Little Turtle
Little Turtle was a Sagamore of the Miami people, who became one of the most famous Native American military leaders. Historian Wiley Sword calls him "perhaps the most capable Indian leader then in the Northwest Territory," although he later signed several treaties ceding land, which caused him to lose his leader status during the battles which became a prelude to the War of 1812. In the 1790s, Mihšihkinaahkwa led a confederation of native warriors to several major victories against U.S. forces in the Northwest Indian Wars, sometimes called "Little Turtle's War", particularly St. Clair's defeat in 1791, wherein the confederation defeated General Arthur St. Clair, who lost 900 men in the most decisive loss by the U.S. Army against Native American forces.
Name
Little Turtle is an English translation of mihšihkinaahkwa, the phonetic spelling of his name in the Miami-Illinois language. His native name in historic records includes many variations, including Michikinikwa, Meshekunnoghquoh, Michikinakoua, Michikiniqua, Me-She-Kin-No-Quah, Meshecunnaquan, and Mischecanocquah. The word names a species of terrapin, probably the Midland painted turtle. There is no diminutive on this name in the original Miami-Illinois language.Early life and physical description
There is little documentary evidence for most of Little Turtle's life. The exact year and place of his birth are uncertain. Still, sources generally indicate that he was born in 1747 or 1752, the years before or following the period that his parents lived in the Miami village of Pickawillany. Some historians give 1752 as his probable date of birth; others prefer 1747.The exact names of Little Turtle's parents have been long debated. Historian Andrew Cayton named Mishikinakwa as his father and an unnamed Mohican refugee as his mother; however, Little Turtle biographer Harvey Carter indicated that Little Turtle's father was Cinquenackqua.
Little Turtle was born in what became present-day Whitley County, Indiana, at either a small Miami village along Devil's Lake or a larger nearby village known as Turtletown. Little Turtle lived at Turtletown, along the Eel River, until 1780.
Little Turtle has been described as nearly six feet tall. He disdained drunkenness and presented himself as a serious man. Little Turtle was fond of wearing silver on his ears and clothing.
Career
Early years
Little Turtle was selected as the war chief of the Atchatchakangouen division of the Myaamiaki through his demonstration of military prowess in battle. Although he was the war chief of the leading division of the tribe, Little Turtle was never the head chief of the Miami, which was a hereditary position.La Balme's Defeat
Little Turtle earned this designation during the American Revolutionary War in action against a French force allied with the American patriots, led by French military adventurer Augustin de La Balme. After raising a force of forty-to-fifty men at Vincennes, Indiana and a similar number along the Kaskaskia–Cahokia Trail, in October 1780 La Balme plundered Miamitown at Kekionga, as part of his campaign to attack the British in Detroit. When La Balme stopped to camp along the Eel River just three miles south of Little Turtle's village, Little Turtle received permission to lead an attack. On November 5, 1780, Little Turtle attacked La Balme, killing La Balme and forty of his men and taking the rest prisoner. The battle was a complete rout, and Little Turtle's army suffered almost no casualties. Many French soldiers were heard begging to surrender while they were scalped alive. Several French officers were taken alive, three of whom were burnt at the stake, one of whom had his hands and feet cut off before being killed by having his face struck with a tomahawk, and four of whom were let go as a warning to the rest of the French. When French forces allied to the Americans attempted to scout out the location a few days later, they saw that the heads of several French soldiers blocked the path impaled on pikes. After seeing this, they turned back. These events occurred in and around what is today Columbia City, Indiana in Whitley County, Indiana. The victory ended the campaign and established Little Turtle's reputation as a war leader. Through the 1780s, Little Turtle continued to lead raids against colonial American settlements in Kentucky, fighting on the side of the British. However, the Miami bands did not uniformly support the British. The Piankashaw Miami supported the rebel Americans, while the Wea Miami vacillated between the British and Americans.Little Turtle's War
Under the terms of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolutionary War, the British abandoned their native allies and ceded the land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River to the U.S. government. Through the Land Ordinance of 1784 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the U.S. government established Northwest Territory in 1787.Native Americans living in the territory resisted the encroaching American settlements, and violence escalated in the area. Native tribes formed the Northwestern Confederacy to keep the Ohio River as a boundary between Indian lands and the United States. Little Turtle emerged as one of the war leaders of the Confederacy, which also included the Shawnee under Blue Jacket and the Delaware under Buckongahelas. The war with the United States that followed became known as the Northwest Indian War, also called "Little Turtle's War".
Little Turtle helped to lead Native Americans against federal forces led by General Josiah Harmar in late 1790. To end the border war with native tribes in the area, the U.S. government sent an expedition of American troops under the command of General Harmar, but his forces lacked sufficient training and were poorly supplied. In October 1790, Little Turtle and Blue Jacket won two victories against Harmar's men. These successes encouraged further resistance. In addition, previously reluctant leaders among the Ottawa and Wyandot joined the confederacy.
In August 1791, Little Turtle's daughter was among the women and children who were captured in a raid of a Miami village along the Eel River led by James Wilkinson. By September 1791, a force of 1,400 to nearly 2,000 American soldiers under the command of Arthur St. Clair was moving north from Fort Washington, headed toward the Maumee-Wabash portage.
St. Clair's defeat
Little Turtle is generally credited with leading a coalition force of about 1,000 warriors that routed the U.S. forces near the headwaters of the Wabash River on November 4, 1791. The battle remains the U.S. Army's worst defeat by American Indians, with 623 federal soldiers killed and another 258 wounded. The Indian confederacy lost an estimated 100 men. Both Little Turtle and Blue Jacket claimed overall command of the combined native forces in the victory, causing tension within the Confederacy.In November 1792, following the decision of a grand council of tribal leaders at the mouth of the Auglaize River, Little Turtle led a force of 200 Miami and Shawnee past the U.S. outposts of Fort Jefferson and Fort St. Clair, reaching Fort Hamilton on November 3. The warriors intended to attack the U.S. settlements on the anniversary of St. Clair's Defeat. The warriors captured two prisoners and learned that a large convoy of packhorses had left for Fort Jefferson and was due back in the area within days. Little Turtle moved north and found the convoy of nearly 100 horses and 100 Kentucky militia under the command of Major John Adair encamped outside Fort St. Clair. Little Turtle and his warriors attacked at dawn on November 4, just as Adair recalled his sentries. The militia fled into the fort, suffering six killed and four missing, while another five were wounded. Little Turtle's force lost two warriors but captured Adair's camp and its provisions. All the horses were killed, wounded, or driven off; only 23 were later recovered. Adair considered the battle to be a "triumph" for Little Turtle; James Wilkinson, at that time a lieutenant colonel in command of the U.S. Army at Fort Washington, believed that the loss of the horses made these advanced forts indefensible.
Between 1792 and 1794, General Anthony Wayne commanded the Legion of the United States in a third expedition in the Northwest Territory against the Indian Confederacy. To avoid another defeat, Wayne rigorously trained 3,500 U.S. troops and carefully planned his campaign. The American forces successfully repulsed an exploratory attack on Fort Recovery with an estimated 1,000 warriors in June 1794. Afterwards, Little Turtle counseled his tribesmen to pursue negotiations and peace rather than suffering a defeat in battle, remarking that Wayne was " the chief that never sleeps."
When Little Turtle was unable to persuade the leaders of the tribal Confederacy to negotiate peace, he stepped down as the intertribal war chief. Little Turtle is said to have ceded command to Blue Jacket, although he retained leadership of his group of Miami tribesmen. Little Turtle's son-in-law, William Wells, a white man who was born in Kentucky and lived among the Miami for eight years after his capture in 1784, also sensed the defeat of the Indian alliance and switched his alliance to the Americans. Wells served as a scout for General Wayne's troops and later as an Indian Agent for the U.S. government.
Battle of Fallen Timbers
The Indian Confederacy, numbering around 1,000 warriors, was defeated at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in August 1794 near the Maumee River. After the battle, the Miamis abandoned Kekionga and relocated to other villages along the Eel, Mississinewa, and Wabash Rivers.Following the Indian Confederacy's defeat at Fallen Timbers, their leaders signed the Treaty of Greenville, a turning point in their resistance to American expansion. Little Turtle traveled with his wife to Greenville and gave a speech before signing the treaty. He encouraged his people "to adopt American ways" and hoped the treaty would improve relations between the Americans and Native Americans. His wife died in camp the next day. Her funeral and burial included American soldiers as pallbearers, American music, and a three-gun salute.
Although Indian resistance to the Americans diminished after the Treaty of Greenville was signed, Indian raids continued to threaten settlements along the frontier until 1815. For the remainder of his life, Little Turtle was a committed peacekeeper, causing some to consider him an "accommodationist" who believed that his people would have to adapt to the Americans' way of life if they hoped to endure.