Wea towns on the Wabash River, destroying Ouiatenon and Kethtippecanunk (Tippecanoe). St. Clair had hoped to start his campaign in July, but he was delayed by his illness as well as a shortage of recruits. In August, he sent Lieutenant Colonel James Wilkinson on
525-608: A standardized system for surveying the land into saleable lots, although Ohio was partially surveyed several times using different methods, resulting in a patchwork of land surveys in Ohio. Some older French communities' property claims based on earlier systems of long, narrow lots also were retained. The rest of the Northwest Territory was divided into roughly uniform square townships and sections, which facilitated land sales and development. The ordinance also stipulated that
700-563: A US army by Native Americans in history. About 623 American soldiers were killed in action, and about 50 Native Americans were killed. Although an investigation exonerated him, St. Clair resigned his army commission in March 1792 at the request of President Washington, but continued to serve as Governor of the Northwest Territory. After St. Clair's defeat, In June 1792, President Washington tapped revolutionary war hero Major General "Mad" Anthony Wayne to avenge St. Clair and assert sovereignty over
875-459: A brigade of mounted militia to guard the open left flank while the rest of the Kentucky militia formed a reserve. Once contact had been established, U.S. scouts identified the location of Confederacy warriors, and Wayne ordered an immediate bayonet charge. Legion dragoons also charged and attacked with sabers. Blue Jacket's warriors fled from the battlefield to regroup at nearby Fort Miami but found
1050-570: A convoy near Fort Recovery. They prevailed in the council, and so on June 30 warriors ambushed the convoy then rushed the fort, but they were driven off by American musket fire and artillery. The attack's failure discouraged the Three Fires contingent, who accused the Shawnees of insufficient support. They went home, depriving Blue Jacket of about half his army, which returned to the Glaize. After
1225-667: A few with thousands of settlers, chiefly along the Ohio and Miami Rivers and the south shore of Lake Erie in Ohio. Conflicts between settlers and Native American inhabitants of the Territory resulted in the Northwest Indian War culminating in General "Mad" Anthony Wayne 's victory at Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. The subsequent Treaty of Greenville in 1795 opened the way for settlement particularly in southern and western Ohio. The Northwest Territory included all
1400-549: A fort on the Maumee to defend Detroit from the advancing Americans. In April, Simcoe constructed Fort Miami and garrisoned it with 120 soldiers and an artillery detachment. Dorchester's words and actions caused an uproar in the United States; the construction of Fort Miami on what Americans regarded as their territory was considered an act of aggression. In May, Chief Justice John Jay was dispatched to England to negotiate
1575-641: A group of mostly minor chiefs signed the Treaty of Fort Harmar , which merely confirmed the terms of the previous disputed treaties. "I am persuaded their general confederacy is entirely broken," wrote St. Clair. Instead of breaking the Confederacy, St. Clair had discredited Natives willing to compromise and strengthened the influence of the militants. After the Fort Harmar treaty, violence between Natives and settlers escalated. Natives attacked flatboats on
1750-641: A large Native American state that would cover most of the Old Northwest. It would be independent of the United States and allied with the British, who would use it to block American westward expansion and to build up their control of the North American fur trade headquartered in Montreal. A new colony, named Charlotina , was proposed for establishment in the southern Great Lakes region before
1925-526: A loss to determine what the savages are about, and where they are," he wrote to Knox in November. The Natives were having their own logistical problems, with many warriors scattering for the winter hunt. The Legion wintered at Fort Greenville, but on December 23, Wayne led a detachment of about 300 men to the site of St. Clair's defeat. There, his troops built Fort Recovery , buried the American dead still on
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#17327657615532100-462: A major general. He led a punitive expedition involving two Regular Army regiments and some militia. In October 1791 as an advance post for his campaign, Fort Jefferson (Ohio) , was built under his direction. Located in present-day Darke County in far western Ohio, the fort was built of wood and intended primarily as a supply depot; accordingly, it was originally named Fort Deposit. One month later, near modern-day Fort Recovery , his force advanced to
2275-658: A new boundary, preserving everything west of the Muskingum River as Native land. When St. Clair dismissed the idea, Brant boycotted the negotiations and suggested others do the same. The Northwestern Confederacy was deeply divided. Those living closest to the Americans supported compromising. Those further away – the Miamis, Lenapes, and Shawnees around Kekionga – insisted upon the Ohio River boundary. In January 1789,
2450-600: A part of Indiana Territory starting in 1800) began in 1801, through the Cincinnati land office. After the Revolutionary War ended, Rufus Putnam (the "Father of Ohio") and Manasseh Cutler were instrumental in creating the Northwest Ordinance , which opened up the Northwest Territory for settlement. This land was used to serve as compensation for what was owed to Revolutionary War veterans. It
2625-553: A population, excluding Native Americans, of over 45,000, and Indiana Territory, a population of about 5,600. By the time of Ohio statehood, there were as many as 50 named towns in Northwest and Indiana Territories, a few, like Vincennes, with thousands of settlers, and dozens of unnamed settlements below the Treaty Line in Ohio. Following settlement of the frontier, the great wave of colonial immigration flowed westward, founding
2800-467: A resolution to the crisis. The Native Confederacy, encouraged by British actions, sent out messengers to recruit additional warriors. At Fort Greenville, Wayne was delayed by supply problems, but the construction of Fort Miami compelled him to accelerate his schedule. Eager to begin operations, he impatiently awaited the arrival of a reinforcement of Kentucky militiamen. In late June, Wayne was joined by about 100 Chickasaws and Choctaws , who had come from
2975-535: A return trip to Pennsylvania from a military post in Detroit on December 15, 1796, one year after the ratification of the Treaty of Greenville. Wayne's second in command, General Wilkinson, was named the new commander of U.S. forces. It was later learned that Wilkinson had secretly tried to undermine Wayne throughout the campaign, writing negative letters to civilian leaders and anonymously to local newspapers. Wilkinson
3150-569: A second raid, which had originally been intended as a diversion in support of the main expedition. Wilkinson, with 500 mounted Kentucky militiamen, destroyed a Miami town on the Eel River . Wilkinson killed 9 Wea and Miami and captured 34 Miami as prisoners, including a daughter of Miami war chief Little Turtle. Many of the confederation leaders were considering terms of peace to present to the United States, but when they received news of Wilkinson's raid, they readied for war. Wilkinson's raid thus had
3325-524: A series of significant defeats, including the Harmar campaign (1790) and St. Clair's defeat (1791), which is among the worst defeats ever suffered in the history of the U.S. Army . It was also later discovered that the British had a frequent tactic of dressing up as Native Americans to participate in their battles. St. Clair's devastating loss destroyed most of the United States Army and left
3500-551: A skirmish known as Hartshorne's Defeat , leaving five settlers dead and eight missing. That autumn, the United States launched a major offensive against the Natives along the Maumee River. This punitive expedition was led by General Harmar, whose orders were to destroy Kekionga and the surrounding towns, killing any Natives who opposed him. His army, consisting of 1,100 militiamen and 320 regulars, departed Fort Washington on
3675-455: A solution: the U.S. should use the money it would spend on buying land and fighting a war and instead pay the settlers to relocate south of the Ohio River. These terms were unacceptable to the Americans, and the commissioners replied that "the negotiation is therefore at an end." Back on the Maumee, Brant bitterly announced the Iroquois could no longer assist the Confederacy in the fighting that
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#17327657615533850-439: A surprise attack. Their first target was the militia, which had camped on the north side of the river. The militia retreated in panic across the river, confusing the American camp. The Americans, finding themselves surrounded, tried to organize a defense, made difficult because the Natives fired from cover, targeting officers and artillerymen. Lieutenant Colonel William Darke led a bayonet charge, temporarily creating an opening for
4025-408: A wedge-shaped area of present-day Indiana in the southeast known as "the gore". It, along with everything east of the new territory, remained part of the Northwest Territory. This legislation was signed into law by President John Adams on May 7, 1800, and became effective on July 4. On April 30, 1802, Congress passed an enabling act for Ohio that authorized the residents of the eastern portion of
4200-590: A year building, training, and acquiring supplies. After a methodical campaign up the Great Miami and Maumee river valleys in western Ohio Country, Wayne led his Legion to a decisive victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers near the southwestern shore of Lake Erie (near modern Toledo, Ohio ) in 1794. Afterward, he went on to establish Fort Wayne at the Miami capital of Kekionga , the symbol of U.S. sovereignty in
4375-582: The American Revolutionary War , provisions in the Articles of Confederation , and various treaties preceding the Northwest Indian War including Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784) and Treaty of Fort McIntosh (1785). The treaty process extended well beyond the War and existence of the Territory as a political entity. European exploration of the region began with French-Canadian voyageurs in
4550-606: The American Revolutionary War . Congress passed the Proclamation of 1783 , which recognized Native American rights to the land. A council held in 1785 at Fort Detroit declared that the confederacy would deal jointly with the United States, forbade individual tribes from dealing directly with the United States, and declared the Ohio River as the boundary between their lands and those of the American settlers. The Northwest Territory's first governor, Arthur St. Clair , sought to end Native American claims to Ohio land and thus clear
4725-441: The Articles of Confederation so long as these states were allowed to keep their western territory, fearing that those states could continue to grow and tip the balance of power in their favor under the proposed system of federal government. As a concession to obtain ratification, these states ceded their claims on the territory to the federal government: New York in 1780, Virginia in 1784, and Massachusetts and Connecticut in 1785. So
4900-512: The Carolinas , completed a migration to the area and were allowed to settle near the lands of the Oneida . They were considered cousins to the Iroquois and became the sixth nation in the confederacy. In the late 1740s and the second half of the 18th century, the British and French angled for control of the territory. The English intended to gain control of the area by sheer number of settlers on
5075-772: The Congress of the Confederation through the Northwest Ordinance , it was the nation's first post-colonial organized incorporated territory . At the time of its creation, the territory included all the land west of Pennsylvania , northwest of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River below the Great Lakes , and what later became known as the Boundary Waters . The region was ceded to
5250-439: The Northwest Indian War . Considered highly desirable, the area was subject to the overlapping and conflicting territorial ambitions of several eastern states: After negotiation with the federal government, these states ceded their claims to the United States between 1780 and 1786. In July 1787, most of Ohio Country, the southern peninsula of what is today the state of Michigan, and eastern Illinois Country were incorporated as
5425-411: The Northwest Ordinance . A bicameral legislature consisted of a House of Representatives and a Council. The first House had 22 representatives , apportioned by population of each county. The House then nominated 10 citizens to be Council members. The nominations were sent to the U.S. Congress, which appointed five of them as the council. This assembly became the legislature of the Territory, although
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5600-775: The Quebec Act , which annexed the region to the Province of Quebec . Colonists in the Thirteen Colonies considered this one of the Intolerable Acts that contributed to the call for American Revolution the following year, which began in earnest the following year, in 1775. Despite the Crown's actions limiting westward expansion, frontiersmen from the Virginia and Pennsylvania colonies had migrated across
5775-630: The Wabash River . Beset by logistical problems, mutiny, and desertion, Clark returned without accomplishing anything. In October, Logan led 790 Kentucky militiamen to the Shawnee towns along the Mad River . The towns were inhabited primarily by noncombatants because the warriors had scattered for the winter hunt. Logan's men burned the towns and food supplies, killing and capturing numerous Natives. Moluntha , an elderly Shawnee chief who had signed
5950-418: The 17th century, followed by French missionaries and French fur traders. French-Canadian explorer Jean Nicolet was the first recorded European entrant into the region, landing in 1634 at the current site of Green Bay, Wisconsin (although Étienne Brûlé is stated by some sources as having explored Lake Superior and possibly inland Wisconsin in 1622). The French exercised control from widely separate posts in
6125-618: The Allegheny Mountains for over a decade since the Proclamation. This eventually led them into conflict with the Shawnee tribes that claimed the area as their hunting grounds. The Shawnee, who referred to the settlers as the ' long knives ', viewed the colonists as competitors to their resources and a threat to their way of life. Because of this, the Shawnee and other Indian tribes of the Ohio Country, chose to side with
6300-545: The American army was being readied, hoping to buy time to prepare and appease Americans opposed to the war. In March 1792, fifty Iroquois leaders met with U.S. officials in Philadelphia, where they were asked to attend an upcoming council of the Northwestern Confederacy and present U.S. peace terms. The U.S. also tried approaching the Northwestern Confederacy directly, which proved to be difficult since
6475-464: The Americans continued to occupy forts north of the Ohio River. In March 1792, Wilkinson constructed Fort St. Clair to improve communications and logistics between Forts Hamilton and Jefferson. The next month, Knox sent emissaries to the Natives, including John Hardin and Major Alexander Truman, veterans of the earlier campaigns; they were both killed and scalped. In June, about 50 warriors attacked Fort Jefferson, killing and capturing fifteen soldiers. It
6650-481: The Americans two weeks later at the Battle of Blue Licks . In 1783, following the Treaty of Paris in which America had gained its independence, Britain ceded its claims over the area to the new United States. The new federal government immediately opened this area to settlement by American pioneers , considering it unorganized territory. The Ohio Country quickly became one of the most desirable locations for Trans-Appalachian settlements, in particular among veterans of
6825-422: The Americans, said Red Pole. "We want restitution of our country." After much debate, the council endorsed Red Pole's position: the Ohio River was the only acceptable boundary, and American forts north of the river must be destroyed. The council also agreed to meet with the Americans in 1793. When Red Jacket reported the council decision to an American official in November, he omitted the Confederacy's demands about
7000-413: The Americans. At Niagara, the U.S. commissioners were visited by a Native delegation led by Brant. Although Brant had been one of the principal organizers of the Northwestern Confederacy, he was now suspected by the more militant members because of his willingness to negotiate with the Americans and because the Iroquois had not participated in the war. Nevertheless, Brant spoke for the delegation, asking if
7175-583: The British against the American colonists during the American Revolutionary War. They hoped to expel the colonists permanently from their lands. In 1778, after several Patriot military victories in the region by an expeditionary force led by General George Rogers Clark , the Virginia legislature organized a nominal civil government over the area. They called this first official territory Illinois County, Virginia . It encompassed all of
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7350-672: The British away. Seeking to avoid further hostilities, the British issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763 , creating a boundary line between colonists and Native lands. In 1768, British officials negotiated the Treaty of Fort Stanwix with the Iroquois , who claimed sovereignty over the Ohio Country. The treaty moved the boundary line further west and opened territory south of the Ohio River to colonial settlement. While colonial elites like George Washington organized land companies and secured grants, immigrants began pouring into
7525-492: The British ceding land or the results of the war with the newly formed United States. The British maintained a robust military presence and continued policies that supported their Native allies. With the encroachment of European-American settlers west of the Appalachian Mountains after the war, a Huron -led Confederacy formed in 1785 to resist the usurpation of Indian lands, declaring that lands north and west of
7700-478: The British in the western theater of the American Revolutionary War, seeking to drive out American settlers. In the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the war, Great Britain ceded the region to the United States, making no mention of Native land rights. The Native nations technically remained at war with the United States, and Richard Butler argued to them that the British had "cast you off, and given us your country." Mohawk leader Joseph Brant , who had fought in
7875-507: The British victory, France ceded its territory east of the Mississippi River to the British Empire in the 1763 Treaty of Paris . During the following decades, several minor frontier wars, including Pontiac's Rebellion and Lord Dunmore's War , were fought in the territory. In 1783, the Ohio Country became unorganized U.S. territory under the Treaty of Paris that officially ended the American Revolutionary War and became one of
8050-533: The British-backed Northwestern Confederacy and defending its borders. In March 1792, Congress passed a bill increasing the size of the army to more than 5,000 men. Major General "Mad" Anthony Wayne was chosen as the new commander. Congress also passed two militia acts that authorized the president to call out the militia, which had previously been under the control of the states. Washington and Knox engaged in diplomacy while
8225-431: The Confederacy by 800 warriors, though the signers were not militant members of the Confederacy. In any event, the U.S. Senate ultimately rejected the treaty because it did not specify that only the United States could purchase Native lands. Beginning in late September 1792, the Natives held a large council at the Glaize with representatives from numerous tribes, with a reported 3,600 warriors in attendance. Delegates from
8400-418: The Confederacy had yet fielded. Unlike the Americans, the Natives did not have an overall commander. Instead, military decisions were made by a council of leading chiefs and warriors. Blue Jacket urged the council to bypass Forts Recovery and Greenville and attack the American supply lines, cutting off Wayne's Legion. Recently arrived Three Fire leaders, whose warriors comprised most of the army, favored attacking
8575-471: The Confederacy. Among the attendees at the conference were representatives from the Iroquois, Shawnees, Delawares (Lenapes) , Wyandots, Three Fires ( Ojibwe , Odawa , and Potawatomi ), as well as a few Cherokees and Creeks . In the following years, U.S. states relinquished their claims in the region to the federal government, which intended to pay debts from the Revolution by selling lands north of
8750-692: The Confederacy. The Jay Treaty and U.S. relations with Great Britain remained as political issues in the 1796 United States presidential election in which John Adams beat Jay Treaty opponent Thomas Jefferson . The United States also negotiated the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. Utilizing St. Clair's defeat and Fort Recovery as a reference point, the Greenville Treaty Line forced the northwest Native American tribes to cede southern and eastern Ohio and various tracts of land around forts and settlements in Illinois Country ; to recognize
8925-562: The First Infantry Regiment southward to prevent deserters from plundering the supply convoy, depriving his army of 300 of its best troops and leaving him with about 1,400 people, including noncombatants. On November 3, St. Clair's army camped on the banks of the Wabash, near modern-day Fort Recovery, Ohio . Just before dawn on November 4, a Native force of more than 1,000 warriors led by Little Turtle and Blue Jacket launched
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#17327657615539100-484: The Fort Finney treaty, was executed by one of Logan's men. After the destruction of their towns, Shawnee refugees were invited by the Miamis to settle along the Wabash. The towns around Kekionga , the Miami capital, were now inhabited by many of the most militant members of the Northwestern Confederacy. The next meeting of the Confederacy had been scheduled to be held in the Shawnee towns, but with their destruction,
9275-608: The French from Fort Duquesne . They built Fort Pitt at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers that form the Ohio River. After being defeated by Britain, France ceded their claims to the entire Ohio Country in the 1763 Treaty of Paris . They had done so, however, without consulting their Native American allies who—in many cases—continued the fight against the colonial frontiersmen. Colonies such as Pennsylvania , Virginia , New York , and Connecticut claimed some of
9450-487: The Glaize, militant leaders, surprised that talks had been initiated without authorization from the Confederacy, debated the proposal. The militants prevailed, and the matter was dropped. In February 1794, Lord Dorchester told an Iroquois delegation in Quebec that Great Britain could be at war with the United States within the year and that Native lands lost to the Americans would be restored. Dorchester ordered Simcoe to build
9625-592: The Great Lakes forts while opening up some British territory in the Caribbean for American trade. The treaty also encoded free trade and freedom of movement for Native Americans living in territories controlled by either the United States or Great Britain. The Jay Treaty was ratified by the United States Senate in 1795 and was used by Wayne as evidence that Great Britain would no longer support
9800-483: The Iroquois peoples. In the 1720s, a number of Native American groups began to migrate into the Ohio Country from the east, driven by pressure from encroaching European colonists. By 1724, Delaware Indians had established the village of Kittanning on the Allegheny River in present-day western Pennsylvania. With them came those Shawnee who had historically expanded further to the east. Other eastern bands of
9975-495: The Iroquois, including Red Jacket , came to present the peace offer from the United States. Red Jacket advised the Confederacy to accept the Muskingum River as the boundary between the United States and Native territory. The Shawnee orator Red Pole spoke on behalf of the Confederacy. Red Pole denounced the Iroquois for meeting privately with the Americans to discuss further land cessions. "We do not want compensation" from
10150-558: The Jay Treaty. After two decades of efforts to take Detroit, U.S. forces under Colonel Hamtramck occupied Fort Lernoult the next day. The U.S. renamed Fort Lernoult to Fort Detroit and abandoned Fort Miami in 1799. The British re-captured Fort Detroit and Fort Miami during the War of 1812 . Fort Detroit was abandoned one year later as American forces advanced towards it, and Fort Miami was abandoned in 1814 and eventually demolished. Most of
10325-586: The Legion had relocated to a camp near Fort Washington, where Wayne awaited word to begin his invasion. In mid-May, Benjamin Lincoln , Beverley Randolph , and Timothy Pickering – the U.S. commissioners appointed to meet with the Native Confederacy – arrived at Fort Niagara at the western end of Lake Ontario, traveling by way of the Great Lakes to avoid the fates of John Hardin and Alexander Truman
10500-547: The Miami capital of Kekionga. Along the way Wayne's legion built a series of outpost forts including Fort Greene Ville, Fort Recovery and Fort Defiance. Fierce battles occurred around some of these but none of Wayne's forts were ever taken by the Native Americans. In mid 1794, the British constructed Fort Miamis near what is today Toledo, Ohio, to forestall Wayne's putative advance on the British stronghold at Detroit. The final battle of Wayne's campaign occurred within
10675-463: The Mississippi River were the Louisiana Province of New Spain, formerly New France, acquired by the United States in 1803 by the Louisiana Purchase . Lands north of the Great Lakes were part of the British Province of Upper Canada . Lands south of the Ohio River constituted Kentucky County, Virginia , admitted to the union as the state of Kentucky in 1792. The area included more than 300,000 square miles (780,000 km ) and comprised about 1/3 of
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#173276576155310850-472: The Montreal-based fur trade. The prohibition of settlement west of the Appalachians remained, contributing to the American Revolution . In February 1779, George Rogers Clark , leading a force of Virginia militia , captured Kaskaskia and Vincennes from British commander Henry Hamilton . Virginia capitalized on Clark's success by laying claim to the whole of the Old Northwest, calling it Illinois County , Virginia, until 1784, when it ceded its land claims to
11025-448: The Muskingum ). Settlement of these areas was spearheaded by Losantiville and Marietta, respectively. In 1792, Congress donated 100,000 acres to Ohio Company as a buffer zone against Native American incursion around the settled area. The vexing land claims by inhabitants of the old French Vincennes Tract were resolved by what was dubbed the 'Vincennes donation lands' embodied in a federal land act of 1791. Federal land sales in Indiana (then
11200-405: The Native Americans in October 1790. A group of squatters had moved up to the area near present-day Stockport now in Morgan County, Ohio and settled along flood plain , or "bottom" land, of the Muskingum River , some 30 miles north of an Ohio Company of Associates settlement at Marietta, Ohio . The Big Bottom massacre occurred on January 2, 1791. Lenape and Wyandot warriors stormed
11375-409: The Native nations and between the Confederacy and the British; it was the last time the Northwestern Confederacy gathered a large military force to oppose the United States. Wayne's army encamped for three days in sight of Fort Miami, which was under the command of British Major William Campbell . When Campbell asked the meaning of the encampment, Wayne replied that the answer had already been given by
11550-414: The Natives to enter the American encampment. After three hours of fighting, St. Clair ordered a retreat, abandoning many wounded and most of the army's equipment. Among the wounded left behind was Major General Richard Butler , St. Clair's second-in-command, who Natives killed after the battle. Fort Jefferson was too small to shelter the retreating Americans, so most fled back to Fort Washington. The battle
11725-494: The Northwest Territory through the Land Ordinance of 1785 . The square surveys of the Northwest Territory became a hallmark of the Midwest , as sections , townships, counties (and states) were laid out scientifically, and land was sold quickly and efficiently (although not without some speculative aberrations). Arthur St. Clair was the territory's governor until November 1802, when President Thomas Jefferson removed him from office and appointed Charles Willing Byrd , who served
11900-442: The Northwest Territory to form a state constitution and government, and be admitted to the Union. When Ohio was admitted as the 17th state on March 1, 1803, the land not included in the new state, including the gore, became part of Indiana Territory, and the Northwest Territory went out of existence. Ongoing disputes with the British over the region were a contributing factor to the War of 1812 . Britain irrevocably ceded claim to
12075-418: The Ohio River and raided into Kentucky, killing, capturing, and torturing settlers in an attempt to stem the tide of immigrants. Americans responded with counter raids, such as one led by Major John Hardin , who in August 1789 led 220 Kentucky militiamen to the Wabash region, where they killed eight Shawnees, including women and children. In 1790, George Washington, recently inaugurated as the first President of
12250-442: The Ohio River boundary and the destruction of the forts. As a result, the Americans were given an erroneous impression that the Confederacy was prepared to accept U.S. terms. Knox agreed to send treaty commissioners to the 1793 council and suspend all offensive operations until that time, angering General Wayne, who had hoped to launch the next American invasion in 1793. Following the Glaize meeting, Red Pole began an extensive tour of
12425-413: The Ohio River boundary. A new delegation (without Brant) was sent to meet the commissioners on the Detroit River. This second meeting, held at British Indian agent Matthew Elliot's estate near Amherstburg , began on July 30. The Wyandot chief Carry-One-About (So-Wagh-da-Wunk) spoke for the Confederacy, with Buckongahelas (Lenape) and Kekewepelethy in attendance. The Confederacy presented its ultimatum:
12600-426: The Ohio River on September 30. A diversionary force led by Major Jean François Hamtramck invaded from Vincennes , though it turned back before joining with Harmar. Native scouts monitored the slow progress of Harmar's northward march. The Natives had scattered for their annual winter hunt, but Blue Jacket , the principal Shawnee war chief, and Little Turtle , his Miami counterpart, dispatched messengers calling for
12775-538: The Ohio River to American settlers. American officials refused to recognize the Native Confederacy and instead pursued a policy of divide and rule . They informed the Natives their lands had been taken by right of conquest and sought to confirm this in a series of treaties in which the Americans dictated the terms. Some Native leaders buckled to the pressure and ceded land at Fort Stanwix (1784), Fort McIntosh (1785), and Fort Finney (1786). Hardline and militant Natives remained committed to defending their lands north of
12950-405: The Ohio River was the only acceptable boundary, and forts and settlers north of the river must be removed. The commissioners replied that since lands north of the Ohio had already been sold and settled by Americans, those lands could not be returned. The Native delegates returned to the Maumee to confer with the council. Brant once again argued for compromise, but he lost out to the militants, who had
13125-641: The Ohio River were Indian territory. Four years after the start of the British-supported Native American military campaign, the Constitution of the United States went into effect; George Washington was sworn in as president , which made him the commander-in-chief of U.S. military forces. Accordingly, Washington directed the United States Army to enforce U.S. sovereignty over the territory. The U.S. Army, mainly consisting of untrained recruits and volunteer militiamen, suffered
13300-640: The Ohio River were eventually organized as the state of Ohio , admitted to the Union in 1803. In the 17th century, the area north of the Ohio River was occupied by the Algonquian -speaking Shawnee and some Siouan language -speaking tribes, such as the Omaha and Ponca . Around 1660, during a conflict known as the Beaver Wars , the Iroquois and allied tribes seized control of the Ohio Country, driving out
13475-518: The Ohio River. On January 2, 1791, Wyandots and Lenapes attacked Big Bottom on the Muskingum River, killing eleven settlers. Soon after, Shawnees and Wyandots led by Blue Jacket unsuccessfully laid siege to Dunlap's Station on the Great Miami River. At both locations, a war club was left behind, a Native means of announcing a declaration of war . Although these raids were limited in success, Sword (1985) argues they "significantly altered
13650-464: The Ohio River. Shawnees and Lenapes sent out messages calling for war. After many raids and counter-raids along the Ohio River boundary, in 1786, the Kentucky militia launched the first major frontier military action since the end of the Revolutionary War. Generals George Rogers Clark and Benjamin Logan headed a two-pronged invasion of Native land. In September, Clark led 1,200 militiamen north along
13825-482: The Ohio, Indiana (1783), and Fort Harmar in Ohio (1785). The first settlements were at these locations. The first land grant was to George Rogers Clark in 1781 at Falls of the Ohio on the Indiana side; he went on to found the settlement of Clarksville. The first two land purchases were large tracts of land sold to John Symmes ( Symmes Purchase ) in 1788 and two tracts sold to Ohio Company in 1787 and 1792 ( Purchase on
14000-514: The Revolution as a British ally, was stunned to learn that "England had sold the Indians to Congress." In 1783, he took the lead in forming the Northwestern Confederacy , the "most ambitious pan-tribal confederacy yet." At the Wyandot town of Junquindundeh (modern Fremont, Ohio ), Brant argued that Native lands were held in common by all tribes, and so no land could be ceded without the consent of
14175-584: The Revolution ended, land-hungry migrants started moving west. A gateway trading post developed as the town of Brownsville, Pennsylvania , which was a key outfitting center west of the mountains. Other wagon roads, such as the Kittanning Path surmounting the gaps of the Allegheny in central Pennsylvania, or trails along the Mohawk River in New York, enabled a steady stream of settlers to reach
14350-413: The Revolutionary War and lacking authority to tax under the Articles of Confederation , planned to raise revenue from the methodical sale of land in the Northwest Territory. This plan necessarily called for the removal of both Native American villages and squatters from lands west of Appalachia, loosely, the territory called "Ohio Country" and beyond. Resistance from indigenous tribes, who were supported by
14525-447: The Revolutionary War, who were often granted land in lieu of pay for their military service during the war. In the treaties of Fort Stanwix (late 1784) and Fort McIntosh (early 1785), the United States fixed boundaries between territory open to settlement and the native tribal lands. The Shawnee and other tribes , however, continued to resist American encroachment into their historic hunting grounds. This resistance eventually led to
14700-517: The Shawnee and Siouan peoples. Those tribes mostly moved further northwest and west, with several eventually settling west of the Mississippi River. In the east, the Iroquois (or Haudenosaunee ) conquered and absorbed the Erie (who also spoke an Iroquoian language ) during this time. The Ohio Country, however, remained largely uninhabited for decades, used primarily as a hunting ground by
14875-642: The Shawnees fought and lost Lord Dunmore's War in 1774 with only a few Mingo allies, and they were compelled to assent to the Ohio River boundary between the colonies and Native lands. To better control the frontier, in 1774, the British Parliament passed the Quebec Act , which placed the entire region under the jurisdiction of the Province of Quebec , nullifying colonial land claims. American colonists who hoped to own or settle these lands were outraged, contributing to their decision to declare independence from Britain in 1776. Many Natives allied with
15050-465: The U.S. rather than Britain as the ruling power in the Old Northwest; and to surrender ten chiefs as hostages until all American prisoners were returned. The Miami also lost private control of the Kekionga portage since the Northwest Ordinance passed by Congress guaranteed free use of necessary portages in the region. Fort Lernoult and Fort Miami were abandoned by the British in 1796 as a condition of
15225-586: The United States , and Secretary of War Henry Knox decided to attack the Native Confederacy to secure the Northwest Territory for American occupation. Because many Americans distrusted the idea of a professional " standing army ," Congress kept the United States Army small and relied upon state-run militias for defense. In 1790, Congress expanded the army's single regiment, the First American Regiment , from 700 to 1,216 men. For
15400-420: The United States and wish to remain so." By remaining neutral in the conflict, the British confirmed they no longer regarded the Natives in the Northwest Territory as allies to be supported in wartime. Harmar's expedition had ended in defeat, with a total of 183 killed and missing. The Miamis, on the other hand, had lost nearly a tenth of their military manpower. Harmar's military career was over, and his campaign
15575-563: The United States in the Treaty of Paris of 1783 . Throughout the Revolutionary War , the region was part of the British Province of Quebec and the western theater of the war. It spanned all or large parts of six eventual U.S. states ( Ohio , Indiana , Illinois , Michigan , Wisconsin , and the northeastern part of Minnesota ). Reduced to present-day Ohio, eastern Michigan and a sliver of southeastern Indiana with
15750-486: The United States vulnerable. The British refused to leave the ceded land and continued their influence in Native American politics. Washington was also under congressional investigation and compelled to raise a bigger army quickly. He chose Revolutionary War veteran General Anthony Wayne to organize and train a proper fighting force. Wayne took command of the new Legion of the United States late in 1792 and spent
15925-601: The Virginia Military District and Connecticut Western Reserve. The first area to be surveyed was the Seven Ranges along the eastern border of Ohio in 1786–1789. Direct sales of federal lands to individual homesteaders started here. In some cases, the government granted or donated land for special purposes. Settlement followed the forts, whether garrisoned or not. Lack of a garrison meant that threat of Native American attack had become negligible. This
16100-617: The area as was their British colonial rivals. Armed with supplies and guns from the French, the Indians launched raids against their enemies via the Kittanning Path east of the Alleghenies. After they destroyed Fort Granville in the summer of 1756, Pennsylvania's Proprietary Governor John Penn ordered Captain John Armstrong to destroy the Shawnee villages west of the Alleghenies, hoping to put an end to their raiding activities. Meanwhile, other British and colonial forces drove
16275-501: The attack was called off. Disappointed with the lost opportunity, Blue Jacket headed for Detroit, seeking British help in opposing the next inevitable American invasion. "We now, Father, call for your assistance," he said. The British commander at Detroit was noncommittal. When Blue Jacket's request was relayed to Guy Carleton (Lord Dorchester) , the Governor General of British North America , he replied, "We are at peace with
16450-526: The battle, Little Turtle and Tarhe (Wyandot) made trips to Detroit to ask the British for support, as Blue Jacket had done on previous occasions, but the commander, Lieutenant Colonel Richard G. England , told the Natives he could not fight the Americans without orders. On the morning of August 20, the Legion broke camp and marched toward the Maumee River near modern Toledo, Ohio , where the Confederacy had set an ambush. The Legion had been reduced to about 3,000 soldiers and militia, with many soldiers defending
16625-422: The battlefield, and recovered three of the cannons lost there in 1791. In January 1794, the Confederacy sent a delegation to Fort Greenville to arrange the release of two Lenape women held by the Americans. A Lenape chief asked if Wayne was willing to hold peace talks. Wayne said he would only negotiate if the Natives recalled their war parties and released all American prisoners within the next thirty days. Back at
16800-421: The center and initiated the attack against the Legion's scouts. Front elements of the Legion's columns initially collapsed under pursuing Native Americans. Wayne immediately committed his reserves to the center to halt their advance and divided his infantry into two wings, the right commanded by Wilkinson and the other by Hamtramck. The Legion's cavalry secured the right along the Maumee River. General Scott provided
16975-409: The commissioners were authorized to create a new boundary line and inquiring why Wayne's army was preparing for war while peace negotiations were underway. The commissioners assured Brant they could negotiate a boundary and that hostilities had been officially suspended. Brant returned to the Maumee and reported to the Confederacy, and although he had some supporters, he was denounced for not insisting on
17150-477: The continued British presence in the Northwest Territory, presented a continuing obstacle for American expansion. The area making up the Ohio Country had been contested for over a century, beginning with the 17th-century Beaver Wars . The Western Confederacy , or Western Indian Confederacy , was a loose confederacy of Native Americans in the Great Lakes region of the United States created following
17325-533: The convention to form a constitution for the State of Ohio. In the 1800 United States census , following the passage of an organic act by the 6th U.S. Congress creating the Indiana Territory in 1800, seven counties in the Northwest Territory reported the following population counts: According to the 1800 Census of the United States, the Northwest Territory (i.e. the pending state of Ohio) had
17500-424: The course of frontier history," demonstrating that American settlement north of the Ohio River could not proceed until the United States defeated the Natives. Other Native attacks followed in the coming months. In response to Harmar's defeat, Congress expanded the U.S. Army to two regiments in March 1791. Washington appointed Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory, as major general in command. St. Clair
17675-494: The creation of a Native buffer state between the United States and Canada, an idea the Americans opposed. With the outbreak of war in Europe between France and Great Britain in 1793, Simcoe faced a dilemma. He had to keep peace with the United States to avoid opening another front in the war with France while at the same time maintaining British influence among the Natives in case they were needed to help defend Upper Canada against
17850-411: The crops. On October 19, Hardin led 180 men on a reconnaissance mission to discover a Native war party thought to be nearby. About 16 miles from Kekionga, Hardin's scattered men were ambushed and routed by about 150 Shawnee and Potawatomi warriors. Soon after, the Natives received additional reinforcements of Odawas, Sacs , and Foxes . On October 21, Harmar declared that his objective—the destruction of
18025-414: The destruction of their crops, scattered to hunt before winter set in. Little Turtle and Blue Jacket decided to abandon Kekionga, which had proven to be vulnerable to American raids, and relocate their towns at the confluence of the Maumee and Auglaize Rivers , where the principal Shawnee chief Kekewepelethy had already settled. This move had been encouraged by British Indian agent Alexander McKee since
18200-574: The duration of the war, the Americans would use combined operations of militiamen and regulars , with a U.S. Army officer in overall command. On April 20, 1790, the First American Regiment participated in its first offensive against Native Americans when General Josiah Harmar joined Kentucky General Charles Scott in an attack on the Shawnee village of Chalawgatha. The following month, Native Americans retaliated by attacking settlers near Limestone (modern-day Maysville, Kentucky ) in
18375-509: The enemy is at liberty to act upon the offensive," wrote Wayne to Knox. While General Wayne awaited the outcome of the peace negotiations, he prepared his army known as the Legion of the United States at Legionville , a camp on the Ohio River near Pittsburgh . Wayne believed the previous expeditions had failed due to a lack of discipline, so he thoroughly trained his troops, flogging soldiers for infractions and hanging deserters. By May 5, 1793,
18550-458: The events of Pontiac's War , after which the Crown issued the Proclamation of 1763 , which prohibited white colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains . This action angered American colonists interested in expansion, as well as those who had already settled in the area. In 1774, via the Quebec Act , Britain annexed the region to the Province of Quebec in order to provide a civil government and to centralize British administration of
18725-478: The federal government. Britain officially ceded the area north of the Ohio River and west of the Appalachians to the United States at the end of the American Revolutionary War with the Treaty of Paris (1783) , but the British continued to maintain a presence in the region as late as 1815, the end of the War of 1812 . Several states (Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut) had competing claims on
18900-474: The first American frontier regions of the United States. Several of the original U.S. states had overlapping claims to portions of it , based on historical royal and colonial charters . The states' claims were largely extinguished after negotiations with the federal government by 1787, and it became part of the larger, organized Territory Northwest of the River Ohio . Most of the former areas north-west of
19075-405: The first American settlement north of the river. He was instructed to negotiate new treaties without surrendering any lands ceded in previous treaties, acquire more land if possible, and work to undermine the Native Confederacy. In 1788, St. Clair invited Natives to Fort Harmar near Marietta, instead of a neutral site preferred by the Natives. Brant sent St. Clair a message asking if he would accept
19250-484: The focus of the Northwest Indian War, the driving events in the early evolution of the territory. Integration of the Northwest Territory into a political unit, and settlement, depended on three factors: relinquishment by the British, extinguishment of states' claims west of the Appalachians, and usurpation or purchase of lands from the Native Americans. These objectives were accomplished correspondingly by
19425-536: The following decades. It encompassed what became Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota. Putnam, in the Puritan tradition, was influential in establishing education in the Northwest Territory. Substantial amounts of land were set aside for schools. Putnam had been one of the primary benefactors in the founding of Leicester Academy in Massachusetts, and similarly, in 1798, he created
19600-490: The formation of Indiana Territory July 4, 1800, it ceased to exist March 1, 1803, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Ohio, and the remainder attached to Indiana Territory. Initially, the territory was governed by martial law under a governor and three judges. As population increased, a legislature was formed as were a succession of counties, eventually totaling thirteen. At
19775-523: The former Northwest Territory with the Treaty of Ghent in 1814. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established the Northwest Territory, and defined its boundaries, form of government, and administrative structure. In particular, it defined the bodies of government, established the legal basis of land ownership, provided for abolition and transfer of state territorial claims, made rules for admission of new states, established public education, recognized and codified 'natural rights', prohibited slavery, and defined
19950-548: The fort doors locked by the British garrison. (Britain and the United States were by then reaching a close rapprochement to counter Jacobin France in the French Revolution .) The entire battle lasted little more than an hour. The Legion had significant casualties, with 33 men killed and 100 wounded. The Confederacy had between 19 and 40 warriors killed and an unknown number wounded. The battle fostered distrust between
20125-547: The government on July 15, 1788, at Marietta . In 1790, he renamed the settlement of Losantiville Cincinnati , after the Society of the Cincinnati , and moved the administrative and military center to Fort Washington . As Governor, he formulated the Maxwell's Code (named after its printer, William Maxwell ), the first written criminal and civil laws of the territory. Maxwell's Code consisted of thirty-seven different laws with
20300-547: The governor retained veto power. Article VI of the Articles of Compact within the Northwest Ordinance prohibited the owning of slaves within the Northwest Territory. Territorial governments evaded this law by use of indenture laws. The Articles of Compact prohibited legal discrimination on the basis of religion within the territory. The township formula created by Thomas Jefferson was first implemented in
20475-664: The great cities of the eventual 6 states of the Territory which is now the midwestern United States early in the 19th century: Detroit (<1800), Cleveland (1796), Columbus (1812), Indianapolis (1822), Chicago (1833), Milwaukee (1846), Minneapolis (1847). A Federalist , St. Clair hoped to see two states made of the old Ohio Country to increase Federalist power in Congress . He was resented by Ohio Democratic-Republicans for his apparent partisanship, high-handedness and arrogance in office. In 1802, his opposition to plans for Ohio statehood led President Thomas Jefferson to remove him from office as territorial governor. He thus played no part in
20650-699: The ground. In 1749, The Crown through the government of the Colony of Virginia granted the Ohio Company a beneficial deal on this territory on the condition that it be settled by colonists from the Thirteen Colonies . With the arrival of Europeans to America, both Great Britain and France had claimed the territory and sent fur traders into the area to do business with the Ohio Country Indians. The Iroquois League also claimed
20825-582: The heart of Indian Country and within sight of the British. The defeated tribes were forced to cede extensive territory, including much of present-day Ohio , in the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. In the same year, the Jay Treaty arranged for cessions of British Great Lakes outposts on the U.S. territory. The British would briefly retake this land during the War of 1812 . In the French and Indian War (1754–1760), France and Great Britain fought for control of
21000-462: The incomplete blockhouse and killed eleven men, one woman, and two children. (Accounts vary as to the number of casualties.) Rufus Putnam wrote to President Washington that "we shall be so reduced and discouraged as to give up the settlement [Marietta following the Big Bottom disaster]." In March 1791, St. Clair succeeded Harmar as commander of the United States Army and was commissioned as
21175-466: The land area of the United States at the time of its creation. It was inhabited by about 45,000 Native Americans and 4,000 non-native traders, mostly of French Canadian , British or Irish descent . Among the tribes inhabiting the region were the Shawnee, Delaware, Miami, Wyandot, Ottawa and Potawatomi. Notably, the Miami capital along with British trading posts was at Kekionga at the site of present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana. Neutralizing Kekionga became
21350-614: The land comprising the Northwest Territory was granted to the new United States by the Kingdom of Great Britain in article 2 of the Treaty of Paris , which ended the American Revolutionary War . The treaty used the Great Lakes as a border between British territory and the United States. This granted significant territory to the United States, initially known as the Ohio Country and the Illinois Country , which had previously been prohibited to new settlements. However, numerous Native American peoples inhabited this region and were unaware of
21525-409: The land rights and applicability of laws to the Native Americans. At first, the territory had a modified form of martial law . The governor was also the senior army officer within the territory, and he combined legislative and executive authority . But a supreme court was established, and he shared legislative powers with the court . County governments were organized as soon as the population
21700-550: The lands lying west and north of the Ohio River to which Virginia had previously laid claim. The high water mark of the Native American struggle to retain control of the region was in 1782, when the Ohio Valley Indian Nations met with the British in a war council at Chalawgatha , a Shawnee village located along the Little Miami River , where they planned what was to become a successful rout of
21875-399: The location of Native American settlements near the headwaters of the Wabash River . On November 4 they were routed in battle by a tribal confederation led by Miami Chief Little Turtle and Shawnee chief Blue Jacket . More than 600 soldiers and scores of women and children were killed in the battle, known as " St. Clair's Defeat " and many other names. It remains the greatest defeat of
22050-589: The location was moved to the Wyandot village of Brownstown on the Detroit River . Joseph Brant spoke to a gathering that included Miamis and other members of the Wabash Confederacy . On December 18, 1786, the Confederacy, calling themselves the "United Indian Nations," sent a letter to the U.S. Confederation Congress declaring the recent treaties invalid because they had not been conducted with
22225-648: The majority of the territory became public land owned by the U.S. government. Virginia and Connecticut reserved two areas to use as compensation to military veterans: the Virginia Military District and the Connecticut Western Reserve Thomas Jefferson's Land Ordinance of 1784 was the first organization of the territory by the United States; it provided a process for dividing the territory into individual states. The Land Ordinance of 1785 established
22400-409: The militia. As they approached Kekionga, Wyllys divided his men, hoping to surround and trap the Natives. Instead, the Natives again ambushed the Americans and defeated them piecemeal, the survivors barely regrouping with Harmar's army. Blue Jacket and Little Turtle hoped to strike again at Harmar's retreating army, but a lunar eclipse the following night was regarded by many Natives as an ill omen, and
22575-683: The near west and the lands bordering the Mississippi. This activity stimulated the development of the eastern parts of the eventual National Road by private investors. The Cumberland–Brownsville toll road linked the water routes of the Potomac River with the Monongahela River of the Ohio/Mississippi riverine systems in the days when water travel was the only good alternative to walking and riding. Most of
22750-489: The new towns would be closer to the trade and military support offered by the British at Detroit. This cluster of towns, known as "The Glaize," would become the headquarters of the Native Confederacy for the duration of the war. After St. Clair's defeat, the U.S. Congress launched an investigation of the disaster. Although St. Clair remained territorial governor, he was forced to resign his military position. President Washington urged Congress to raise an army capable of defeating
22925-527: The opposite effect. In September, St. Clair's men erected a supply depot, Fort Hamilton , twenty-three miles north of Fort Washington on the Great Miami. The army finally left Fort Hamilton on October 4 with about 2,300 men. In mid-October, they stopped to build a second depot, Fort Jefferson . As the slow march toward Kekionga continued, the expedition was plagued with food shortages, plummeting morale, and frequent desertions. On October 31, St. Clair sent
23100-452: The organizing of the state of Ohio in 1803. The first Ohio Constitution provided for a weak governor and a strong legislature , in part a reaction to St. Clair's method of governance. In preparation for Ohio's statehood, Congress split the Northwest Territory into two sections in 1800. A new territory, Indiana Territory , encompassed all land west of the present Indiana–Ohio border and its northward extension to Lake Superior , except for
23275-554: The plan for the construction of the Muskingum Academy (now Marietta College ) in Ohio. In 1780, the directors of the Ohio Company appointed him superintendent of all its affairs relating to settlement north of the Ohio River. In 1796, he was commissioned by President George Washington as Surveyor-General of United States Lands. In 1788, he served as a judge in the Northwest Territory's first court. In 1802, he served in
23450-412: The position until Ohio became a state and elected its first governor, Edward Tiffin , on March 3, 1803. The Supreme Court consisted of (1) John Cleves Symmes ; (2) James Mitchell Varnum , who died in 1789, replaced by George Turner , who resigned in 1796, and was replaced by Return Jonathan Meigs Jr. ; and (3) Samuel Holden Parsons , who died in 1789, replaced by Rufus Putnam , who resigned 1796, and
23625-406: The previous year. Niagara was one of the forts still occupied by the British in defiance of the 1783 Paris treaty, but John Graves Simcoe , the British lieutenant governor of Upper Canada , housed the commissioners at his residence. Despite his cordiality, Simcoe had been working to undermine U.S. influence among the Natives. After the recent Native victories, he had hoped Great Britain would support
23800-430: The region by right of conquest. The rivalry among the two European nations, the Iroquois nations, and the Ohio valley Indian tribes for control of the region played an important part in the French and Indian War that lasted from 1754 through 1760. Having initially remained neutral, eventually the Ohio Country Indians largely sided with the French who were more interested in hunting in the region and were not actively settling
23975-469: The region south of the Great Lakes known as the Ohio and Illinois countries. Indigenous tribes of the region fought on both sides of the conflict, aligning themselves with the imperial power best suited to their economic and political needs. In the 1763 Treaty of Paris that ended the war, France ceded the region to the British. That year, a confederation of Natives launched Pontiac's War , an effort to drive
24150-505: The region, where British subjects outnumbered Americans throughout the 1790s. The following year, the Treaty of Greenville secured peace on the western frontier and opened most of southern and eastern Ohio for American settlement. Sporadic westward emigrant settlements had already resumed late in the war after the Iroquois Confederacy 's power was broken and the tribes scattered by the 1779 Sullivan Expedition . Soon after
24325-489: The region, which they claimed as New France ; among these was the post at Fort Detroit , founded in 1701. France ceded the territory to the Kingdom of Great Britain as part of the Indian Reserve in the 1763 Treaty of Paris , after being defeated in the French and Indian War . From the 1750s to the peace treaty that ended the War of 1812, the British had a long-standing goal of creating an Indian barrier state ,
24500-402: The region. Natives (primarily Shawnees and Cherokees ) who used present-day Kentucky as their hunting grounds had not been consulted in the treaty and denied that the Iroquois had the right to sell the land. In the early 1770s, the Shawnees worked to create a new Native confederacy to resist colonial occupation, but British officials successfully used the Iroquois to isolate them. As a result,
24675-542: The scattered Shawnee tribe began to return to the Ohio Country in the decades that followed. A number of Seneca and other Iroquois peoples also migrated to the Ohio Country, moving away from the Anglo-French rivalries and warfare south of Lake Ontario . The Seneca were the westernmost of the original Five Nations of the Iroquois centered in western New York. In 1722, the Tuscarora , an Iroquoian-speaking tribe from
24850-573: The scope of this fort. The military campaign of Gen. Wayne against the Western Confederacy, who were supported by a company of troops from Lower Canada, culminated with victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. Following the battle, in fall 1794, Wayne's army marched unopposed to Kekionga where they constructed Fort Wayne, a defiant symbol of U.S. sovereignty in the heart of Native American Country. Jay's Treaty , in 1794, temporarily helped to smooth relations with British traders in
25025-466: The site for a new U.S. fort. Wayne wanted a strong fort built, capable of withstanding possible attacks by Indians and more specifically heavy British artillery, along with their forces from Fort Detroit. The fort was finished by October 17 and could withstand a 24-pound cannon. It was named Fort Wayne and placed under the command of Hamtramck, who had been commandant of Fort Knox in Vincennes. The fort
25200-607: The sound of their muskets and the retreat of the Indians. The next day, Wayne rode alone to Fort Miami and slowly inspected the fort's exterior walls. The British garrison debated whether to engage Wayne, but in the absence of orders and being already at war with France, Campbell declined to fire the first shot at the United States. The Legion, meanwhile, destroyed Indian villages and crops in the region of Fort Deposit and burned Alexander McKee's trading post within sight of Fort Miami before withdrawing. Wayne's Legion finally arrived at Kekionga on September 17, 1794. Wayne personally selected
25375-425: The south to fight against their traditional enemies in the Northwestern Confederacy. On June 27, forty-five Choctaws and ten scouts led by William Wells , Wayne's principal scout, skirmished with a large body of Natives advancing from the Glaize. Wells reported to Wayne that Fort Recovery was in danger of imminent attack. The Native army marching toward Fort Recovery numbered 1,200 warriors, the most significant force
25550-402: The south, an unsuccessful attempt to enlist more Chickamauga Cherokees and Creeks in the Confederacy. Meanwhile, on November 6, Little Turtle and about 200 Miamis and Shawnees attacked a supply convoy near Fort St. Clair, killing six Americans and depriving them of the packhorses needed to supply the forts. "It is a most disagreeable and humiliating position to remain with our hands tied whilst
25725-415: The stipulation that the laws had to have been passed previously in one of the original thirteen states. The laws restructured the court system then in effect in the Northwest Territory. They also protected residents against excessive taxes and declared that English common law would be the basis of legal decisions and laws in the Northwest Territory. The young United States government, deeply in debt following
25900-540: The supply trains and forts. Blue Jacket had selected a battlefield where a tornado had felled hundreds of trees, creating a natural defensive barrier. Here he placed confederation forces of about 1,500 warriors: Blue Jacket's Shawnees, Delawares led by Buckongahelas, Miamis led by Little Turtle, Wyandots led by Tarhe and Roundhead , Mingos, a small detachment of Mohawks, and a British company of Canadian militiamen dressed as Native Americans under William Caldwell . Odawa and Potawatomi, under Little Otter and Egushawa, occupied
26075-429: The support of Alexander McKee. On August 13, the Confederacy sent a written declaration to the U.S. commissioners, signed by representatives of all the nations except the Iroquois. Sugden (2000) said this document was "the defiant and frank sentiments of proud, undefeated peoples, asserting their independence and sovereignty and rebutting the pretensions of those who would dispossess and humble them." The Confederacy offered
26250-697: The territory and its successors was settled by emigrants passing through the Cumberland Narrows , or along the Mohawk Valley in New York State. The Continental Congress' title to the lands north of the Ohio River was derived from the Treaty of Paris (1783), the Treaty of Fort McIntosh, and the cessions of four states. Settlement was through several means: squatters, direct U.S. government land sales to settlers, sales of tracts of land to land companies, and state sales of land to veterans in
26425-481: The territory and the region's fur trade was disputed in the 17th century by the Iroquois, Huron, Algonquin, other Native American tribes, and France . New France claimed this area as part of the administrative district of La Louisiane . France and Britain fought the French and Indian War over this area in the mid-18th century as the North American front of their Seven Years' War (1756–1763). Following
26600-430: The territory would eventually form three to five new states. Under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which created the Northwest Territory, General St. Clair was appointed governor. When the territory was divided in 1800, he briefly served as governor of the Northwest Territory remnant that included Ohio, the eastern half of Michigan, and a sliver of southeastern Indiana called "The Gore". St. Clair formally established
26775-444: The territory: Virginia claimed all of the portion that was formerly Illinois Country and Ohio Country; Massachusetts claimed the portion that is now southern Michigan and Wisconsin; Connecticut claimed a narrow strip across the territory just south of the Great Lakes; New York claimed an elastic portion of Iroquois lands between Lake Erie and the Ohio River. The western boundary of Pennsylvania was also ill-defined. Virginia's jurisdiction
26950-409: The then-owned land of the United States west of Pennsylvania , east of the Mississippi River , and northwest of the Ohio River . It incorporated most of the former Ohio Country except a portion in western Pennsylvania, and eastern Illinois Country . It covered all of the modern states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, as well as the northeastern part of Minnesota. Lands west of
27125-532: The time of its creation, the land within the territory was largely undisturbed by urban development. It was also home to several Native American cultures, including the Delaware , Miami , Potawatomi , Shawnee , and others. There were a handful of French colonial settlements remaining, plus Clarksville at the Falls of the Ohio. By the time of the territory's dissolution, there were dozens of towns and settlements,
27300-434: The towns—had been fulfilled, and so the army would return to Fort Washington. The expedition had destroyed five Miami towns and 20,000 bushels of their corn. They marched south, but the following day, Harmar agreed to allow a detachment of 400 men to return to Kekionga and attack any Natives who might reoccupy the town. This raid was led by Major John P. Wyllys, a regular army officer, with Hardin serving under him and commanding
27475-423: The warriors to regroup. They collected about 600 men to oppose Harmar's army. This was not enough men to face the largest army most of them had ever seen, so they evacuated the noncombatants from the towns on October 14 and watched for an opportunity to strike. Harmar's advance detachment under John Hardin reached Kekionga on October 15 and spent the next few days looting and burning Native towns, as well as destroying
27650-479: The way for white settlement. In 1789, he succeeded in getting certain Native Americans to sign the Treaty of Fort Harmar , but many native leaders had not been invited to participate in the negotiations or had refused to do so. Rather than settling the Native Americans' claims, the treaty provoked an escalation of the "Northwest Indian War" (or "Little Turtle's War"). Mutual hostilities led to a campaign by General Josiah Harmar , whose 1,500 militiamen were defeated by
27825-495: The western U.S. forts were also abandoned after 1796; Fort Washington, the last, was moved across the Ohio River to Kentucky in 1804 to make room for a growing settlement at Cincinnati ; it became the Newport Barracks . General Wayne supervised the surrender of British posts in the Northwest Territory and personally selected the construction site of Fort Wayne in Kekionga to secure his Legion's victory. Wayne died during
28000-560: The western frontier. Wayne was commissioned to form a new army of 5120 professional soldiers, dubbed the "Legion of the United States". Wayne recruited and trained his army in Pennsylvania, and moved them to southwestern Ohio in fall of 1793. There they were joined by the Kentucky Militia under Major General Charles Scott . Over the next ten months, the armies marched north up the Great Miami and Maumee River valleys toward
28175-564: The westward lands as had been granted by their original charters. The area, however, was officially closed to European settlement by the Royal Proclamation of 1763 , an attempt to preserve the western lands as territory exclusively set aside for use by Native American peoples. By enacting the treaty, the British Crown no longer recognized prior claims that the colonies made on this territory. On June 22, 1774, Parliament in England passed
28350-456: The whole Confederacy. They called for a new treaty conference in the spring of 1787. Until that time, the Natives suggested that each party should keep its people on their side of the Ohio River. In July 1787, the U.S. Confederation Congress created the Northwest Territory north of the Ohio River in preparation for widespread, organized American settlement of the region. Arthur St. Clair , appointed as territorial governor, moved to Marietta ,
28525-518: Was a lopsided victory for the Natives. The Americans reported a loss of 630 soldiers killed and around 250 wounded; an additional 30 camp followers , mostly women, were also killed. Native losses were comparatively slight, with 21 killed and 40 wounded. Historian Colin Calloway states it was "the biggest victory Native Americans ever won and proportionately the biggest military disaster the United States ever suffered." The Natives, short on food after
28700-602: Was also a Spanish agent at the time. It has been speculated but never proven that Wilkinson had Wayne assassinated. Northwest Territory The Northwest Territory , also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio , was formed from unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolution . Established in 1787 by
28875-497: Was at Putnam's recommendation that the land was surveyed and laid out in townships of six miles square. He organized and led the first group of veterans to the territory. They settled at Marietta, Ohio , where they built a large fort called Campus Martius . Putnam and Cutler insisted the Northwest Territory be a free territory, with no slavery. The Northwest Territory doubled the size of the United States, and establishing it as free of slavery proved to be of tremendous importance in
29050-511: Was during this time that Kentucky was officially admitted to the uniUnion a state. Rufus Putnam , who had led the settlement of Marietta, was commissioned as a brigadier general and tasked with arranging a truce with the Northwestern Confederacy. Alarmed by the killing of the previous emissaries, he instead went to Vincennes and, in September 1792, negotiated a treaty with tribes of the lower Wabash River. Knox believed this treaty had weakened
29225-523: Was extended westward to a point five degrees of longitude (about 260 miles) from the Delaware River and the western boundary extended to run due north from the westernmost extent of the Mason–Dixon line to the 43rd parallel. This incorporated the eastern part of Ohio Country as western Pennsylvania, and set the eastern boundary of federal lands. "Unlanded" states, such as Maryland, refused to ratify
29400-483: Was limited to a few French settlements at the extreme western edge of the territory. Massachusetts's and Connecticut's claims were effectively lines on paper. New York had no colonial settlements or territorial government in the claimed lands. The western border of Pennsylvania, previously assumed to run in a north by northeast zigzag, was resolved in 1780 by the Continental Congress. The Mason–Dixon line
29575-420: Was officially dedicated October 22, the fourth anniversary of Harmar's defeat, and the day is considered the founding of the modern city of Fort Wayne, Indiana . That winter, Wayne also reinforced his line of defensive forts with Fort St. Marys , Fort Loramie , and Fort Piqua . Within months of Fallen Timbers, the United States and Great Britain negotiated the Jay Treaty, which required British withdrawal from
29750-448: Was ordered to mount another punitive expedition to the Maumee River, where he was to build a fort as a means of "awing and curbing the Indians in that quarter." To augment the regular army, St. Clair was authorized to use mounted militia units to raid Native villages to deter attacks on American settlements. In May 1791, while St. Clair gathered his army, he dispatched Brigadier General Charles Scott with 750 mounted Kentucky militiamen on
29925-642: Was regarded as a "national embarrassment" that needed to be avenged. "The general impression upon the result of the late expedition," Knox wrote to Harmar, "is that it has been unsuccessful; that it will not induce the Indians to peace, but on the contrary encourage them to a continuance of hostilities, and that, therefore, another and more efficient expedition must be undertaken." After Harmar's campaign, Natives rebuilt their villages around Kekionga, although some relocated to other locations. Natives did not typically go to war in winter, but they followed up their victory over Harmar with raids on American settlements north of
30100-464: Was replaced by Joseph Gilman . There were three secretaries: Winthrop Sargent (July 9, 1788 – May 31, 1798); William Henry Harrison (June 29, 1798 – December 31, 1799); and Charles Willing Byrd (January 1, 1800 – March 1, 1803). Ohio Country The Ohio Country ( Ohio Territory , Ohio Valley ) was a name used for a loosely defined region of colonial North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and south of Lake Erie . Control of
30275-476: Was sufficient, and these assumed local administrative and judicial functions. Washington County was the first of these, at Marietta in 1788. This was an important event, as this court was the first establishment of civil and criminal law in the pioneer country. As soon as the number of free male settlers exceeded 5,000, the territorial legislature was to be created, and this happened in 1798. The full mechanisms of government were put in place, as outlined in
30450-532: Was sure to follow and the Iroquois must now "remove our people from among the Americans." Upon learning that negotiations had failed, Wayne advanced, reaching Fort Jefferson on October 13 with 2,600 men. On October 17, an Odawa war party under Little Otter attacked a supply convoy south of Fort Jefferson, killing fifteen and capturing ten. Wayne was compelled to use more troops to guard his supply line. Given these problems, Wayne decided to halt major operations and build Fort Greenville north of Fort Jefferson. "I am at
30625-599: Was true everywhere in Ohio before 1800 except the northwest sector above the Greenville Treaty line. It became true in Indiana after the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811; by 1813 Battle of the Thames where Tecumseh was defeated and killed, the frontier had essentially moved to west of the Mississippi. The first U.S. military garrisons in the territory were Fort Patrick Henry, Vincennes, Indiana (1779), Fort Clark at Falls of
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