Congressional Record, Volume 145 Issue 162 (Tuesday, November 16, 1999)

[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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