[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 162 (Tuesday, November 16, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H12066-H12076]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          NORTHWEST TERRITORY OF THE GREAT LAKES HERITAGE AREA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SOUDER. Madam Speaker, as a member of the Subcommittee on 
National Parks and Public Lands, and as a representative of historic 
Ft. Wayne, Indiana, I rise this evening to introduce a bill to create 
the Northwest Territory of the Great Lakes Heritage Area. I am pleased 
to be joined by original cosponsors, these Members representing both 
political parties from not only Indiana but the Old Northwest States of 
Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin: The gentleman from Illinois 
(Mr. Hastert), the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur), the gentleman 
from Ohio (Mr. Gillmor), the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. LaHood), the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette) the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. 
Boehner), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Portman), the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Stupak), the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Barcia) the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Ewing), the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. 
Roemer), the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones), the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Hoekstra), the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. McIntosh), the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Sawyer), the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. 
Phelps), the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Green), the gentlewoman from 
Michigan (Ms. Stabenow), and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Oxley).
  The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. English) who represents Erie, 
Pennsylvania, is also a cosponsor. Though Erie was not part of the 
Northwest Territory of the Great Lakes, Erie, Pennsylvania, was 
intimately involved in our history, including being the launching place 
for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's fleet to victory on Lake Erie and 
as the final resting place of General Anthony Wayne.
  Mr. Speaker, many of the sites from the Northwest Territory period 
are now lost, but throughout the Midwest there are still key buildings 
and sites that have been preserved. As my colleagues can see on this 
map of the Northwest Territory, this is the original Northwest 
Territory of the United States, including all of Ohio, Indiana, 
Michigan, and Illinois. And at that time, Illinois also included the 
State of Wisconsin and Minnesota east of the Mississippi River.
  In Ohio, we not only have the Battle of Fallen Timbers Historic Site 
and the International Peace Memorial to Commodore Perry at Put-in-Bay 
at South Bass Island in Lake Erie, but other diverse sites as well 
including the Fort Recovery State Memorial, where General St. Clair was 
defeated; Fort Meigs at Toledo; and such pioneering sites as the Golden 
Lamb Inn in Lebanon which dates from 1803, has played host to 10 
Presidents; the 1807 mansion of Thomas Worthington in Adena; in 
Lancaster, Ohio, is the Square 13 Historic District that includes a 
number of homes from the 1810s and 1820s, including the 1820 home of 
William Tecumseh Sherman; and in Marietta, ``Campus Martius: The Museum 
of the Northwest Territory,'' which includes the Rufus Putnam house, 
the only structure from the original stockade, and the 1788 plank-and-
clapboard Ohio Land Company Office.
  In Indiana, we have numerous sites related to this period as well: 
The Lincoln Boyhood Memorial; New Harmony, the first State capital; and 
Governor William Hendricks home in Corydon; the historic town of 
Madison; the Connor Prairie Museum; National Historic Sites at 
Vincennes and Tippecanoe; and the battle sites in Ft. Wayne, including 
the forts; Little Turtle; and Indian village sites including the 
Richardville House; and Johnny Appleseed Park and Gravesite.
  Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan have important sites as well, but 
they were less settled at that time. Mackinac Island was a trading 
anchor of the upper Midwest and has many historic buildings in a 
beautiful location where automobiles are still banned. These wonderful 
historic sites, however, are somewhat lost without a cohesive story. 
The Lewis and Clark Trail, in which they charted America's frontier, 
has numerous informative materials about its history as well as visitor 
centers along the trail. However, in the Midwest this is not as true.
  In the legislation that we are introducing this evening, it includes 
only those sites from the Northwest Territory period of 1785 to 1835. 
It forms a management authority consisting of appointees by the 
governor of each Northwest Territory State, including a Native American 
appointee from each State, as well as representatives of each State's 
historical society.
  Duties and powers include the ability to receive funds, disburse 
funds, make grants, hire staff, develop a management plan, and to 
``help ensure the conservation, interpretation, and development of the 
historical, cultural, natural, and recreational resources related to 
the region historically referred to as the Northwest Territory of the 
Great Lakes during the period from 1785 through 1835.''
  Madam Speaker, this may include developing an Internet Web site and 
other marketing programs, erecting signs, recommendations on 
conservation, funding and management for development of the Heritage 
area, but only within existing State and local plans and with comments 
of residents, public agencies, and private organizations within the 
Heritage Area.
  The Act specifically forbids taking any action which ``jeopardizes 
the sovereignty of the United States'' and

[[Page H12067]]

 stipulates that the authority ``shall not infringe upon the private 
property rights of individuals or other property owners.'' It 
authorizes appropriations of up to $1 million per year and not more 
than $10 million for the Heritage Area as a whole. Federal funding 
cannot exceed 50 percent of the total cost of any assistance.
  The Midwest has far too long been overlooked. The rivers and Great 
Lakes were America's first transportation system that opened up the 
West and nourish breadbasket of the world, not to mention providing the 
raw materials and distribution system for the industrial heartland of 
America.
  Madam Speaker, the Native American nations in the Midwest, because so 
many of their historic sites and culture were destroyed and because 
there is less modern documentation, are often forgotten while similar 
and smaller some less powerful tribes of the West get far more 
attention.
  Madam Speaker, it is a great honor and a proud day for Ft. Wayne and 
all of the Midwest to introduce this bill this evening. It has been a 
long day in coming.
  Madam Speaker, I submit a copy of the bill and the following facts 
about the Northwest Territory for inclusion in the Record.

                                H.R. --

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Northwest Territory of the 
     Great Lakes National Heritage Area Act of 1999''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

       (a) Findings.--The Congress finds the following:
       (1) The region which includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, 
     and Ohio was once known as the Northwest Territory. It was 
     the first frontier region of the new United States of 
     America. Some of the indigenous peoples of the area were the 
     Delaware, Kikapoo, Miami, Ottawa, Piankeshaw, Potowatami, 
     Shawnee, Wea, and Wyandotte Indians.
       (2) The distinctive landscape of this area was largely 
     defined by--
       (A) the Ordinance of 1785, which established a system of 
     transferring land ownership from the Indians to the United 
     States Government and then to private owners, and created the 
     system of land surveyance and township and county plats which 
     remains today;
       (B) the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which established a 
     process through which self-government in this first frontier 
     of the newly organized United States could be established; 
     and
       (C) the Treaty of Greeneville of 1795, which signaled the 
     end of Indian resistance in the region.
       (3) The local environmental and topographical landscape of 
     the area was largely defined in commercial and strategic 
     terms by--
       (A) the area river systems, including but not limited to--
       (i) the Fox River, the Illinois River, and the Kankakee 
     River, in the State of Illinois;
       (ii) the Eel River, the Elkhart River, the Kankakee River, 
     the Maumee River, the St. Joseph River, the St. Mary's River, 
     and the Wabash River in the State of Indiana;
       (iii) the Detroit River, the St. Mary's River, and the St. 
     Joseph River in the State of Michigan; and
       (iv) the Great Miami River, the Maumee River, and the St. 
     Mary's River in the State of Ohio;
       (B) the Great Lakes;
       (C) the River Portage Trails, including but not limited 
     to--
       (i) the 3 mile portage from the St. Joseph River to the 
     Little Wabash River in Fort Wayne, which was the only 
     separation in the waterway from the upper Great Lakes to the 
     Gulf of Mexico; and
       (ii) from the Great Miami River to the St. Mary's and 
     Wabash --Rivers in Ohio;
       (D) the 13 forts which developed in the region, including 
     but not limited to--
       (i) Fort Dearborn, in Chicago, Illinois;
       (ii) Fort Wayne, in Fort Wayne, Indiana;
       (iii) Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island, Michigan; and
       (iv) Fort Defiance, in Defiance, Ohio; and
       (E) the settlements, including Native American villages, 
     early trading posts, and territorial capitals that developed 
     in the region.
       (4) The military history of the region includes, but is not 
     limited to--
       (A) LaBalme's Defeat in 1780;
       (B) the defeat of General Harmar in 1790;
       (C) the defeat of General St. Clair in 1791;
       (D) the United States victory by General ``Mad'' Anthony 
     Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794; and
       (E) the Battle of Lake Erie in 1832.
       (5) The confederacy of Indian Nations was organized by 
     Tecumseh and ``The Prophet'' to stop American advancement. 
     General William Henry Harrison defeated The Prophet at the 
     Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. This was the last major battle 
     east of the Mississippi River with Indian Nations and led to 
     the famous slogan ``Tippecanoe and Tyler too'', which 
     propelled Harrison to the Presidency of the United States.
       (6) The War of 1812, during which the region might have 
     been lost to Canada without Commodore Perry's victory at Put-
     in-Bay on Lake Erie.
       (7) The rush of settlers to the region after the War of 
     1812 led to additional treaties and conflict with the Native 
     Americans. Most Indians were removed in a series of events 
     culminating with the so-called ``Black Hawk Wars'', which 
     ended in 1833.
       (b) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act include the 
     conservation, interpretation, and development of the 
     historical, cultural, natural, and recreational resources 
     related to the region historically referred to as the 
     Northwest Territory of the Great Lakes during the period from 
     1785 to 1835.

     SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

       For the purposes of this Act--
       (1) the term ``Authority'' means the Northwest Territory of 
     the Great Lakes National Heritage Area Authority;
       (2) the term ``Heritage Area'' means the Northwest 
     Territory of the Great Lakes National Heritage Area 
     established in section 4; and
       (3) the term ``Plan'' means the management plan required to 
     be developed for the Heritage Area pursuant to section 
     5(e)(1)(G).

     SEC. 4. THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY OF THE GREAT LAKES NATIONAL 
                   HERITAGE AREA.

       (a) Establishment.--There is hereby established the 
     Northwest Territory of the Great Lakes National Heritage 
     Area.
       (b) Boundaries.--The Heritage Area shall be comprised of 
     historically significant areas, as defined by the Authority, 
     within Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio (as defined by 
     the Northwest Ordinance of 1787), such as the following 
     historically significant locations:
       (1) Fort Dearborn and Fort Clark in the State of Illinois.
       (2) In Indiana--
       (A) Anthony Wayne, Chief Little Turtle, and Chief 
     Richardville sites (Fort Wayne);
       (B) The Historic Forks of the Wabash Park and Chief 
     LaFontaine Home (Huntington);
       (C) Kokomo Village (Kokomo);
       (D) Deaf Man's Village (Peru);
       (E) Munsee Town (Muncie);
       (F) Chief Menominee Monument (Plymouth);
       (G) Historic Vincennes (Vincennes);
       (H) Prophetstown (Lafayette); and
       (I) Historic Corydon (Corydon).
       (3) In Michigan--
       (A) Fort Michilimackinac (Mackinaw City); and
       (B) Fort Mackinac (Mackinac Island).
       (4) In Ohio--
       (A) Fallen Timbers State Memorial (Maumee);
       (B) Fort Defiance State Memorial (Defiance);
       (C) Fort Adams/Ft. Amanda State Memorial (Wapakoneta);
       (D) Fort Recovery State Memorial (Fort Recovery);
       (E) Fort Greeneville/Treaty of Greeneville Memorial 
     (Greeneville);
       (F) Fort Jefferson State Memorial (Ft. Jefferson);
       (G) Fort St. Clair State Memorial (Eaton);
       (H) Fort Hamilton Monument (Hamilton);
       (I) Fort Washington (Cincinnati); and
       (J) Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial (Put-
     in-Bay).

     SEC. 5. MANAGEMENT ENTITY AND DUTIES

       (a) In General.--The management entity for the Heritage 
     Area shall be the Northwest Territory of the Great Lakes 
     National Heritage Area Authority.
       (b) Composition.--The Authority shall be composed of 18 
     members appointed as follows:
       (1) 3 members appointed by each of the following:
       (A) The Governor of Illinois or the Governor's designee.
       (B) The Governor of Indiana or the Governor's designee.
       (C) The Governor of Michigan or the Governor's designee.
       (D) The Governor of Ohio or the Governor's designee.
       (2) 1 member appointed by each of the following:
       (A) The Historical Society of the State of Illinois.
       (B) The Historical Society of the State of Indiana.
       (C) The Historical Society of the State of Michigan.
       (D) The Historical Society of the State of Ohio.
       (3) 2 members appointed by the Secretary of the Interior of 
     the United States or the Secretary's designee.
       (4) Of the 3 members appointed by each Governor of a State 
     under paragraph (1)--
       (A) at least 1 member shall be a member of the governing 
     body of an Indian tribe located within the State, or a 
     designee of such a member; and
       (B) at least 1 member shall be an elected official of a 
     unit of local government located within the State which has 1 
     or more historic sites significant to the Heritage Area.
       (c) Terms.--The term of office shall be 2 years. No member 
     of the Authority shall serve more than 4 terms.
       (d) Compensation.--Compensation for members of the 
     Authority shall be determined by the Authority as part of the 
     Plan.
       (e) Duties and Powers.--
       (1) Duties.--The Authority shall--
       (A) receive funds from various sources for the 
     implementation of this Act;

[[Page H12068]]

       (B) disburse funds in accordance with this Act;
       (C) make grants to and enter into cooperative agreements 
     with States and their political subdivisions, private 
     organizations, or other individuals or entities as 
     appropriate for the execution of this Act;
       (D) hire and compensate staff;
       (E) enter into contracts for goods and services;
       (F) develop a management plan for the Heritage Area;
       (G) help ensure the conservation, interpretation, and 
     development of the historical, cultural, natural, and 
     recreational resources related to the region historically 
     referred to as the Northwest Territory of the Great Lakes 
     during the period from 1785 through 1835;
       (H) foster a close working relationship with all levels of 
     government, the private sector, philanthropic and educational 
     organizations, local communities, and regional metroparks 
     systems through a coalition organization to both conserve the 
     heritage of this region and utilize its resources for tourism 
     and economic development;
       (I) develop an Internet web site and other marketing 
     programs to further the purposes of this Act; and
       (J) in accordance with Federal, State, and local laws, 
     erect signs to promote the Heritage Area.
       (2) Powers.--The Authority may develop visitor centers and 
     interpretive facilities for the Heritage Area.
       (f) Plan.--The Plan shall--
       (1) present recommendations for the Heritage Area's 
     conservation, funding, management, and development, taking 
     into consideration existing State and local plans and the 
     comments of residents, public agencies, and private 
     organizations working in the Heritage Area;
       (2) not be final until it has been approved by the 
     Governors of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio;
       (3) include--
       (A) an inventory of the resources contained in the Heritage 
     Area, including a list of any property in the Heritage Area 
     that is related to the themes of the Heritage Area and that 
     should be preserved, restored, managed, developed, or 
     maintained because of its natural, cultural, historical, or 
     recreational significance; and
       (B) a program for the implementation of the management plan 
     by the Authority.
       (g) Specific Prohibitions.--The Authority--
       (1) shall not take any action which jeopardizes the 
     sovereignty of the United States; and
       (2) shall not infringe upon the private property rights of 
     individuals or other property owners.

     SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

       (a) In General.--There is authorized to be appropriated to 
     carry out this Act not more than $1,000,000 for any fiscal 
     year. Not more than a total of $10,000,000 may be 
     appropriated for the Heritage Area.
       (b) 50 Percent Match.--Federal funding provided under this 
     Act may not exceed 50 percent of the total cost of any 
     assistance or grant provided or authorized under this Act.
                                  ____

       After Ohio became an independent state, the remaining 
     portion of the Northwest Territory was renamed the Indiana 
     Territory. The United States House of Representatives soon 
     approved Indiana as a state as well, passing statehood on 
     December 28, 1815, with the Senate following a few days later 
     on January 2, 1816.


   some basic facts about Illinois in the northwest territory period

       The rest of the Northwest Territory became the Illinois 
     Territory in 1816 after Indiana became a state. General 
     Anthony Wayne's Treaty of Greenville had set aside from 
     Indian lands three sites in present day Illinois: a twelve-
     square mile square at the mouth of the Illinois River which 
     was never developed; a post at Fort Massac on the Ohio River; 
     and a six-mile square at Peoria where Fort Clark would be 
     built. In 1800 Illinois had 2,458 residents of which 719 were 
     in Cahokia and 467 in Kaskaskia.
       The Illinois Territory was active during the War of 1812. 
     In fact the governor, Ninian Edwards, told the Secretary of 
     War that he expected to lose one-half the white population of 
     the state. The most dramatic loss occurred during the Fort 
     Dearborn (Chicago) massacre. William Wells of Fort Wayne, 
     son-in-law of Miami Indiana War Chief Little Turtle, went to 
     rescue the garrison there and bring them to Fort Wayne even 
     though he felt they would be killed. While crossing the sand 
     dunes of northwest Indiana, the garrison was in fact nearly 
     all slaughtered, including Wells. The Indians paid tribute to 
     Wells bravery by eating his heart.
       During the War of 1812 Benjamin Howard left the 
     governorship of the Missouri Territory to become brigadier 
     general for the Illinois-Missouri district. His rangers 
     rebuilt Fort Clark at Peoria. General William Clark went 
     north and captured Prairie du Chien (now part of Wisconsin) 
     but the small remnant left behind surrendered to the British 
     again the following year. Two later expeditions up the 
     Mississippi the next year ended at Rock Island, where the 
     British had reinforced Sauk and Fox Indians. Future President 
     of the United States commanded the second attack, which 
     suffered heavy losses. A fort was built at present day 
     Warsaw, across from the mouth of the Des Moines River. It was 
     named Fort Edwards. After the fall of Fort Dearborn (and Fort 
     Mackinac and Detroit, with Fort Wayne under siege) United 
     States control ended at the Fort Edwards-Peoria-Vincennes 
     line. Had Perry not controlled the Great Lakes, that could 
     have been the southern border of Canada.
       On December 3, 1818, Illinois was admitted as a state. 
     Kaskaskia was its capitol at the time. A perspective on its 
     population is to note that in 1821 what is now Chicago had 
     two families outside the fort and Galena, soon to be lead-
     mining capitol, had one cabin by 1822. The population was 
     concentrated in southern Illinois, with more moving into 
     central Illinois. The capitol was moved to Vandalia by 1819. 
     The Sacs and Fox Indians ceded northern Illinois by 1804. The 
     Potawatomi, Kickapoo and Chippewa completed ceding central 
     Illinois by 1817. But it wasn't until 1819 that the Kickapoo 
     ceded the area southeast of the Illinois and Kankakee Rivers.
       In 1827, the so-called Winnebago War was a skirmish in 
     which two white men were killed by Indians who felt they had 
     violated their hunting grounds. Chief Red Bird decided that 
     discretion was the better part of valor, and ``surrendered'' 
     six Indians. But the scare resulted in militia organizing.
       The so-called Black Hawk War could have been avoided. Four 
     thousand white regulars chasing outnumbered, fatigued and 
     hungry Indian families into what is now Wisconsin is not a 
     ``war.'' In the Battle of Wisconsin Heights, west of what is 
     now Madison, Wisconsin, Chief Black Hawk held off the army so 
     that Indian women and children could cross the Wisconsin 
     River. The end came at the Battle of Bad Axe, on the 
     Mississippi River between LaCrosse and Prairie du Chien. In 
     the heavy slaughter that almost extinguished the Sauk tribe, 
     the warriors, old people, women, and children were driven 
     into the water and ambushed as they tried to reach the west 
     bank. Black Hawk escaped but was soon captured. Only a few 
     Indians stayed in the state thereafter, including Shabbona, a 
     friendly Ottawa who had warned the whites when Black Hawk 
     threatened. This also ended the fur-trading era, as now 
     settlers poured into Illinois with the final Indian removal.


   some basic facts about michigan in the northwest territory period

       After Illinois became a state, the remaining area of the 
     Northwest Territory (Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota east 
     and north of the Mississippi) became the Michigan Territory. 
     Lewis Cass became Governor of the Michigan Territory in 1813, 
     and added the larger jurisdiction in late 1818. In 1819 
     Treaty of Saginaw, the Chippewa ceded land in the central and 
     southeast portion of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Two 
     years later, the Chippewa, Ottawa and Potawatomi ceded 
     southwestern Michigan.
       Michilimackinac controlled the Straits of Mackinac until 
     George Rogers Clark's victories in 1779. At that time 
     operations moved to a new fort on Mackinac Island. The 
     Americans finally claimed this fort after the Jay Treaty of 
     1796.
       Mackinac Island was described by Major Caleb Swan in 1796 
     in this way:
       ``On the south side of this Island, there is a small basin, 
     of a segment of a circle, serving as an excellent harbor for 
     vessels of any burden, and for canoes. Around this basin the 
     village is built, having two streets of nearly a quarter of a 
     mile in length, a Roman chapel, and containing eighty-nine 
     houses and stores; some of them spacious and handsome, with 
     white lime plastering in front, which shows to great 
     advantage from the sea. At one end, in the rear of the town, 
     is an elegant government house, of immense size, and finished 
     with great taste. It is one story high, the rooms fifteen 
     feet and a half in the clear. It has a spacious garden in 
     front, laid out with taste; and extending from the house, on 
     a gentle declivity, to the water's edge.''
       One of the houses that stood on the island in 1796 was 
     later acquired by trader Edward Biddle. The ``Biddle House'' 
     is probably the oldest surviving house in Michigan, if not 
     the entire Northwest Territory of the Great Lakes.
       A major threat to the British fur trade in Michigan--which 
     was the predominant activity in Michigan during the early 
     days of the Northwest Territory--was the formation of the 
     American Fur Trade Company by John Jacob Astor in 1808. By 
     1812, Astor had made peace with the British companies, 
     handling their trade in the United States and basing his 
     operations at Mackinac. His business came to a standstill 
     during the war, but with the peace of 1814 he was again 
     active. In 1816 Congress passed a law confining the fur trade 
     to American citizens.
       Detroit was founded by Cadillac in 1701. In 1805 Detroit 
     was burned by a fire, much like Chicago was many years later 
     (though Detroit at this time was very small). When it was 
     rebuilt, Augustus Woodward, a friend of Thomas Jefferson, and 
     Territorial Governor William Hull decided Detroit needed a 
     grander layout and visited Washington, DC. Woodward secured a 
     copy of the plan for Washington that Pierre L'Enfant had 
     made. He laid out a plan with circular parks with radiating 
     streets, wider boulevards, and grand avenues. While it was 
     launched in this manner, a judge and the next Governor, Lewis 
     Cass, wrecked Woodward's plan by narrowing the streets. The 
     city had to pay for this confusion for many, many years. 
     Detroit was incorporated in 1815. In 1810 the

[[Page H12069]]

     population of Detroit was around 800, but declined during 
     the War of 1812. By 1818 it was up to 1100. Two events 
     that helped promote Detroit were a surprise visit by 
     President Monroe in 1817, and the first steamboat (Walk-
     in-the-Water) arrived as a symbolic opening of the Great 
     Lakes. Interestingly, the population at Mackinac Island at 
     times surges to 2000 during this period.
       Several additional forts were built in the Michigan section 
     of the Northwest Territory after treaties began to open some 
     areas for settlement. Fort Gratiot was built at the site of 
     Port Huron in 1816. Fort Saginaw, at the present site of 
     Saginaw, and Fort Brady, at Sault Ste. Marie, were built in 
     1822. Michigan was slow in settling partly because of a 
     reputation for poor land, and partly due to its weather. An 
     Eastern rhyme was: ``Don't go to Michigan, that land of ills; 
     The word means ague, fever and chills.''
       In order to help combat the negative publicity, General 
     Lewis Cass organized a grand tour that included 42 men. In 
     this group were geologist Henry R. Schoolcraft and geographer 
     David B. Douglass. They went to Mackinac Island, Sault Ste. 
     Marie, the Pictured Rocks (now a national Lakeshore) on the 
     southern shore of Lake Superior, Schoolcraft went to 
     Ontonagon to see the copper boulder that had already been 
     reported upon (now in the Smithsonian), sought the source of 
     the Mississippi (later discovered at Lake Itasca in Minnesota 
     by Schoolcraft), crossed into present-day Wisconsin, down to 
     Fort Dearborn (Chicago) and across to Detroit. Some of the 
     group went to present-day Green Bay and crossed on a more 
     northerly route.
       A series of events--the Walk-in-the-Water steamboat in 
     1818, the development of the Erie Canal in 1825, improved 
     roads, progress in surveys, opening of land offices and 
     better public relations all combined to make Michigan 
     America's most popular western destination from 1830 to 1837.


    some footnotes about wisconsin in the northwest territory period

       The Wisconsin area of the Northwest Territory had few 
     Americans for a long time. Fort Howard in the Green Bay area 
     was garrisoned in 1816 on the Fox River. Fort Crawford was 
     built at the mouth of the Wisconsin River at Prairie du 
     Chien. John Jacob Astor, the fur trader, was a key player in 
     the northern lakes area from his outposts at Mackinac during 
     this period. Wisconsin only developed after the frontier 
     period ended for the original Northwest Territory of the 
     Great Lakes.


    some basic facts about indiana in the northwest territory period

       A short article in a booklet by Arville Funk entitled A 
     Sketchbook of Indiana History (which includes many 
     interesting essays on Indiana history) calls Chief Little 
     Turtle the greatest Indian who ever lived in Indiana. He was 
     certainly its greatest warrior: in fact, his war record 
     exceeds Tecumseh and the famous western Indians. He won not 
     just one significant battle, but three. And he was correct in 
     forecasting the critical losses at Fallen Timbers and 
     Tippecanoe.
                                  ____



                      little turtle of the miamis

       Probably the greatest Indian who ever lived in what became 
     the Hoosier State was ME-SHE-KIN-NO-QUAH, or Little Turtle, 
     the great chief of the Miami tribe. This great Indian was not 
     only a famous war chief, but also the white man's best friend 
     in Indiana after he and his tribe left the warpath.
       Little Turtle was the son of AQUENACKQUE, or The Turtle, a 
     famous Miami war chief during that tribe's many wars with the 
     Iroquois tribe. Finally, the Miami tribe was driven west to 
     Indiana by the Iroquois, and settled along the Eel River and 
     near the site of ``Three Rivers,'' where Fort Wayne now 
     stands. Little Turtle was born about 1752, probably at the 
     site of his father's main village, Turtletown, about five 
     miles east of present day Columbia City, along the KEN-A-PO-
     CO-MO-CO, or Eel River.
       Little Turtle first came to the attention of the whiteman 
     when he celebrated his first victory over a whiteman's army 
     at a skirmish known as ``LaBalme's Massacre'' that occurred 
     in November of 1780. LaBalme was a French ``soldier of 
     fortune,'' who led a small band of Creoles from Vincennes to 
     attack the British garrison at Detroit. The Creole army 
     stopped long enough at Kekionga (now Fort Wayne) to destroy 
     that Indian village, and then journeyed over to nearby Eel 
     River and captured and looted the Miami trading post there. 
     On November 5th, the Indians, under the Leadership of Little 
     Turtle, attacked LaBalme's group and massacred the entire 
     force. This victory must have established the reputation of 
     Little Turtle as a warrior, because he served as the chief of 
     the Eel River tribe from then on.
       Little Turtle was next heard from when he won two more 
     victories over the ``whites'' near Eel River in October of 
     1790. Within a three-day period, he twice defeated the 
     militia troops under the command of Colonel John Hardin. 
     Hardin's force was a part of the army of General Josiah 
     Harmar who was leading an expedition to destroy Indian 
     towns around Kekionga. In the three days' action, Hardin 
     lost over two hundred militia troops.
       However, Little Turtle's greatest triumph over the 
     Americans was to come the next year in western Ohio. On 
     November 4, 1791, at a site 11 miles east of Portland, 
     Indiana, and just across the state border in the Buckeye 
     State, Little Turtle led his Indian army in an attack on 
     General Arthur St. Clair's expedition. St. Clair was the 
     governor of the Northwest Territory and commanded an army of 
     2700 in an expedition against the Indian tribes in northern 
     Ohio. In a complete surprise attack and rout, Little Turtle 
     inflicted the greatest defeat that an American army had met 
     up to that time. In this action, which became known as ``St. 
     Clair's Massacre,'' the American army lost over one-third of 
     its force.
       Three years later, another American army, commanded by 
     General Anthony Wayne, advanced into northern Ohio to engage 
     the Miami Indian confederation. Little Turtle realized that 
     this new army was much stronger and better trained than St. 
     Clair's force and he refused to join forces with the other 
     tribes to attack Wayne's army. The other tribes, led by 
     Bluejacket, the Shawnee chief, did attack Wayne's command at 
     Fallen Timbers and were soundly defeated by the American 
     army.
       After defeating the Indian army, Wayne invited the leading 
     chiefs of the Northwest Territory to meet with him at Fort 
     Greenville, Ohio, to sign a peace treaty under which the 
     Indian tribes would be paid for their land, that would then 
     become open to settlement by the whiteman. The eleven tribes 
     present, including Little Turtle's tribe, sold over 25,000 
     square miles of land to the new government of the United 
     States. Little Turtle signed the treaty and never again took 
     the war-path against the whites.
       Wayne had invited Little Turtle to visit the national 
     capital and meet with the ``great white father,'' President 
     Washington. The great Miami chief, along with his adopted 
     son, William Wells, travelled to Philadelphia (then the 
     capital) and visited with the president in 1797. The 
     president presented Little Turtle with a very expensive sword 
     and the national government hired the famous artist, Gilbert 
     Stuart, to paint a portrait of the great chief.
       Little Turtle returned to the nation's capital later to 
     visit two other presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. 
     On one of his visits, the Miami chief persuaded the Society 
     of Friends (Quakers) to help him in stopping the sale of 
     liquor to the tribes in Indiana, and also to establish an 
     agriculture school for the Indians to teach the whiteman's 
     ways of farming. This historical school was established in 
     1804 near the little town of Andrews, just a few miles west 
     of Huntington, but was never really successful and finally 
     closed down when Tecumseh and the Prophet organized the 
     tribes against the Americans in the years preceding the War 
     of 1812.
       In 1811, the Tecumseh confederation was openly planning war 
     on the whites and was seeking to combine all of the tribes of 
     the Northwest Territory in their confederation. Little 
     Turtle, who was by then the whiteman's best friend in 
     Indiana, succeeded in keeping his tribe from joining the 
     Indian confederation and taking part in the Battle of 
     Tippecanoe. By this time, the 60-year-old chief was in ill 
     health, and crippled from rheumatism and gout. He was soon 
     forced to leave his home on the Eel River and move to the 
     house of his adopted son in Fort Wayne.
       When the War of 1812 erupted, the great chief was on his 
     death bed at the Wells' home at Fort Wayne. After several 
     weeks of illness, the old chief died at Fort Wayne on July 
     14, 1812. He was given a military funeral by the American 
     garrison at the fort and was buried in the old Indian 
     cemetery on Spy Run, near the banks of the Wabash River. He 
     was buried with Washington's sword and the medals and other 
     honors that had been bestowed on him by the Americans. One 
     hundred years later, in 1912, the grave was accidentally 
     discovered, and the sword and other awards were put in the 
     Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society Museum at Swinney 
     Park.
       Jacob Piatt Dunn, the famous Indiana historian, has paid 
     the following tribute to the great chief, ``he was the 
     greatest of the Miamis, and perhaps, by the standard of 
     achievement, which is the fairest of all standards, the 
     greatest Indian the world has known.'' All Hoosiers should be 
     proud of this great Indian chief, and he deserves to be 
     remembered with the greatest of the historic figures in the 
     history of our state.
                                  ____

       The critical nature of controlling the junction at Kekionga 
     and the pacification of the Indian nations of northwest Ohio 
     and northern Indiana is a lesser known story of American 
     history. Yet it is extremely important. Few have told it as 
     well as historian John Ankenbruck of Fort Wayne. In one of 
     his numerous books, Five Forts. He discusses the humiliating 
     defeat of General Josiah Harmar at what is now Fort Wayne. 
     Harmar destroyed the villages at Miamitown (Kekionga), and 
     then, after two days, moved his army to Chillicothe (a 
     Shawnee town today located about where Anthony Boulevard 
     crosses the Maumee). Other soldiers were sent northwest 
     toward suspected villages at Eel River. The Indians were 
     hidden in an area near where U.S. 33 crosses Eel River. The 
     troops were ambushed, with only 6 regulars surviving (22 
     regulars and 9 militia were killed). Harmar then burned the 
     Shawnee town, and marched southeast to camp near the present-
     day town of Hoagland. Upon hearing that the Indians had come 
     back to Miamitown, Harmar sent 500 troops back up to the 
     Indian villages. Mounted riflemen crossed the St. Mary's at 
     about where motorists today go over the Spy Run Bridge. They 
     hoped to catch the Indians by surprise from the rear but 
     instead Little Turtle nearly

[[Page H12070]]

     wiped out the soldiers as they attempted to cross the river. 
     Some 300 survivors made it back (183 had been killed).
       It was clear that the United States Government wanted a 
     permanent stronghold at Kekionga. After Harmar's failure, the 
     Governor of the Northwest Territory--General Arthur St. 
     Clair--decided that he, himself, would lead the army to seize 
     this junction.
       General St. Clair, with his army of 2000 men, steadily 
     moved north toward the junction of the three rivers. At Fort 
     Recovery he prepared to launch his final push to what is now 
     Fort Wayne the next day. That night Miami War Chief Little 
     Turtle led a confederacy of Indian nations--Miami, Shawnee, 
     Delaware, Ottawa, Wyandot, Potawatomi,and Kickapoo--into the 
     area. What followed was the most complete defeat of any 
     sizable unit in the history of American arms. Little Turtle 
     achieved what no one has done before or since. The surprise 
     was so complete that a retreat was ordered. The retreat 
     turned into a rout. 632 soldiers died that day. 1,000 died 
     during the campaign. It was time for Anthony Wayne. John 
     Ankenbruck here lays out the importance of selecting Anthony 
     Wayne as commander.
       Anthony Wayne then decided to make certain this did not 
     happen again. Ankenbruck describes the building of Fort 
     Wayne.


                    anthony wayne builds fort wayne

       ``The President of the United States by the advice and 
     consent of the Senate has appointed you Major General and of 
     course commanding officer of the troops in the service of the 
     United States.''
       Maj Anthony Wayne received the notice April 12, 1792, in a 
     letter from Secretary of War Henry Knox. It may have been the 
     most important single act leading to the defeat of the 
     Indians of the Old Northwest and eventual construction of a 
     permanent fortification at the headwaters of the Maumee.
       Wayne was not Washington's first choice for the job. Though 
     the President had a high regard for Wayne's Revolutionary War 
     record and his military astuteness; he thought differently 
     about Wayne's more personal qualities. It seems that 
     Washington considered Wayne's ego insufferable and was 
     annoyed with some of his habits--which included frequent 
     night-long drinking parties and some marital infidelities.
       But Washington's several favored candidates for the job 
     were from Virginia. This made them politically unacceptable 
     because there was already criticism due to the large number 
     of high public officials from that state. Wayne's being from 
     Pennsylvania was, in this instance an asset. It should be 
     noted that Wayne was not only being named to head the 
     campaign against the Indians, but was also commander of the 
     entire army of the United States, such as it was.
       In the notice of appointment, Knox also told Wayne, ``I 
     enclosed you the Act of Congress relative to the military 
     establishment.'' That act was the result of fear which swept 
     eastward from the frontier lands to the capital cities.
       At sundown on Sept. 17, 1794, Anthony Wayne and his army of 
     3,500 men arrived at the source of the Maumee River--the 
     future site of Fort Wayne.
       They came along the north bank, dragging wagons along the 
     newly-cut road through the wilderness. Scouting parties 
     ranged the entire area, moving back and forth between the 
     marching troops and obscure points in the forest. There was 
     the sound of horses and the curses of men as increasing 
     numbers made their laborious way into the clearing.
       Otherwise, there was a deathly quiet about the place--for a 
     hundred years known as Miamitown. Numerous Indian dwellings 
     stood just north of the Maumee. on either side of the St. 
     Joseph River. They were all empty. Rough timber houses and 
     storage buildings, belonging to both French traders and 
     Indians, were here and there near the river banks. These too 
     were empty and abandoned.
       The sky was overcast and a damp chill wind blew from the 
     west. Mad Anthony Wayne rode his horse slowly through the 
     Kekionga village and its hundreds of Indian houses as far as 
     the remains of old French Fort Miami which still stood on the 
     east side of the St. Joseph.
       This was the village of Le Gris, the old Miami Chief, and 
     was usually considered the largest concentration of hostile 
     Indians in the Northwest Territory. The chiefs of the Wabash 
     and Lake Erie villages would tell American negotiators that 
     they would have to go to see Le Gris if they wanted any 
     answers as to the intentions of the Miami Confederacy.
       Le Gris, at the moment of Wayne's examination of Kekionga, 
     was some 40 miles to the north in the lake country where he 
     had taken his entire village population. He remained, as he 
     had for half a century, the implacable enemy of intruders 
     into the land of the Miamis.
       Wayne then crossed to the west side of the St. Joseph where 
     another village stood empty and quiet. This was the village 
     of Pacan, the uncle of the Miami Warchief Little Turtle. It 
     was here that most of the traders' houses were located--some 
     fairly large and well-fitted, considering the remoteness, and 
     others just one-room huts of rough logs with bark and hide 
     roofs.
       Wayne decided against either of the village locations for 
     his encampment and fort. He ordered the legion to build 
     temporary protection on the high ground just southwest of the 
     confluence of the rivers. The position commanded a good view 
     of the Maumee River.
       One of Wayne's officers, Capt. John Cooke of Pennsylvania, 
     said the army marched 13 or 14 miles on that day before 
     reaching the Miami villages. ``We halted more than two hours 
     near the ground where a part of Harmar's army was defeated 
     and directly opposite the point by the St. Joseph and St. 
     Mary's Rivers, until the ground was reconnoitered. It was 
     late when the army crossed and encamped; our tents were not 
     all pitched before dark.''
       The soldiers of Wayne's army continued to flow in from the 
     east. The first night and morning of the American presence at 
     the site of Fort Wayne was described by a Private Bryant. 
     ``The road, or trace, was in very bad condition, and we did 
     not reach our point of destination until late in the evening. 
     Being very tired, and having no duty to perform, I turned in 
     as soon as possible, and slept soundly until the familiar tap 
     of reveille called us up, just as the bright sun, the first 
     time for weeks, was breaking over the horizon.
       ``After rubbing my eyes and regaining my faculties 
     sufficiently to realize my whereabouts, I think I never saw a 
     more beautiful spot and glorious sunrise.
       ``I was standing on that high point of land overlooking the 
     valley on the opposite shore of the Maumee, where the St. 
     Mary's, the sheen of whose waters were seen at intervals 
     through the autumn-tinted trees, and the limpid St. Joseph 
     quietly wending its way from the north, united themselves in 
     one common stream that calmly flowed beneath.''
       The private's tranquility didn't last long. The general 
     soon ordered breast works to be thrown up around the compound 
     to ward off any possible attacks by the Indians. These were 
     made of earth and required forced digging on the part of most 
     of the men. Others, largely Kentucky horsemen, began the 
     systematic destruction of the villages. Fire swept across the 
     some 500 acres of cleared area. Every building was leveled. 
     Every crop was cut down. The decimation spread in a wider 
     circle. The Delaware village several miles up the St. Mary's 
     was burnt out, as were the Ottawa village some distance up 
     the St. Joseph and any remaining Shawnee dwellings down the 
     Maumee.
       Wayne kept watch for Indian raiders, but the only people to 
     arrive on that first morning were four deserters from the 
     British Fort Miami on the lower Maumee.
       The good feeling that Anthony Wayne had in so easily taking 
     control of the Miamitown area didn't last long.
       Wayne sent a message to the War Department complaining of 
     the ``powerful obstacles'' to his completing his mission--the 
     need for supplies and expirations of terms of service. ``In 
     the course of six weeks from this day, the First and Second 
     Sublegions will not form more than two companies each, and 
     between this and the middle of May, the whole Legion will be 
     merely annihilated so that all we now possess in the Western 
     Country must inevitably be abandoned unless some effectual 
     and immediate measures are adopted by Congress to raise 
     troops to garrison them.''
       Wayne had originally hoped to build a major fortification 
     at Miamitown. But again, several circumstances were working 
     against his plans.
       ``I shall begin a fort at this place as soon as the 
     equinoctial storm is over which at the moment is very severe, 
     attended with a deluge of rain--a circumstance that renders 
     the situation of the soldiery very distressing, being upon 
     short allowance, thinly clad and exposed to the inclemency of 
     the weather.
       ``I shall at all events by under the necessity of 
     contracting the fortification considerably from the 
     dimensions contemplated in your instructions to me of the 
     25th of May, 1792, both for the want of time as well as for 
     want to force to garrison it.''
       This division among the various Indian tribes was to become 
     a permanent condition. They would never again unite as they 
     had done in the Miami Confederacy under Chief Little Turtle. 
     Because of this, Wayne was able to take complete control of 
     the Old Northwest for the United States. That in turn 
     eventually led to the expansion westward to the Pacific 
     Coast.
       As the Indian groups began to break up, some returned to 
     their villages, others migrated to Canada. Some, particularly 
     the Miamis and Shawnees, went after the supply trains of 
     Wayne's army, and any stragglers they could find.
       Erection of the first American fort at the three rivers was 
     begun Sept. 24, 1794--seven days after the arrival of General 
     Anthony Wayne.
       Many in the army of 3,500 men had been toiling for several 
     days in the mud, cutting timbers of oak and walnut for the 
     walls of the stockade. ``This day the work commenced on the 
     garrison, which I am apprehensive will take some time to 
     complete,'' reported Wayne at the time.
       But there were some semblances of normal life during those 
     first few days of the Americans at the confluence of the 
     three rivers. Several of the men built a fish dam across part 
     of the Maumee--presumably to supplement the meager food 
     supplies.
       The fourth day after arrival was Sunday, Sept. 21, 1794. 
     ``We attended divine service,'' wrote Cooke. ``The sermon was 
     delivered by Rev. David Jones, chaplain. Mr. Jones chose for 
     his text, Romans 8:31: `But what shall we then say to these 
     things? If God is for us, who can be against us?'' This was 
     the first time the army had been called together for

[[Page H12071]]

     the purpose of attending divine service since I joined it.''
       Wayne continued to hold his troops under an iron rein, but 
     that didn't prevent carping on the part of many. Lt. William 
     Clark reported ``The ground cleared for the garrison just 
     below the confluence of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's. The 
     situation is tolerably elevated and has a ready command of 
     the two rivers. I think it much to be lamented that the 
     commander-in-chief is determined to make this fort a regular 
     fortification, as a common picketed one would be equally as 
     difficult against the savages.''
       This is the same Clark who a few years later would be part 
     of the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific. He was the 
     younger brother of George Rogers Clark, the Virginian who 
     specialized in brutal sweeps across the Ohio at Indian 
     villages Wayne had put an end to most of that sort of 
     plundering.
       The shadows of fear, death and recklessness growing out of 
     despair stalked American soldiers during the building of the 
     fort at Miamitown.
       Col. John Hamtramck said to a friend at the time, ``The old 
     man really is mad,'' referring to the commander, Anthony 
     Wayne.
       Wayne was sitting on a powder keg of problems, but he was 
     in control. He was not mad. Deep in the wilderness with an 
     army too remote for help of any sort, sometimes at starvation 
     levels, surrounded by hostile warriors, and with some of his 
     own officers trying to do him in, the general became harsh 
     and moody.
       Wayne pressed harder for rapid completion of the fort. 
     Every man in the regular army was pressed into construction 
     work when ``not actually on guard or other duty.'' The 
     Kentucky militiamen were given the job of getting the 
     supplies through.
       But the difficulties still multiplied. It became common 
     knowledge among the men that Le Gris, the old Miami chief, 
     had moved back into the vicinity. Le Gris and his hungry 
     warriors watched every move in and out of the fort, looking 
     for any chance or weakness.
       Wayne was not worried about Le Gris attacking the fort. The 
     general knew from his spies that Little Turtle and most of 
     the other chiefs and warriors were still in the Lake Erie 
     area.
       But fear gradually took hold of the militiamen whose duty 
     it was to convoy supply trains through the wilderness. On 
     every trip, several of their number would likely disappear. 
     The multilated bodies of others found along the trails were 
     in each militiaman's nightmares.
       Lieutenant Boyer reported ``the volunteers appeared to be 
     uneasy and have refused to do duty. They are ordered by the 
     commander-in-chief to march tomorrow for Greeneville to 
     assist the packhorses, which I am told they are determiend 
     not to do.''
       On the next morning the volunteers refused to move out. 
     They were threatened with punishment and loss of all their 
     pay. They finally were coerced into one more convoy trip.
       Wayne came to the conclusion at this time that it would be 
     better to send the entire 1,500-man militia back home. He 
     could not afford an insurrection at his remote post. Thought 
     he needed guards for supply trains, the additional forces 
     were a supply problem in themselves, and a danger to the 
     mission.
       He wrote to Secretary of War Henry Knox on October 17. 
     ``The mounted volunteers of Kentucky marched from this place 
     on the morning of the 14th for Fort Washington, where they 
     are to be mustered and discharged. The conduct of both 
     officers and men of this corps in general has been better 
     than any militia, I have heretofore seen in the field for so 
     great a length of time. But it would not do to retain them 
     any longer, although our present situation as well as the 
     term for which they were enrolled would have justified their 
     being continued in service until November 14.''
       Wayne did not like volunteer armies. ``The enclosed 
     estimate,'' he said, ``will demonstrate the mistaken policy 
     and bad economy of substituting mounted volunteers in place 
     of regular troops. Unless effectual measures are immediately 
     adopted by both Houses of Congress for raising troops to 
     garrison the western posts, we have fought, bled and 
     conquered in vain.''
       Wayne, from his headquarters at Miamitown, warned that 
     without added soldiers and extended service of his legion the 
     vast wilderness would ``again become a range for the hostile 
     Indians of the West'' and ``a fierce and savage enemy'' would 
     sweep down on pioneers as far as the Ohio River and beyond.
       Fort Wayne was dedicated on Oct. 22, 1794.
       The days leading up to the event were hard and busy, but 
     both men and whisky held out. The weather, which had been 
     peculiarly bad for October in the vicinity, finally 
     moderated.
       Earlier, on Oct. 4, General Anthony Wayne had reported 
     ``This morning we had the hardest frost I ever saw. There was 
     ice in our camp kettles three-fourths of an inch thick.'' But 
     things were better later in the month.
       Finally, on Oct. 21, Wayne ordered a halt to work on the 
     nearly-completed stockade and surrounding buildings. He 
     placed Col. John Hamtramck in charge of the companies which 
     were to garrison the fort, making him in effect, commander.
       On the following morning, there was more than the usual 
     stir about the place. ``Colonel Hamtramck marched the troops 
     to the garrison at 7 a.m.,'' reported captain John Cooke. 
     ``After a discharge of 15 guns, he named the fort by a 
     garrison order, `Fort Wayne.' He then marched his command 
     into it.''
       Others present reported that the ``15 guns'' were rounds of 
     cannon fire which echoed across the three rivers. Though 
     Hamtramck is usually credited with naming the fort, he 
     actually was simply reading orders, handed to him by Anthony 
     Wayne. The name of the stockade was previously determined 
     during correspondence between Wayne and the War Department.
       After the reading of the speech and the running up of the 
     Stars and Stripes, there was a volley of three cheers from 
     the assembled troops. General Wayne had stood at a reviewing 
     place near the flag pole during most of the parade and 
     ceremony. By 8 a.m. the deed was done.
       It was four years to the day since that earlier morning 
     when the Miami Indians under Little Turtle and Le Gris cut 
     down the troops of General Josiah Harmar as they attempted to 
     cross the Maumee. The place of that past disaster to the U.S. 
     Army was in clear view of the new fort on the slight hill 
     just southwest of the confluence of the three rivers.
       Following the dedication of Fort Wayne, the general almost 
     immediately began to prepare for his own departure and the 
     extending of the military hold on the Northwest Territory.
                                  ____

       This was not the only fort. The third fort, the most sturdy 
     and what was reconstructed in Fort Wayne, was Whistler's 
     fort. Here is Ankenbruck's description of that fort.


       major john whistler and the third u.s. fort at fort wayne

       ``Whistler's Mother'' was not born in Fort Wayne; but his 
     father was.
       The painter's family were people of accomplishment long 
     before James A. M. Whistler made his mark in the art world, 
     and much of their early story is linked with Fort Wayne.
       The artist's grandfather, John Whistler, was the builder of 
     the last military stronghold at Fort Wayne. This stockade, 
     usually called ``Whistler's Fort'' was started in 1815 and 
     completed the following year. Major John Whistler was 
     commandant here at that time, having assumed the post in 
     1814.
       Like many of the army officers of the era, Major Whistler 
     was a veteran of the Revolutionary War--only with one 
     essential difference. He fought on the British side.
       A native of Ulster, Northern Ireland, he first came over 
     with the army of Burgoyne which invaded the U.S. from Canada 
     and was defeated by forces under Benedict Arnold. Later, 
     Whistler returned to the U.S. and joined the American army. 
     He was an adjutant under General Arthur St. Clair when that 
     expeditionary force met disaster at the hands of Indians 
     under Little Turtle in 1791. Whistler was severely wounded in 
     that battle.
       Actually, Whistler had a hand in building all three forts 
     at the three rivers, plus Fort Dearborn at the present site 
     of Chicago. As a lieutenant, he came with Wayne to construct 
     the first fort in 1794. Whistler, later when a captain, was a 
     special officer at Fort Wayne for the building of the Second 
     stockade. That was in 1800 during the commandancy of Colonel 
     Thomas Hunt.
       It was in that same year that John Whistler and his wife, 
     Ann, had a baby boy whom they named George Washington 
     Whistler. This boy, the father of the artist, later graduated 
     from West Point and became one of the major railroad building 
     engineers of the age in the U.S., and eventually headed 
     railroad construction in Czarist Russia, dying in St. 
     Petersburg in 1849. His son, the painter, also attended West 
     Point before going to Paris and a life in the art world of 
     the 19th Century.
       Major Whistler's final assignment at Fort Wayne followed 
     service at Detroit, Fort Dearborn and several Ohio posts. He 
     and his wife, two daughters and son came up the St. Mary's 
     River in 1814 to take up residence in the stockade. During 
     the following year, construction was started on a new 
     military post of rather imposing appearance. The plans for 
     the fort are still in existence. It measured close to two 
     football fields side by side, being about 100 yards square, 
     and parts of the timber structure were more than 40 feet 
     high. The approximate location was in the vicinity of the 
     intersection of Main and Clay Sts.
                                  ____

       The Battle of Fallen Timbers, in which General Anthony 
     Wayne routed a confederacy of Indian nations near Toledo, 
     Ohio and then marched back down the Maumee to secure the 
     critical portage at the three rivers at Kekionga by building 
     Fort Wayne, has been called one of the three pivotal battles 
     in American history. Yorktown cinched independence for the 
     United States, Fallen Timbers secured western expansion, and 
     Gettysburg was the decisive battle that keep us united.
       The Battle of Tippecanoe in which General William Henry 
     Harrison defeated Indians associated with the Prophet was not 
     as decisive (battles continued on through the War of 1812) 
     but was important symbolically. In fact, it not only led to a 
     series of treaties in Indian including two at Fort Wayne in 
     which Indian nations forcibly ceded lands, but ultimately led 
     to the slogan ``Tippecanoe and Tyler'' too that elected 
     Harrison President of the United States.
       In Volume I of The Hoosier State: Readings in Indiana 
     History by Ralph Gray there are many excellent articles on 
     Indiana history. What follows are two accounts of the Battle 
     of Tippecanoe and one short article on Harrison, Tecumseh and 
     the War of 1812.

[[Page H12072]]

                tecumseh, harrison, and the war of 1812

                         (By Marshall Smelser)

       From ``Tecumseh, Harrison, and the War of 1812,'' Indiana 
     Magazine of History, LXV (March 1969), 25, 28, 30-31, 33, 35, 
     37-39. Copyright  1969 by the Trustees of Indiana 
     University. Reprinted by permission.
       The story is the drama of the struggle of two of our most 
     eminent predecessors, William Henry Harrison of Grouseland, 
     Vincennes, and Tecumseh of the Prophet's town, Tippecanoe.
       It is not easy to learn about wilderness Indians. The 
     records of the Indians are those kept by white men, who were 
     not inclined to give themselves the worst of it. Lacking 
     authentic documents, historians have neglected the Indians. 
     The story of the Indian can be told but it has a higher 
     probability of error than more conventional kinds of history. 
     To tell the tale is like reporting the weather without 
     scientific instruments. The reporter must be systematically, 
     academically skeptical. He must read between the lines, 
     looking for evidence of a copper-colored ghost in a deerskin 
     shirt, flitting through a green and bloody world where tough 
     people died from knives, arrows, war clubs, rifle bullets, 
     and musket balls, and where the coming of spring was not 
     necessarily an omen of easier living, but could make a red or 
     white mother tremble because now the enemy could move 
     concealed in the forest. But the reporter must proceed 
     cautiously, letting the facts shape the story without 
     prejudice.
       . . . [O]ur story is a sad and somber one. It shows men at 
     their bravest. It also shows men at their worst. We are 
     dealing with a classic situation in which two great leaders--
     each a commander of the warriors of his people--move 
     inexorably for a decade toward a confrontation which ends in 
     the destruction of the one and the exaltation of the other. 
     Tecumseh, a natural nobleman in a hopeless cause, and 
     Harrison, a better soldier than he is generally credited with 
     being, make this an Indian story, although the last two acts 
     of their tragedy were staged in Ohio and in Upper Canada. To 
     understand why this deadly climax was inevitable we must know 
     the Indian policy of the United States at that time; we must 
     know, if we can, what the Indians thought of it; and we must 
     know something about the condition of the Indians.
       The federal government's Indian policy was almost wholly 
     dedicated to the economic and military benefit of white 
     people. When Congress created Indiana Territory, the United 
     States was officially committed to educate and civilize the 
     Indians. The program worked fairly well in the South for a 
     time. Indiana Territory's Governor Harrison gave it an honest 
     trial in the North, but the problems were greater than could 
     be solved with the feeble means used. The management of 
     Indian affairs was unintelligently complicated by overlapping 
     authorities, a confused chain of command, and a stingy 
     treasury--stingy, that is, when compared with the treasury of 
     the more lavish British competitors for Indian favor. More to 
     the point, most white Americans thought the Indians should be 
     moved to the unsettled lands in the West. President 
     Jefferson, for awhile, advocated teaching agriculture to the 
     Indians, and he continued the operation of federal trading 
     posts in the Indian country which had been set up to lessen 
     the malevolent influence of private traders. These posts were 
     successful by the standards of cost accounting, but they did 
     nothing to advance the civilization of the Indian. Few white 
     people wished the Indians well, and fewer would curb their 
     appetites for fur and land just to benefit Indians.
       The conflict between whites and Indians was not simple. The 
     Indians were neither demons nor sculptured noble savages. 
     They were not the single people Tecumseh claimed but were 
     broken into fragments by language differences. 
     Technologically they were farther behind the Long Knives--as 
     the Indians called the frontiersmen--than the Gauls who died 
     on Caesar's swords were behind the Romans. But they had a way 
     of life that worked in its hard, cruel fashion. In the end, 
     however, the Indian way of life was shattered by force; and 
     the Indians lost their streams, their corn and bean fields, 
     their forests.
       Comparatively few white residents of the United States in 
     1801 had ever seen an Indian. East of the Mississippi River 
     there were perhaps seventy thousand Indians, of whom only ten 
     thousand lived north of the Ohio River. They were bewildered 
     pawns of international politics, governed by the French to 
     1763, ruled in the name of George III of England to 1783, and 
     never consulted about the change of sovereigns. As Governor 
     Harrison himself said, they disliked the French least, 
     because the French were content with a congenial joint 
     occupation of the wilds while the white Americans and British 
     had a fierce sense of the difference between mine and thine. 
     The governor admitted the Indians had genuine grievances. It 
     was not likely, for example, that a jury would convict a 
     white man charged with murdering an Indian. Indians were shot 
     in the forest north of Vincennes for no reason at all. 
     Indians, Harrison reported, punished Indians for crimes 
     against Long Knives, but the frontiersmen did not 
     reciprocate. But the worst curse visited on the Indians by 
     the whites was alcohol. Despite official gestures at 
     prohibition, alcohol flowed unchecked in the Indian 
     territory. Harrison said six hundred Indian warriors on 
     the Wabash received six thousand gallons of whiskey a 
     year. That would seem to work out to fifth of whisky per 
     week per family, and it did not come in a steady stream, 
     but in alternating floods and ebbs.
       Naturally Indian resentment flared. Indian rage was usually 
     ferocious but temporary. Few took a long view. Among those 
     who did were some great natural leaders, Massasoit's 
     disillusioned son King Philip in the 1670s, Pontiac in the 
     1760s, and Tecumseh. But such leaders invariably found it 
     hard to unite the Indians for more than a short time; 
     regardless of motive or ability, their cause was hopeless. 
     The Indians were a Stone Age people who depended for good 
     weapons almost entirely on the Long Knives or the Redcoats. 
     The rivalry of Britian and the United States made these 
     dependent people even more dependent. Long Knives supplied 
     whisky, salt, and tools. Redcoats supplied rum, beef, and 
     muskets. The Indians could not defeat Iron Age men because 
     these things became necessities to them, and they could not 
     make them for themselves. But yielding gracefully to the 
     impact of white men's presence and technology was no help to 
     the Indians. The friendly Choctaw of present Mississippi, 
     more numerous than all of the northwestern tribes together, 
     were peaceful and cooperative. Their fate was nevertheless 
     the same as the fate of the followers of King Philip, 
     Pontiac, and Tecumseh.
       The Indians had one asset--land. Their land, they thought, 
     belonged to the family group so far as it was owned at all. 
     No Indian had a more sophisticated idea of land title than 
     that. And as for selling land, the whites had first to teach 
     them that they owned it and then to teach them to sell it. 
     Even then, some Indians very early developed the notion that 
     land could only be transferred by the unanimous consent of 
     all tribes concerned rather than through negotiations with a 
     single tribe. Indian councils declared this policy to the 
     Congress of the United States in 1783 and in 1793. If we 
     follow James Truslow Adams' rule of thumb that an Indian 
     family needed as many square miles of wilderness as a white 
     family needed plowed acres, one may calculate that the 
     seventy thousands Indians east of the Mississippi needed an 
     area equal to all of the Old Northwest plus Kentucky, if they 
     were to live the primitive life of their fathers. Therefore, 
     if the Indians were to live as undisturbed primitives, there 
     would be no hunting grounds to spare. And if the rule of 
     unanimous land cessions prevailed, there would be no land 
     sales so long as any tribal leader objected. Some did object, 
     notably two eminent Shawnee: Tecumseh, who believed in 
     collective bargaining, and his brother, the Prophet, who also 
     scorned the Long Knives' tools, his whisky, and his 
     civilization. Harrison dismissed the Prophet's attack on land 
     treaties as the result of British influence, but collective 
     conveyance was an old idea before the Shawnee medicine man 
     took it up. The result of the federal government's policy of 
     single tribe land treaties was to degrade the village chiefs 
     who made the treaties and to exalt the angry warrior chiefs, 
     like Tecumseh, who denounced the village chiefs, corrupted by 
     whisky and other gifts, for selling what was not theirs to 
     sell.
       By the time he found his life work Tecumseh was an 
     impressive man, about five feet nine inches tall, muscular 
     and well proportioned, with large but fine features in an 
     oval face, light copper skin, excellent white teeth, and 
     hazel eyes. His carriage was imperial, his manner energetic, 
     and his temperament cheerful. His dress was less flashy than 
     that of many of his fellow warriors. Except for a silver 
     mounted tomahawk, quilled moccasins, and, in war, a medal of 
     George III and a plume of ostrich feathers, he dressed simply 
     in fringed buckskin. He knew enough English for ordinary 
     conversation, but to assure accuracy he was careful to speak 
     only Shawnee in diplomacy. Unlike many Indians he could 
     count, at least as far as eighteen (as we know by his setting 
     an appointment with Harrison eighteen days after opening the 
     subject of a meeting). Military men later said he had a good 
     eye for military topography and could extemporize crude 
     tactical maps with the point of his knife. He is well 
     remembered for his humanity to prisoners, being one of the 
     few Indians of his day who disapproved of torturing and 
     killing prisoners of war. This point is better documented 
     than many other aspects of his character and career.
       The Prophet rather than Tecumseh first captured the popular 
     imagination. As late as 1810 Tecumseh was being referred to 
     in official correspondence merely as the Prophet's brother. 
     The Shawnee Prophet's preaching had touches of moral 
     grandeur: respect for the aged, sharing of material goods 
     with the needy, monogamy, chastity, and abstinence from 
     alcohol. He urged a return to the old Indian ways and 
     preached self-segregation from the white people. But he had 
     an evil way with dissenters, denouncing them as witches and 
     having several of them roasted alive. . . .
       One of the skeptics unconverted by the Prophet and 
     unimpressed by the divinity of his mission was Indiana 
     Territory's first governor, William Henry Harrison, a retired 
     regular officer, the son of a signer of the Declaration of 
     Independence, appointed governor at the age of twenty-eight. 
     Prudent, popular with Indians and whites, industrious, and 
     intelligent, he had no easy job. He had to contend with land 
     hunger, Indian resentments, the excesses of Indian traders, 
     and with his constant suspicion of a British web of 
     conspiracy spun from Fort Malden. The growing popularity of 
     the Prophet alarmed Harrison, and early in 1806 he sent a 
     speech by special

[[Page H12073]]

     messenger to the Delaware tribe to try to refute the 
     Prophet's theology by Aristotelian formal logic. Harrison was 
     not alone in his apprehensions. In Ohio the throngs of Indian 
     pilgrims grew larger after the Prophet during the summer of 
     1806 correctly predicted an eclipse of the sun (forecast, of 
     course, in every almanac) and took credit for it. A year 
     later, when reports indicated the number of the Prophet's 
     followers was increasing, the governor of Ohio alerted the 
     militia and sent commissioners to investigate. They heard 
     Blue Jacket deny any British influence on the Indians. At 
     another meeting later at Chillicothe, Tecumseh denounced all 
     land treaties but promised peace. The governor of Ohio was 
     temporarily satisfied, although Harrison still thought the 
     Prophet spoke like a British agent and told the Shawnee what 
     he thought. But in the fall of 1807 there was no witness, 
     however hostile, who could prove that either Tecumseh or the 
     Prophet preached war. On the contrary, every reported sermon 
     and oration apparently promised peace. An ominous portent, 
     however--at least in Harrison's eyes--was the founding of the 
     Prophet's town on the Tippecanoe River, in May, 1808.
       The Prophet visited Harrison at Vincennes late in the 
     summer of 1808 to explain his divine mission to the 
     incredulous young governor. Privately, and grudgingly, 
     Harrison admitted the Prophet had reduced drunkenness, but he 
     persisted in his belief that the Shawnee leader was a British 
     agitator. The Prophet went to Vincennes again in 1809 and 
     boasted of having prevented an Indian war. Harrison did not 
     believe him. There is good evidence that in June, 1810, 
     Tecumseh tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Shawnee of 
     the Maumee Basin to move west in order to clear the woods 
     for war. When Harrison learned this he sent a message to 
     the Prophet's town. The ``Seventeen Fires,'' he said, were 
     invincible. The Redcoats could not help the Indians. But 
     if the Indians thought the New Purchase Treaty made at 
     Fort Wayne in 1809 was fraudulent, Harrison would arrange 
     to pay their way to visit the President, who would hear 
     their complaint. Tecumseh privately said he wished peace 
     but could be pushed no farther. These rumblings and 
     tremors of 1810 produced the first meeting of our two 
     tragic protagonists.
       Tecumseh paddled to Vincennes with four hundred armed 
     warriors in mid August, 1810. In council he denounced the New 
     Purchase Treaty and the village chiefs who had agreed to it. 
     He said the warrior chiefs would rule Indian affairs 
     thereafter. Harrison flatly denied Tecumseh's theory of 
     collective ownership and guaranteed to defend by the sword 
     what had been acquired by treaty. This meeting of leaders was 
     certainly not a meeting of minds. A deadlock had been 
     reached. A cold war had been started. During the rest of 1810 
     Harrison received nothing but bad news. The secretary of war 
     suggested a surprise capture of the Shawnee brothers. Indians 
     friendly to the United States predicted war. The governor of 
     Missouri reported to Harrison that the Prophet had invited 
     the tribes west of the Mississippi to join in a war, which 
     was to begin with an attack against Vincennes. The Indians 
     around Fort Dearborn were disaffected and restless. A 
     delegation of Sauk came all the way from Wisconsin to visit 
     Fort Malden. Two surveyors running the New Purchase line were 
     carried off by the Wea.
       In the summer of 1811 Tecumseh and about three hundred 
     Indians returned to Vincennes for another inconclusive 
     council in which neither he nor the governor converted the 
     other. Tecumseh condescendingly advised against white 
     settlement in the New Purchase because many Indians were 
     going to settle at the Prophet's town in the fall and would 
     need that area for hunting. Tecumseh said he was going south 
     to enroll new allies. It is important to our story that 
     Tecumseh was absent from Indiana in that autumn of crisis. 
     Aside from this we need note only that on his southern tour 
     he failed to rouse the Choctaw, although he had a powerful 
     effect on the thousands of Creek who heard his eloquence.
       At this point it is important to note Governor Harrison's 
     continuing suspicion that Tecumseh and the Prophet were 
     British agents, or at least were being stirred to hostility 
     by the British. British official correspondence shows that 
     Fort Malden was a free cafeteria for hungry Indians, having 
     served them seventy-one thousand meals in the first eleven 
     months of 1810. The correspondence also shows that Tecumseh, 
     in 1810, told the British he planned for war in late 1811, 
     but indicates that the British apparently promised him 
     nothing.
       The year 1811 was a hard one for the Indians because the 
     Napoleonic wars had sharply reduced the European market for 
     furs. The Indians were in a state that we would call a 
     depression. And we should remember that while Tecumseh 
     helped the British in the War of 1812 it was not because 
     he loved them. To him the British side was merely the side 
     to take against the Long Knives.
       In June and July of 1811 Governors William Hull of Michigan 
     Territory and Harrison of Indiana Territory sent to the 
     secretary of war evaluations of the frontier problems. Hull's 
     was narrowly tactical, pessimistic, and prophetic of the easy 
     conquest of Michigan if the British navy controlled Lake 
     Erie. Harrison's, although in fewer words, was broadly 
     strategic and more constructive: the mere fact of an Indian 
     confederation, friendly to the British and hostile to the 
     Long Knives, was dangerous; the Prophet's town (hereafter 
     called Tippecanoe) was ideally located as a base for a 
     surprise downstream attack on Vincennes, was well placed as a 
     headquarters for more protracted warfare, and was linked by 
     water and short portages with all the northwestern Indians; 
     the little known country north of Tippecanoe, full of swamps 
     and thickets, could easily be defended by natives, but the 
     power of the United States could be brought to bear only with 
     the greatest difficulty. Early in August, 1811, Harrison told 
     the War Department he did not expect hostilities before 
     Tecumseh returned from the South, and that in the meantime he 
     intended to try to break up Tecumseh's confederacy, without 
     bloodshed if possible. On their side, the Indians told the 
     British they expected some deceitful trick leading to their 
     massacre.
       The military details of the Battle of Tippecanoe need not 
     be exhausted here. Harrison's forces moved up the Wabash and 
     arrived at Tippecanoe on November 6, 1811. When Harrison was 
     preparing to attack, he was met by emissaries from the 
     Prophet. Both sides agreed to a council on the next day. The 
     troops encamped with correctly organized interior and 
     exterior guards. Here the story diverges into two versions. 
     White writers have said the Indians intended to confer, to 
     pretend falsely to agree to anything, to assassinate 
     Harrison, and to massacre the little army. They allege the 
     Prophet had promised to make the Indians bullet proof. A 
     Kickapoo chief later said to British officers that a white 
     prisoner the Indians had captured told them Harrison intended 
     to fight, not to talk. At any rate, the shooting started at 
     about four in the morning, an unfortunate moment for the 
     Indians because that was the hour of ``stand to'' or 
     ``general quarters'' in the white army. Curious Indians in 
     the brush were fired on by sentries. The Indians then killed 
     the sentries. It was then, and only then, the Indians said, 
     that they decided to fight. The battle lasted until mid 
     morning, when the Indians ran out of arrows and bullets and 
     fled. A detachment of Harrison's troops then burned the 
     deserted village and the winter corn reserve of the Shawnee. 
     Two days later the troops withdrew. The depth of the cleavage 
     between Indians and whites is shown by the fact that the 
     Potowatomi Chief Winnemac, Harrison's leading Indian adviser, 
     came up the river with the troops but fought on the side of 
     his bronze brethren. Harrison had 50 Kentucky volunteers, 250 
     United States infantry, and several hundred Indiana militia, 
     who had been trained personally by him. Reports of losses 
     vary. Indians admitted to losing 25 dead, but soldiers 
     counted 38 dead Indians on the field. This was the first time 
     in northwestern warfare that a force of whites of a size 
     equal to the redmen had suffered only a number of casualties 
     equal to those of their dusky enemies. Heretofore whites in 
     such circumstances had lost more than the redmen had lost. 
     Estimates of Indians in the fighting range from 100 to 1,000. 
     Six hundred would probably be a fair estimate.
       As battles go, Tippecanoe cannot be compared with Fallen 
     Timbers in 1794 or Moraviantown in 1813, but it was 
     politically and diplomatically decisive. Its most important 
     effect was to divide the tribes in such a way as to make 
     Tecumseh's dream fade like fog in the sun.
                                  ____



                  An Eyewitness Account of Tippecanoe

                        (By Judge Isaac Naylor)

       I became a volunteer of a company of riflemen and, on 
     September 12, 1811, we commenced our march towards Vincennes, 
     and arrived there in about six days, marching one hundred and 
     twenty miles. We remained there about one week and took up 
     the line of march to a point on the Wabash river, where we 
     erected a stockade fort, which we named Fort Harrison. This 
     was two miles above where the city of Terre Haute now stands. 
     Col. Joseph H. Daviess, who commanded the dragoons, named the 
     fort. The glorious defense of this fort nine months after by 
     Capt. Zachary Taylor was the first step in his brilliant 
     career that afterward made him President of the United 
     States. A few days later we took up our line of march for the 
     seat of the Indian warfare, where we arrived on the evening 
     of November 6, 1811.
       When the army arrived in view of Prophet's Town, an Indian 
     was seen coming toward General Harrison, with a white flag 
     suspended on a pole. Here the army halted, and a parley was 
     had between General Harrison and an Indian delegation who 
     assured the General that they desired peace and solemnly 
     promised to meet him the next day in council to settle the 
     terms of peace and friendship between them and the United 
     States.
       Having seen a number of squaws and children at the town, I 
     thought the Indians were not disposed to fight. About ten 
     o'clock at night, Joseph Warnock and myself retired to rest.
       I awoke about four o'clock the next morning, after a sound 
     and refreshing sleep. In a few moments I heard the crack of a 
     rifle in the direction of the point where now stands the 
     Battle Ground House. I had just time to think that some 
     sentinel was alarmed and fired his rifle without a real 
     cause, when I heard the crack of another rifle, followed by 
     an awful Indian yell all around the encampment. In less than 
     a minute I saw the Indians charging our line most furiously 
     and shooting a great many rifle balls into our camp fires, 
     throwing the live coals into the air three or four feet high.
       At this moment my friend Warnock was shot by a rifle ball 
     through his body. He ran

[[Page H12074]]

     a few yards and fell dead on the ground. Our lines were 
     broken and a few Indians were found on the inside of the 
     encampment. In a few moments they were all killed. Our lines 
     closed up and our men in their proper places. One Indian was 
     killed in the back part of Captain Geiger's tent, while he 
     was attempting to tomahawk the Captain.
       The sentinels, closely pursued by the Indians, came to the 
     line of the encampment in haste and confusion. My brother, 
     William Naylor, was on guard. He was pursued so rapidly and 
     furiously that he ran to the nearest point on the left flank, 
     where he remained with a company of regular soldiers until 
     the battle was near its termination. A young man, whose name 
     was Daniel Pettit, was pursued so closely and furiously by an 
     Indian as he was running from the guard line to our lines, 
     that to save his life he cocked his rifle as he ran and 
     turning suddenly around, placed the muzzle of his gun against 
     the body of the Indian and shot an ounce ball through him. 
     The Indian fired his gun at the same instant, but it being 
     longer than Pettit's the muzzle passed by him and set fire to 
     a handkerchief which he had tied around his head. The Indians 
     made four or five most fierce charges on our lines, yelling 
     and screaming as they advanced, shooting balls and arrows 
     into our ranks. At each charge they were driven back in 
     confusion, carrying off their dead and wounded as they 
     retreated.
       Colonel Owen, Shelby County, Kentucky, one of General 
     Harrison's aides, fell early in the action by the side of the 
     General. He was a  member of the legislature at the time of 
     his death. Colonel Daviess was mortally wounded early in 
     the battle, gallantly charging the Indians on foot with 
     sword and pistols according to his own request. He made 
     this request three times before General Harrison would 
     permit it. This charge was made by himself and eight 
     dragoons on foot near the angle formed by the left flank 
     and front line of the encampment. Colonel Daviess lived 
     about thirty-six hours after he was wounded, manifesting 
     his ruling passion in life--ambition, and a patriotism and 
     ardent love of military glory.
       Captain Spencer's company of mounted riflemen composed the 
     right flank of the army. Captain Spencer and both of his 
     lieutenants were killed. John Tipton was elected and 
     commissioned captain of his company in one hour after the 
     battle, as reward for his cool and deliberate heroism 
     displayed during the action. He died at Logansport in 1839, 
     having been twice elected Senator of the United States from 
     Indiana.
       The clear, calm voice of General Harrison was heard in 
     words of heroism in every part of the encampment during the 
     action. Colonel Boyd behaved very bravely after repeating 
     these words: ``Huzza! My sons of gold, a few more fires and 
     victory will be ours!''
       Just after daylight the Indians retreated across the 
     prairie toward their own town, carrying off their wounded. 
     This retreat was from the right flank of the encampment, 
     commanded by Captains Spencer and Robb, having retreated from 
     the other portions of the encampment a few minutes before. As 
     their retreat became visible, an almost deafening and 
     universal shout was raised by our men. ``Huzza! Huzza! 
     Huzza!'' This shout was almost equal to that of the savages 
     at the commencement of the battle; ours was the shout of 
     victory, theirs was the shout of ferocious but disappointed 
     hope.
       The morning light disclosed the fact that the killed and 
     wounded of our army, numbering between eight and nine hundred 
     men, amounted to one hundred and eight. Thirty-six Indians 
     were found near our lines. Many of their dead were carried 
     off during the battle. This fact was proved by the discovery 
     of many Indian graves recently made near their town. Ours was 
     a bloody victory, theirs a bloody defeat.
       Soon after breakfast an Indian chief was discovered on the 
     prairie, about eighty yards from our front line, wrapped in a 
     piece of white cloth. He was found by a soldier by the name 
     of Miller, a resident of Jeffersonville, Indiana. The Indian 
     was wounded in one leg, the ball having penetrated his knee 
     and passed down his leg, breaking the bone as it passed. 
     Miller put his foot against him and he raised up his head and 
     said: ``Don't kill me, don't kill me.'' At the same time, 
     five or six regular soldiers tried to shoot him, but their 
     muskets snapped and missed fire. Maj. Davis Floyd came riding 
     toward him with dragoon sword and pistols and said he would 
     show them how to kill Indians, when a messenger came from 
     General Harrison commanding that he should be taken prisoner. 
     He was taken into camp, where the surgeons dressed his 
     wounds. Here he refused to speak a word of English or tell a 
     word of truth. Through the medium of an interpreter he said 
     that he was coming to the camp to tell General Harrison that 
     they were about to attack the camp. He refused to have his 
     leg amputated, though he was told that amputation was the 
     only means of saving his life. One dogma of Indian 
     superstition is that all good and brave Indians, when they 
     die, go to a delightful region, abounding with deer, and 
     other game, and to be a successful hunter he should have his 
     limbs, his gun and his dog. He therefore preferred death with 
     all his limbs to life without them. In accordance with his 
     request he was left to die, in company with an old squaw, who 
     was found in the Indian town the next day after he was taken 
     prisoner. They were left in one of our tents. At the time 
     this Indian was taken prisoner, another Indian, who was 
     wounded in the body, rose to his feet in the middle of the 
     prairie and began to walk towards the wood on the apposite 
     side. A number of regular soldiers shot at him but missed 
     him. A man who was a member of the same company with me, 
     Henry Huckleberry, ran a few steps into the prairie and shot 
     an ounce ball through his body and he fell dead near the 
     margin of the woods. Some Kentucky volunteers went across the 
     prairie immediately and scalped him, dividing his scalp into 
     four pieces, each one cutting a hole in each piece, putting 
     the ramrod through the hole, and placing his part of the 
     scalp just behind the first thimble of his gun, near its 
     muzzle. Such was the fate of nearly all of the Indians found 
     dead on the battle-ground, and such was the disposition of 
     their scalps.
       The death of Owen, and the fact that Daviess was mortally 
     wounded with the remembrance also that a large portion of 
     Kentucky's best blood had been shed by the Indians, must be 
     their apology for this barbarous conduct. Such conduct will 
     be excused by all who witnessed the treachery of the Indians 
     and saw the bloody scenes of this battle.
       Tecumseh being absent at the time of the battle, a chief 
     called White Loon was the chief commander of the Indians. He 
     was seen in the morning after the battle, riding a large 
     white horse in the woods across the prairie, where he was 
     shot at by a volunteer named Montgomery, who is now living in 
     the southwest part of this State. At the crack of his rifle 
     the horse jumped as if the ball had hit him. The Indian rode 
     off toward the town and we saw him no more. During the battle 
     The Prophet was safely located on a hill, beyond the reach 
     of our balls, praying to the Great Spirit to give victory 
     to the Indians, having previously assured them that the 
     Great Spirit would change our powder into ashes and sand.
       General Harrison, having learned that Tecumseh was expected 
     to return from the south with a number of Indians whom he had 
     enlisted in his cause, called a council of his officers, who 
     advised him to remain on the battlefield and fortify his camp 
     by a breastwork of logs, about four feet high. This work was 
     completed during the day and all the troops were placed 
     immediately behind each line of the work when they were 
     ordered to pass the watchword from right to left every five 
     minutes, so that no man was permitted to sleep during the 
     night. The watchword on the night before the battle was 
     ``Wide awake, wide awake.'' To me it was a long, cold, 
     cheerless night.
       On the next day the dragoons went to Prophet's Town, which 
     they found deserted by all the Indians, except an old squaw, 
     whom they brought into camp and left her with the wounded 
     chief before mentioned. The dragoons set fire to the town and 
     it was all consumed, casting up a brilliant light amid the 
     darkness of the ensuing night. I arrived at the town when it 
     was about half on fire. I found large quantities of corn, 
     beans and peas. I filled my knapsack with these articles and 
     carried them to the camp and divided them with the members of 
     our mess, consisting of six men. Having these articles of 
     food, we declined eating horse flesh, which was eaten by a 
     large portion of our men.
                                  ____



                 chief shabonee's account of tippecanoe

       It was fully believed among the Indians that we should 
     defeat General Harrison, and that we should hold the line of 
     the Wabash and dictate terms to the whites. The great cause 
     of our failure, was the Miamies, whose principal country was 
     south of the river, and they wanted to treat with the whites 
     so as to retain their land, and they played false to their 
     red brethren and yet lost all. They are now surrounded and 
     will be crushed. The whites will shortly have all their lands 
     and they will be driven away.
       In every talk to the Indians, General Harrison said:
       ``Lay down your arms. Bury the hatchet, already bloody with 
     murdered victims, and promise to submit to your great chief 
     at Washington, and he will be a father to you, and forget all 
     that is past. If we take your land, we will pay for it. But 
     you must not think that you can stop the march of white men 
     westward.''
       There was truth and justice in all that talk. The Indians 
     with me would not listen to it. It was dictating to them. 
     They wanted to dictate to him. They had counted his soldiers, 
     and looked at them with contempt. Our young men said:
       ``We are ten to their one. If they stay upon the other 
     side, we will let them alone. If they cross the Wabash, we 
     will take their scalps or drive them into the river. They 
     cannot swim. Their powder will be wet. The fish will eat 
     their bodies. The bones of the white men will lie upon every 
     sand bar. Their flesh will fatten buzzards. These white 
     soldiers are not warriors. Their hands are soft. Their faces 
     are white. One half of them are calico peddlers. The other 
     half can only shoot squirrels. They cannot stand before men. 
     They will all run when we make a noise in the night like wild 
     cats fighting for their young. We will fight for ours, and to 
     keep the pale faces from our wigwams. What will they fight 
     for? They won't fight. They will run. We will attack them in 
     the night.''
       Such were the opinions and arguments of our warriors. They 
     did not appreciate the great strength of the white men. I 
     knew their great war chief, and some of his young men. He was 
     a good man, very soft in his words to his red children, as he 
     called us; and that made some of our men with hot heads mad. 
     I listened to his soft words, but I looked into his eyes. 
     They were full of fire.

[[Page H12075]]

     I knew that they would be among his men like coals of fire in 
     the dry grass. The first wind would raise a great flame. I 
     feared for the red men that might be sleeping in this way. I, 
     too, counted his men. I was one of the scouts that watched 
     all their march up the river from Vincennes. I knew that we 
     were like these bushes--very many. They were like these 
     trees; here and there one. But I knew too, when a great tree 
     falls, it crushes many little ones. I saw some of the men 
     shoot squirrels, as they rode along, and I said, the Indians 
     have no such guns. These men will kill us as far as they can 
     see. ``They cannot see in the night,'' said our men who were 
     determined to fight. So I held my tongue. I saw that all of 
     our war chiefs were hot for battle with the white men. But 
     they told General Harrison that they only wanted peace. They 
     wanted him to come up into their country and show their 
     people how strong he was, and then they would all be 
     willing to make a treaty and smoke the great pipe 
     together. This was what he came for. He did not intend to 
     fight the Indians. They had deceived him. Yet he was wary. 
     He was a great war chief. Every night he picked his 
     camping ground and set his sentinels all around, as though 
     he expected we would attack him in the dark. We should 
     have done so before we did, if it had not been for this 
     precaution. Some of our people taunted him for this, and 
     pretended to be angry that he should distrust them, for 
     they still talked of their willingness to treat, as soon 
     as they could get all the people. This is part of our way 
     of making war. So the white army marched further and 
     further into our country, unsuspicious, I think, of our 
     treachery. In one thing we were deceived. We expected that 
     the white warriors would come up on the south bank of the 
     river, and then we could parley with them; but they 
     crossed far down the river and came on this side, right up 
     to the great Indian town that Elskatawwa had gathered at 
     the mouth of the Tippecanoe. In the meantime he had sent 
     three chiefs down on the south side to meet the army and 
     stop it with a talk until he could get the warriors ready. 
     Tecumseh had told the Indians not to fight, but when he 
     was away, they took some scalps, and General Harrison 
     demanded that we should give up our men as murder[er]s, to 
     be punished.
       Tecumseh had spent months in traveling all over the country 
     around Lake Michigan, making great talks to all the warriors, 
     to get them to join him in his great designs upon the pale 
     faces. His enmity was the most bitter of any Indian I ever 
     knew. He was not one of our nation, he was a Shawnee. His 
     father was a great warrior. His mother came from the country 
     where there is no snow, near the great water that is salt. 
     His father was treacherously killed by a white man before 
     Tecumseh was born, and his mother taught him, while he 
     sucked, to hate all white men, and when he grew big enough to 
     be ranked as a warrior she used to go with him every year to 
     his father's grave and make him swear that he would never 
     cease to make war upon the Americans. To this end he used all 
     his power of strategy, skill and cunning, both with white men 
     and red. He had very much big talk. He was not at the battle 
     of Tippecanoe. If he had been there it would not have been 
     fought. It was too soon. It frustrated all his plans.
       Elskatawwa was Tecumseh's older brother. He was a great 
     medicine. He talked much to the Indians and told them what 
     had happened. He told much truth, but some things that he had 
     told did not come to pass. He was called ``The Prophet.'' 
     Your people knew him only by that name. He was very cunning, 
     but he was not so great a warrior as his brother, and he 
     could not so well control the young warriors who were 
     determined to fight.
       Perhaps your people do not know that the battle of 
     Tippecanoe was the work of white men who came from Canada and 
     urged us to make war. Two of them who wore red coats were at 
     the Prophet's Town the day that your army came. It was they 
     who urged Elskatawwa to fight. They dressed themselves like 
     Indians, to show us how to fight. They did not know our 
     mode. We wanted to attack at midnight. They wanted to wait 
     till daylight. The battle commenced before either party 
     was ready, because one of your sentinels discovered one of 
     our warriors, who had undertaken to creep into your camp 
     and kill the great chief where he slept. The Prophet said 
     if that was done we should kill all the rest or they would 
     run away. He promised us a horseload of scalps, and a gun 
     for every warrior, and many horses. The men that were to 
     crawl upon their bellies into camp were seen in the grass 
     by a white man who had eyes like an owl, and he fired and 
     hit his mark. The Indian was not brave. He cried out. He 
     should have lain still and died. Then the other men fired. 
     The other Indians were fools. They jumped up out of the 
     grass and yelled. They believed what had been told them, 
     that a white men would run at a noise made in the night. 
     Then many Indians who had crept very close so as to be 
     ready to take scalps when the white men ran, all yelled 
     like wolves, wild cats and screech owls; but it did not 
     make the white men run.
       They jumped right up from their sleep with guns in their 
     hands and sent a shower of bullets at every spot where they 
     heard a noise. They could not see us. We could see them, for 
     they had fires. Whether we were ready or not we had to fight 
     now for the battle was begun. We were still sure that we 
     should win. The Prophet had told us that we could not be 
     defeated. We did not rush in among your men because of the 
     fires. Directly the men ran away from some of the fires, and 
     a few foolish Indians went into the light and were killed. 
     One Delaware could not make his gun go off. He ran up to a 
     fire to fix the lock. I saw a white man whom I knew very 
     well--he was a great hunter who could shoot a tin cup from 
     another man's head--put up his gun to shoot the Delaware. I 
     tried to shoot the white man but another who carried the flag 
     just then unrolled it so that I could not see my aim. Then I 
     heard the gun and saw the Delaware fall. I thought he was 
     dead. The White man thought so, too, and ran to him with his 
     knife. He wanted a Delaware scalp. Just as he got to him the 
     Delaware jumped up and ran away. He had only lost an ear. A 
     dozen bullets were fired at the white man while he was at the 
     fire, but he shook them off like an old buffalo bull.
       Our people were more surprised than yours. The fight had 
     been begun too soon. They were not all ready. The plan was to 
     creep up through the wet land where horses could not run, 
     upon one side of the camp, and on the other through a creek 
     and steep bank covered with bushes, so as to be ready to use 
     the tomahawk upon the sleeping men as soon as their chief was 
     killed. The Indians thought white men who had marched all day 
     would sleep. They found them awake.
       The Prophet had sent word to General Harrison that day that 
     the Indians were all peaceable, that they did not want to 
     fight, that he might lie down and sleep, and they would treat 
     with their white brothers in the morning and bury the 
     hatchet. But the white men did not believe.
       In one minute from the time the first gun was fired I saw a 
     great war chief mount his horse and begin to talk loud. The 
     fires were put out and we could not tell where to shoot, 
     except on one side of the camp, and from there the white 
     soldiers ran, but we did not succeed as the Prophet told us 
     that we would, in scaring the whole army so that all the men 
     would run and hide in the grass like young quails.
       I never saw men fight with more courage than these did 
     after it began to grow light. The battle was lost to us by an 
     accident, or rather by two.
       A hundred warriors had been picked out during the night for 
     this desperate service, and in the great council-house the 
     Prophet had instructed them how to crawl like snakes through 
     the grass and strike the sentinels; and if they failed in 
     that, then they were to rush forward boldly and kill the 
     great war chief of the whites, and if they did not do this 
     the Great Spirit, he said, had told him that the battle would 
     be hopelessly lost. This the Indians all believed.
       If the one that was first discovered and shot had died like 
     a brave, without a groan, the sentinel would have thought 
     that he was mistaken, and it would have been more favorable 
     than before for the Indians. The alarm having been made, the 
     others followed Elskatawwa's orders, which were, in case of 
     discovery, so as to prevent the secret movement, they should 
     make a great yell as a signal for the general attack. All of 
     the warriors had been instructed to creep up to the camp 
     through the tall grass during the night, so close that when 
     the great signal was given, the yell would be so loud and 
     frightful that the whole of the whites would run for the 
     thick woods up the creek, and that side was left open for 
     this purpose.
       ``You will, then,'' said the Prophet, ``have possession of 
     their camp and all its equipage, and you can shoot the men 
     with their own guns from every tree. But above all else you 
     must kill the great chief.''
       It was expected that this could be easily done by those who 
     were allotted to rush into camp in the confusion of the first 
     attack. It was a great mistake of the Prophet's redcoated 
     advisers, to defer this attack until morning. It would have 
     succeeded when the fires were brighter in the night. Then 
     they could not have been put out.
       I was one of the spies that had dogged the steps of the 
     army to give the Prophet information every day. I saw all the 
     arrangement of the camp. It was not made where the Indians 
     wanted it. The place was very bad for the attack. But it was 
     not that which caused the failure. It was because General 
     Harrison changed horses. He had ridden a grey one every day 
     on the march, and he could have been shot twenty times by 
     scouts that were hiding along the route. That was not what 
     was wanted, until the army got to a place where it could be 
     all wiped out. That time had now come, and the hundred braves 
     were to rush in and shoot the ``Big chief on a white horse,'' 
     and then fall back to a safer place.
       This order was fully obeyed, but we soon found to our 
     terrible dismay that the ``Big chief on a white horse'' that 
     was killed was not General Harrison. He had mounted a dark 
     horse. I know this, for I was so near that I saw him, and I 
     knew him as well as I knew my own brother.
       I think that I could then have shot him, but I could not 
     lift my gun. The Great Spirit held it down. I knew then that 
     the great white chief was not to be killed, and I knew that 
     the red men were doomed.
       As soon as daylight came our warriors saw that the 
     Prophet's grand plan had failed--that the great white chief 
     was alive riding fearlessly among his troops in spite of 
     bullets, and their hearts melted.
       After that the Indians fought to save themselves, not to 
     crush the whites. It was a terrible defeat. Our men all 
     scattered and tried to get away. The white horsemen chased 
     them and cut them down with long knives. We carried off a few 
     wounded prisoners in the first attack, but nearly all the

[[Page H12076]]

     dead lay unscalped, and some of them lay thus till the next 
     year when another army came to bury them.
       Our women and children were in the town only a mile from 
     the battlefield waiting for victory and its spoils. They 
     wanted white prisoners. The Prophet had promised that every 
     squaw of any note should have one of the white warriors to 
     use as her slave, or to treat as she pleased.
       Oh how these women were disappointed! Instead of slaves and 
     spoils of the white men coming into town with the rising sun, 
     their town was in flames and women and children were hunted 
     like wolves and killed by hundreds or driven into the river 
     and swamps to hide.
       With the smoke of that town and the loss of that battle I 
     lost all hope of the red men being able to stop the whites.
                                  ____

       Historic Conner Prairie farm in central Indiana first 
     purchased by William Conner in August of 1802, in the early 
     pioneer period of Indiana and the Northwest territory. It is 
     on a broad prairie near the White River, north of 
     Indianapolis, just south of what is now Noblesville. His 
     trading post became a landmark on the frontier of central 
     Indiana and the chief market place for Indians in the region. 
     This historic farm was preserved by the Lilly family (of the 
     Eli Lilly Corporation) and is today operated by Earlham 
     College.
       Two United States Presidents were associated with Indiana 
     during this pioneer period. Abraham Lincoln moved to southern 
     Indiana in 1816 and spent his boyhood as a Hoosier. William 
     Henry Harrison was appointed governor of the Indiana 
     Territory on May 13, 1800 (after having fought with General 
     Anthony Wayne at the Battle of fallen Timbers and helping 
     construct Fort Wayne). He moved to the territorial capitol of 
     Vincennes on January 10, 1801. Harrison remained in Indiana 
     until September 12, 1812. In 1804 he purchased land which is 
     now Corydon, Indiana. He built a log home and lived there for 
     awhile. All the early settlers in the Corydon area referred 
     to him as ``Bill.'' When a new county was carved out of Knox 
     County, it was thus logical that it would be called Harrison 
     County after the General. He sold to the commissioners one 
     acre and four perches of ground for a public square. That 
     purchase included the square upon which the Old Capitol--
     Indiana's first capitol and where the first constitution was 
     written--now stands.

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