127-639: The French Grant (also known as the French-Grant Estates ) was a land tract in the Northwest Territory , present day Scioto County, Ohio , that was paid out by the U.S. Congress on March 31, 1795. This was after a group of French colonists were defrauded by the Scioto Company of purchased land grants which rightly were controlled by the Ohio Company of Associates . Not all of the settlers took
254-595: A standardized system for surveying the land into saleable lots, although Ohio was partially surveyed several times using different methods, resulting in a patchwork of land surveys in Ohio. Some older French communities' property claims based on earlier systems of long, narrow lots also were retained. The rest of the Northwest Territory was divided into roughly uniform square townships and sections, which facilitated land sales and development. The ordinance also stipulated that
381-714: A 1614 Dutch map showing some Sawwanew located just east of the Delaware River . Later 17th-century Dutch sources also place them in this general location. Accounts by French explorers in the same century usually located the Shawnee along the Ohio River, where the French encountered them on forays from eastern Canada and the Illinois Country . Based on historical accounts and later archaeology, John E. Kleber describes Shawnee towns by
508-559: A US army by Native Americans in history. About 623 American soldiers were killed in action, and about 50 Native Americans were killed. Although an investigation exonerated him, St. Clair resigned his army commission in March 1792 at the request of President Washington, but continued to serve as Governor of the Northwest Territory. After St. Clair's defeat, In June 1792, President Washington tapped revolutionary war hero Major General "Mad" Anthony Wayne to avenge St. Clair and assert sovereignty over
635-572: A band of Cherokee along the lower Tennessee River and Chickamauga Creek against the colonists in that area. Some colonists called this group of Cherokee the Chickamauga , because they lived along that river at the time of what became known as the Cherokee–American wars , during and after the American Revolution . But they were never a separate tribe, as some accounts suggested. After
762-621: A chief, in 1714 they asked Carondawana, an Oneida war chief, to represent them to the Pennsylvania provincial council. About 1727, Carondawana and his wife, a prominent interpreter known as Madame Montour , settled at Otstonwakin , on the west bank at the confluence of Loyalsock Creek and the West Branch Susquehanna River . By 1730, European American settlers began to arrive in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where
889-525: A direct line down the river, and from the two extremities of that line, reaching back at right angles sufficiently far to include the quantity of land required, which somewhat exceeded 4.5 miles (7.2 km). Of these 24,000 acres (97 km), 4,000 acres (16 km) were awarded to John Gabriel Gervais for having pursued the grant; the remaining 20,000 acres (81 km) were split into 92 lots of 217.4 acres (0.880 km) each. Another 1,200 acres (4.9 km) additional were granted on June 25, 1798 called
1016-538: A girdle round them with a piece of cloth drawn through their legs and turned over the girdle, and appears like a short apron before and behind. All the hair is pulled from their eyebrows and eyelashes and their faces painted in different parts with Vermilion. They walk remarkably straight and cut a grotesque appearance in this mixed dress." Ever since the Beaver Wars , the Haudenosaunee Confederacy had claimed
1143-568: A group of Shawnee migrated to the Savannah River area. The English based in Charles Town , South Carolina, were contacted by these Shawnee in 1674. They forged a long-lasting alliance. The Savannah River Shawnee were known to the Carolina English as "Savannah Indians". Around the same time, other Shawnee groups migrated to Florida, Maryland , Pennsylvania, and other regions south and east of
1270-673: A large Native American state that would cover most of the Old Northwest. It would be independent of the United States and allied with the British, who would use it to block American westward expansion and to build up their control of the North American fur trade headquartered in Montreal. A new colony, named Charlotina , was proposed for establishment in the southern Great Lakes region before
1397-462: A major general. He led a punitive expedition involving two Regular Army regiments and some militia. In October 1791 as an advance post for his campaign, Fort Jefferson (Ohio) , was built under his direction. Located in present-day Darke County in far western Ohio, the fort was built of wood and intended primarily as a supply depot; accordingly, it was originally named Fort Deposit. One month later, near modern-day Fort Recovery , his force advanced to
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#17329172945001524-577: A part of Indiana Territory starting in 1800) began in 1801, through the Cincinnati land office. After the Revolutionary War ended, Rufus Putnam (the "Father of Ohio") and Manasseh Cutler were instrumental in creating the Northwest Ordinance , which opened up the Northwest Territory for settlement. This land was used to serve as compensation for what was owed to Revolutionary War veterans. It
1651-542: A population, excluding Native Americans, of over 45,000, and Indiana Territory, a population of about 5,600. By the time of Ohio statehood, there were as many as 50 named towns in Northwest and Indiana Territories, a few, like Vincennes, with thousands of settlers, and dozens of unnamed settlements below the Treaty Line in Ohio. Following settlement of the frontier, the great wave of colonial immigration flowed westward, founding
1778-446: A sliver of southeastern Indiana with the formation of Indiana Territory July 4, 1800, it ceased to exist March 1, 1803, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Ohio, and the remainder attached to Indiana Territory. Initially, the territory was governed by martial law under a governor and three judges. As population increased, a legislature
1905-630: A small American post on the Sandusky River . After they were repulsed with serious losses, the British and Tecumseh ended their Ohio campaign. On Lake Erie, the American commander Captain Oliver Hazard Perry fought the Battle of Lake Erie on September 10, 1813. His decisive victory against the British ensured American control of the lake, improved American morale after a series of defeats, and compelled
2032-805: A small group joining Muscogee people in Alabama . In the 19th century, the U.S. federal government forcibly removed them under the 1830 Indian Removal Act to areas west of the Mississippi River; these lands would eventually become the states of Missouri , Kansas , and Texas . Finally, they were removed to Indian Territory , which became the state of Oklahoma in the early 20th century. Today, Shawnee people are enrolled in three federally recognized tribes , all headquartered in Oklahoma: Shawnee has also been written as Shaawana . Individuals and singular Shawnee tribes may be referred to as šaawanwa, and
2159-576: A two-pronged invasion into the Ohio Country. The Shawnee chief Cornstalk attacked one wing but fought to a draw in the only major battle of the war, the Battle of Point Pleasant . In the Treaty of Camp Charlotte ending the war (1774), Cornstalk and the Shawnee were compelled by the British to recognize the Ohio River as their southern border, which had been established by the Fort Stanwix treaty. By this treaty,
2286-408: A wedge-shaped area of present-day Indiana in the southeast known as "the gore". It, along with everything east of the new territory, remained part of the Northwest Territory. This legislation was signed into law by President John Adams on May 7, 1800, and became effective on July 4. On April 30, 1802, Congress passed an enabling act for Ohio that authorized the residents of the eastern portion of
2413-476: Is a gap in the archaeological record between the most recent Fort Ancient sites and the oldest sites of the historic Shawnee. The latter were recorded by European (French and English) archaeologists as occupying this area at the time of encounter. Scholars generally accept that similarities in material culture, art, mythology , and Shawnee oral history linking them to the Fort Ancient peoples, can be used to support
2540-407: Is an Algonquian language . Their precontact homeland was likely centered in southern Ohio . In the 17th century, they dispersed through Ohio, Illinois , Maryland , Delaware , and Pennsylvania . In the early 18th century, they mostly concentrated in eastern Pennsylvania but dispersed again later that century across Pennsylvania, West Virginia , Kentucky , Ohio, Indiana , and Illinois, with
2667-419: Is now Sylacauga, Alabama , Chalahgawtha at the site of present-day Chillicothe, Ohio , Old Shawneetown, Illinois , and Suwanee, Georgia . Their language became a lingua franca for trade among numerous tribes. They became leaders among the tribes, initiating and sustaining intertribal resistance to European and Euro-American expansion. Some Shawnee occupied areas in central Pennsylvania. Long without
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#17329172945002794-864: Is the deity of the south wind. Jeremiah Curtin translates Sawage as 'it thaws', referring to the warm weather of the south. In an account and a song collected by C. F. Voegelin, šaawaki is attested as the spirit of the South, or the South Wind. The Shawnee language is known as saawanwaatoweewe. In 2002, the Shawnee language , part of the Algonquian family , was in decline but still spoken by 200 people. These included more than 100 Absentee Shawnee and 12 Shawnee Tribe speakers. By 2017, Shawnee language advocates, including tribal member George Blanchard, estimated that there were fewer than 100 speakers. Most fluent Shawnee speakers are over
2921-677: The American Revolutionary War , provisions in the Articles of Confederation , and various treaties preceding the Northwest Indian War including Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784) and Treaty of Fort McIntosh (1785). The treaty process extended well beyond the War and existence of the Territory as a political entity. European exploration of the region began with French-Canadian voyageurs in
3048-600: The American Revolutionary War . Congress passed the Proclamation of 1783 , which recognized Native American rights to the land. A council held in 1785 at Fort Detroit declared that the confederacy would deal jointly with the United States, forbade individual tribes from dealing directly with the United States, and declared the Ohio River as the boundary between their lands and those of the American settlers. The Northwest Territory's first governor, Arthur St. Clair , sought to end Native American claims to Ohio land and thus clear
3175-441: The Articles of Confederation so long as these states were allowed to keep their western territory, fearing that those states could continue to grow and tip the balance of power in their favor under the proposed system of federal government. As a concession to obtain ratification, these states ceded their claims on the territory to the federal government: New York in 1780, Virginia in 1784, and Massachusetts and Connecticut in 1785. So
3302-580: The Beaver Wars , which began in the 1640s. Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy invaded from the east to secure the Ohio Valley for hunting grounds. The Shawnee became known for their widespread settlements, extending from Pennsylvania to Illinois and to Georgia . Among their known villages were Eskippakithiki in Kentucky, Sonnionto (also known as Lower Shawneetown ) in Ohio, Chalakagay near what
3429-661: The Boundary Waters . The region was ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Paris of 1783 . Throughout the Revolutionary War , the region was part of the British Province of Quebec and the western theater of the war. It spanned all or large parts of six eventual U.S. states ( Ohio , Indiana , Illinois , Michigan , Wisconsin , and the northeastern part of Minnesota ). Reduced to present-day Ohio, eastern Michigan and
3556-601: The Indiana Territory , invited Potawatomi , Lenape, Eel River people , and Miami representatives to a meeting at Fort Wayne . In the negotiations, Harrison promised large subsidies to the tribes if they would cede lands to the United States. After two weeks of negotiating, the Potawatomi leaders convinced the Miami to accept the treaty as reciprocity, because the Potawatomi had earlier accepted treaties less advantageous to them at
3683-411: The Northwest Ordinance . A bicameral legislature consisted of a House of Representatives and a Council. The first House had 22 representatives , apportioned by population of each county. The House then nominated 10 citizens to be Council members. The nominations were sent to the U.S. Congress, which appointed five of them as the council. This assembly became the legislature of the Territory, although
3810-627: The Powhatan Confederacy of 1618–1644, to settle in the Shenandoah Valley . The party was led by his son, Sheewa-a-nee. Edward Bland, an explorer who accompanied Abraham Wood 's expedition in 1650, wrote that in Opechancanough's day, there had been a falling-out between the Chawan chief and the weroance of the Powhatan (also a relative of Opechancanough's family). He said the latter had murdered
3937-686: The Second Grant . These 150 acres (0.61 km) lots adjoined the first Grant towards its lower end. This grant was for eight Gallipolis residents who did not receive a portion of the First Grant. Northwest Territory The Northwest Territory , also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio , was formed from unorganized western territory of
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4064-418: The 17th century, followed by French missionaries and French fur traders. French-Canadian explorer Jean Nicolet was the first recorded European entrant into the region, landing in 1634 at the current site of Green Bay, Wisconsin (although Étienne Brûlé is stated by some sources as having explored Lake Superior and possibly inland Wisconsin in 1622). The French exercised control from widely separate posts in
4191-538: The 1839 Cherokee War. Texas achieved independence from Mexico under American leaders. It decided to force removal of the Shawnee from the new republic. But in appreciation of their earlier neutrality, Texan President Mirabeau Lamar fully compensated the Shawnee for their improvements and crops. They were forced out to Arkansas Territory . The Shawnee settled close to present-day Shawnee, Oklahoma . They were joined by Shawnee pushed out of Kansas (see below), who shared their traditionalist views and beliefs. In 1817,
4318-517: The American rebel cause. Cornstalk led the minority who wished to remain neutral. The Shawnee north of the Ohio River were unhappy about the American settlement of Kentucky. Colin Calloway reports that most Shawnees allied with the British against the Americans, hoping to be able to expel the settlers from west of the mountains. War leaders such as Blackfish and Blue Jacket joined Dragging Canoe and
4445-616: The British to fall back from Detroit. General Harrison launched another invasion of Upper Canada (Ontario), which culminated in the U.S. victory at the Battle of the Thames on October 5, 1813. Tecumseh was killed there, and his death effectively ended the Indigenous alliance with the British in the Detroit region. American control of Lake Erie meant the British could no longer provide essential military supplies to their Native allies, who dropped out of
4572-534: The British unless the treaty was nullified. In March, the Great Comet of 1811 appeared. During the next year, tensions between American colonists and Native Americans rose quickly. Four settlers were murdered along the Missouri River and, in another incident, Natives seized a boatload of supplies from a group of traders. Harrison summoned Tecumseh to Vincennes to explain the actions of his allies. In August 1811,
4699-660: The Lower Creek, and the bands became involved in civil war, known as the Creek War . This became part of the War of 1812 when open conflict broke out between American soldiers and the Red Sticks of the Creek. After William Hull 's surrender of Detroit to the British during the War of 1812, General William Henry Harrison was given command of the U.S. Army of the Northwest . He set out to retake
4826-539: The Miami capital of Kekionga. Along the way Wayne's legion built a series of outpost forts including Fort Greene Ville, Fort Recovery and Fort Defiance. Fierce battles occurred around some of these but none of Wayne's forts were ever taken by the Native Americans. In mid 1794, the British constructed Fort Miamis near what is today Toledo, Ohio, to forestall Wayne's putative advance on the British stronghold at Detroit. The final battle of Wayne's campaign occurred within
4953-513: The Mississippi River in North America. Later that year, the Crown issued the Proclamation of 1763 , legally confirming the 1758 border as the limits of British colonization. They reserved the land beyond for Native Americans. But the Crown had difficulty enforcing the boundary, as Anglo-European colonists continued to move westward. The Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768 extended the colonial boundary to
5080-584: The Montreal-based fur trade. The prohibition of settlement west of the Appalachians remained, contributing to the American Revolution . In February 1779, George Rogers Clark , leading a force of Virginia militia , captured Kaskaskia and Vincennes from British commander Henry Hamilton . Virginia capitalized on Clark's success by laying claim to the whole of the Old Northwest, calling it Illinois County , Virginia, until 1784, when it ceded its land claims to
5207-550: The Muskingum ). Settlement of these areas was spearheaded by Losantiville and Marietta, respectively. In 1792, Congress donated 100,000 acres to Ohio Company as a buffer zone against Native American incursion around the settled area. The vexing land claims by inhabitants of the old French Vincennes Tract were resolved by what was dubbed the 'Vincennes donation lands' embodied in a federal land act of 1791. Federal land sales in Indiana (then
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5334-567: The Native Americans in October 1790. A group of squatters had moved up to the area near present-day Stockport now in Morgan County, Ohio and settled along flood plain , or "bottom" land, of the Muskingum River , some 30 miles north of an Ohio Company of Associates settlement at Marietta, Ohio . The Big Bottom massacre occurred on January 2, 1791. Lenape and Wyandot warriors stormed
5461-600: The Northwest Territory through the Land Ordinance of 1785 . The square surveys of the Northwest Territory became a hallmark of the Midwest , as sections , townships, counties (and states) were laid out scientifically, and land was sold quickly and efficiently (although not without some speculative aberrations). Arthur St. Clair was the territory's governor until November 1802, when President Thomas Jefferson removed him from office and appointed Charles Willing Byrd , who served
5588-490: The Northwest Territory to form a state constitution and government, and be admitted to the Union. When Ohio was admitted as the 17th state on March 1, 1803, the land not included in the new state, including the gore, became part of Indiana Territory, and the Northwest Territory went out of existence. Ongoing disputes with the British over the region were a contributing factor to the War of 1812 . Britain irrevocably ceded claim to
5715-617: The Ohio Country as their hunting ground by right of conquest, and treated the Shawnee and Lenape who resettled there as dependent tribes. Some independent Iroquois bands from various tribes also migrated westward, where they became known in Ohio as the Mingo . These three tribes—the Shawnee, the Delaware (Lenape), and the Mingo—became closely associated with one another, despite the differences in their languages. The first two spoke Algonquian languages and
5842-438: The Ohio River Valley for settlement, frequently traveling by boats and barges along the Ohio River. Violent incidents between settlers and Indians escalated into Lord Dunmore's War in 1774. British diplomats managed to isolate the Shawnee during the conflict: the Iroquois and the Lenape stayed neutral. The Shawnee faced the British colony of Virginia with only a few Mingo allies. Lord Dunmore , royal governor of Virginia, launched
5969-500: The Ohio River increased to around 1,200 people by 1750. "[I] saw four Indian Chiefs of the Shawnee Nation, who have been at War with the Virginians this summer (i.e. 1774), but have made peace with them, and they are sending these people to Williamsburg as hostages. They are tall, manly, well-shaped men, of a Copper colour with black hair, quick piercing eyes, and good features. They have rings of silver in their nose and bobs to them which hang over their upper lip. Their ears are cut from
6096-422: The Ohio Shawnee had signed the Treaty of Fort Meigs , ceding their remaining lands in exchange for three reservations in Wapaughkonetta , Hog Creek (near Lima ), and Lewistown , Ohio. They shared these lands with some Seneca people who had migrated west from New York. In a series of treaties, including the Treaty of Lewistown of 1825, Shawnee and Seneca people agreed to exchange land in western Ohio with
6223-441: The Ohio country. Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville , founder of New Orleans and the French colony of La Louisiane , writing in his journal in 1699, describes the Shawnee (or as he spells them, Chaouenons ) as "the single nation to fear, being spread out over Carolina and Virginia in the direction of the Mississippi." Historian Alan Gallay speculates that the Shawnee migrations of the middle to late 17th century were probably driven by
6350-427: The Ohio, Indiana (1783), and Fort Harmar in Ohio (1785). The first settlements were at these locations. The first land grant was to George Rogers Clark in 1781 at Falls of the Ohio on the Indiana side; he went on to found the settlement of Clarksville. The first two land purchases were large tracts of land sold to John Symmes ( Symmes Purchase ) in 1788 and two tracts sold to Ohio Company in 1787 and 1792 ( Purchase on
6477-477: The Ohio. By the time of the territory's dissolution, there were dozens of towns and settlements, a few with thousands of settlers, chiefly along the Ohio and Miami Rivers and the south shore of Lake Erie in Ohio. Conflicts between settlers and Native American inhabitants of the Territory resulted in the Northwest Indian War culminating in General "Mad" Anthony Wayne 's victory at Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. The subsequent Treaty of Greenville in 1795 opened
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#17329172945006604-482: The Oneida people, becoming the sixth nation of the Iroquois Confederacy; they declared their migration finished in 1722. Also at this time, Seneca (an Iroquois nation) and Lenape war parties from the north often fought pitched battles with pursuing bands of Catawba from Virginia, who would overtake them in the Shawnee-inhabited regions of the Valley. By the late 1730s, pressure from colonial expansion produced repeated conflicts. Shawnee communities were also impacted by
6731-404: The Revolution and during the Northwest Indian War , the Shawnee collaborated with the Miami to form a great fighting force in the Ohio Valley. They led a confederation of warriors of Native American tribes in an effort to expel U.S. settlers from that territory. After being defeated by U.S. forces at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, most of the Shawnee bands signed the Treaty of Greenville
6858-404: The Revolution ended, land-hungry migrants started moving west. A gateway trading post developed as the town of Brownsville, Pennsylvania , which was a key outfitting center west of the mountains. Other wagon roads, such as the Kittanning Path surmounting the gaps of the Allegheny in central Pennsylvania, or trails along the Mohawk River in New York, enabled a steady stream of settlers to reach
6985-413: The Revolutionary War and lacking authority to tax under the Articles of Confederation , planned to raise revenue from the methodical sale of land in the Northwest Territory. This plan necessarily called for the removal of both Native American villages and squatters from lands west of Appalachia, loosely, the territory called "Ohio Country" and beyond. Resistance from indigenous tribes, who were supported by
7112-446: The Shawnee Reserve in Kansas. This movement was largely under terms negotiated by Joseph Parks (1793–1859). He had been raised in the household of Lewis Cass and had been a leading interpreter for the Shawnee. Missouri joined the Union in 1821. After the Treaty of St. Louis in 1825, the 1,400 Missouri Shawnee were forcibly relocated from Cape Girardeau , along the west bank of the Mississippi River, to southeastern Kansas , close to
7239-434: The Shawnee ceded all claims to the "hunting grounds" of West Virginia and Kentucky south of the Ohio River. But many other Shawnee leaders refused to recognize this boundary. The Shawnee and most other tribes were highly decentralized, and bands and towns typically made their own decisions about alliances. When the United States declared independence from the British crown in 1776, the Shawnee were divided. They did not support
7366-426: The Shawnee leader Blue Jacket and the Mohawk leader Joseph Brant . In response, Tecumseh began to expand on the teachings of his brother Tenskwatawa , a spiritual leader known as The Prophet who called for the tribes to return to their ancestral ways. He began to associate these teachings with the idea of an intertribal alliance. Tecumseh traveled widely, urging warriors to abandon accommodationist chiefs and to join
7493-426: The Shawnee predominated in the northern part of the valley. They were claimed as tributaries by the Haudenosaunee or Six Nations of the Iroquois to the north. The Iroquois had helped some of the Tuscarora people from North Carolina, who were also Iroquoian speaking and distant relations, to resettle in the vicinity of what is now Martinsburg, West Virginia . Most of the Tuscarora migrated to New York and settled near
7620-433: The United States after the American Revolution . Established in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation through the Northwest Ordinance , it was the nation's first post-colonial organized incorporated territory . At the time of its creation, the territory included all the land west of Pennsylvania , northwest of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River below the Great Lakes , and what later became known as
7747-477: The United States for land west of the Mississippi River in what became Indian Territory . In July 1831, the Lewistown group of Seneca–Shawnee departed for the Indian Territory (in present-day Kansas and Oklahoma). The main body of Shawnee in Ohio followed Black Hoof , who fought every effort to force his people to give up their homeland. After the death of Black Hoof, the remaining 400 Ohio Shawnee in Wapaughkonetta and Hog Creek surrendered their land and moved to
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#17329172945007874-461: The Virginia Military District and Connecticut Western Reserve. The first area to be surveyed was the Seven Ranges along the eastern border of Ohio in 1786–1789. Direct sales of federal lands to individual homesteaders started here. In some cases, the government granted or donated land for special purposes. Settlement followed the forts, whether garrisoned or not. Lack of a garrison meant that threat of Native American attack had become negligible. This
8001-427: The age of 50. The language is written in the Latin script , but attempts at creating a unified spelling system have been unsuccessful. The Shawnee language has a dictionary, and portions of the Bible have been translated into Shawnee. Some scholars believe that the Shawnee descend from the precontact Fort Ancient culture of the Ohio region, although this is not universally accepted. The Shawnee may have entered
8128-477: The area at a later time and occupied the Fort Ancient sites. Fort Ancient culture flourished from c. 1000 to c. 1650 CE among a people who predominantly inhabited lands on both sides of the Ohio River in areas of present-day southern Ohio , northern Kentucky and western West Virginia . Like the Mississippian culture peoples of this period, they built earthwork mounds as part of their expression of their religious and political structure. Fort Ancient culture
8255-470: The city, which was defended by British Colonel Henry Procter , together with Tecumseh and his forces. A detachment of Harrison's army was defeated at Frenchtown along the River Raisin on January 22, 1813. Some prisoners were taken to Detroit, but Procter left those too injured to travel with an inadequate guard. His Native American allies attacked and killed perhaps as many as 60 wounded Americans, many of whom were Kentucky militiamen. The Americans called
8382-401: The collective Shawnee people as šaawanwaki or šaawanooki . Algonquian languages have words similar to the archaic shawano (now: shaawanwa ) meaning "south". However, the stem šawa- does not mean "south" in Shawnee, but "moderate, warm (of weather)": See Charles F. Voegelin , "šawa (plus -ni, -te) Moderate, Warm. Cp. šawani 'it is moderating...". In one Shawnee tale, "Sawage" (šaawaki)
8509-448: The comet of March 1811 had signaled his coming. He also said that the people would see a sign proving that the Great Spirit had sent him. As Tecumseh traveled, both sides readied for the Battle of Tippecanoe . Harrison assembled a small force of army regulars and militia to combat the Native forces. On November 6, 1811, Harrison led this army of about 1,000 men to Prophetstown, Indiana , hoping to disperse Tecumseh's confederacy. Early
8636-408: The connection from Fort Ancient society and development as the historical Shawnee society. But there is also evidence and oral history linking Siouan -speaking nations to the Ohio Valley. The Shawnee considered the Lenape (or Delaware) of the East Coast mid-Atlantic region, who were also Algonquian speaking, to be their "grandfathers". The Algonquian nations of present-day Canada, who extended to
8763-417: The continued British presence in the Northwest Territory, presented a continuing obstacle for American expansion. The area making up the Ohio Country had been contested for over a century, beginning with the 17th-century Beaver Wars . The Western Confederacy , or Western Indian Confederacy , was a loose confederacy of Native Americans in the Great Lakes region of the United States created following
8890-414: The convention to form a constitution for the State of Ohio. In the 1800 United States census , following the passage of an organic act by the 6th U.S. Congress creating the Indiana Territory in 1800, seven counties in the Northwest Territory reported the following population counts: According to the 1800 Census of the United States, the Northwest Territory (i.e. the pending state of Ohio) had
9017-458: The events of Pontiac's War , after which the Crown issued the Proclamation of 1763 , which prohibited white colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains . This action angered American colonists interested in expansion, as well as those who had already settled in the area. In 1774, via the Quebec Act , Britain annexed the region to the Province of Quebec in order to provide a civil government and to centralize British administration of
9144-517: The fate of the Fort Ancient people. Most likely their society, like the Mississippian culture to the south, was severely disrupted by waves of epidemics from new infectious diseases carried by the first Spanish explorers in the 16th century. After 1525 at Madisonville , the type site , the village's house sizes became smaller and fewer. Evidence shows that the people changed from their previously "horticulture-centered, sedentary way of life". There
9271-417: The federal government. Britain officially ceded the area north of the Ohio River and west of the Appalachians to the United States at the end of the American Revolutionary War with the Treaty of Paris (1783) , but the British continued to maintain a presence in the region as late as 1815, the end of the War of 1812 . Several states (Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut) had competing claims on
9398-475: The focus of the Northwest Indian War, the driving events in the early evolution of the territory. Integration of the Northwest Territory into a political unit, and settlement, depended on three factors: relinquishment by the British, extinguishment of states' claims west of the Appalachians, and usurpation or purchase of lands from the Native Americans. These objectives were accomplished correspondingly by
9525-524: The following decades. It encompassed what became Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota. Putnam, in the Puritan tradition, was influential in establishing education in the Northwest Territory. Substantial amounts of land were set aside for schools. Putnam had been one of the primary benefactors in the founding of Leicester Academy in Massachusetts, and similarly, in 1798, he created
9652-400: The following: A Shawnee town might have from forty to one hundred bark-covered houses similar in construction to Iroquois longhouses . Each village usually had a meeting house or council house , perhaps sixty to ninety feet long, where public deliberations took place. According to one English colonial legend, some Shawnee were descended from a party sent by Chief Opechancanough , ruler of
9779-523: The former Northwest Territory with the Treaty of Ghent in 1814. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established the Northwest Territory, and defined its boundaries, form of government, and administrative structure. In particular, it defined the bodies of government, established the legal basis of land ownership, provided for abolition and transfer of state territorial claims, made rules for admission of new states, established public education, recognized and codified 'natural rights', prohibited slavery, and defined
9906-510: The former. The Shawnee were "driven from Kentucky in the 1670s by the Iroquois of Pennsylvania and New York, who claimed the Ohio valley as hunting ground to supply its fur trade . In 1671, the colonists Batts and Fallam reported that the Shawnee were contesting control of the Shenandoah Valley with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois) in that year and were losing. Sometime before 1670,
10033-450: The fur trade. While they gained arms and European goods, they also traded for rum or brandy, leading to serious social problems related to alcohol abuse by their members. Several Shawnee communities in the Province of Pennsylvania , led by Peter Chartier , a Métis trader, opposed the sale of alcohol in their communities. This resulted in a conflict with colonial Governor Patrick Gordon , who
10160-537: The government on July 15, 1788, at Marietta . In 1790, he renamed the settlement of Losantiville Cincinnati , after the Society of the Cincinnati , and moved the administrative and military center to Fort Washington . As Governor, he formulated the Maxwell's Code (named after its printer, William Maxwell ), the first written criminal and civil laws of the territory. Maxwell's Code consisted of thirty-seven different laws with
10287-533: The governor retained veto power. Article VI of the Articles of Compact within the Northwest Ordinance prohibited the owning of slaves within the Northwest Territory. Territorial governments evaded this law by use of indenture laws. The Articles of Compact prohibited legal discrimination on the basis of religion within the territory. The township formula created by Thomas Jefferson was first implemented in
10414-670: The grant, some preferring to stay on the East Coast others preferring stay in Gallipolis, Ohio in Gallia County . (Gallia and Gallipolis were named for Gaul , the ancient Latin name of France .) The First Grant extended from a point on the Ohio River 1.5 miles (2.4 km) above and opposite the mouth of Little Sandy River (Kentucky) in Kentucky , and extending eight miles (13 km) in
10541-714: The great cities of the eventual 6 states of the Territory which is now the midwestern United States early in the 19th century: Detroit (<1800), Cleveland (1796), Columbus (1812), Indianapolis (1822), Chicago (1833), Milwaukee (1846), Minneapolis (1847). A Federalist , St. Clair hoped to see two states made of the old Ohio Country to increase Federalist power in Congress . He was resented by Ohio Democratic-Republicans for his apparent partisanship, high-handedness and arrogance in office. In 1802, his opposition to plans for Ohio statehood led President Thomas Jefferson to remove him from office as territorial governor. He thus played no part in
10668-766: The incident the "River Raisin Massacre". The defeat ended Harrison's campaign against Detroit, and the phrase "Remember the River Raisin!" became a rallying cry for the Americans. In May 1813, Procter and Tecumseh besieged Fort Meigs in northern Ohio. Native forces defeated the American reinforcements arriving during the siege, but the garrison in the fort held out. The Indians eventually began to disperse, forcing Procter and Tecumseh to return to Canada. Their second offensive in July against Fort Meigs also failed. To improve Indian morale, Procter and Tecumseh attempted to storm Fort Stephenson ,
10795-516: The incomplete blockhouse and killed eleven men, one woman, and two children. (Accounts vary as to the number of casualties.) Rufus Putnam wrote to President Washington that "we shall be so reduced and discouraged as to give up the settlement [Marietta following the Big Bottom disaster]." In March 1791, St. Clair succeeded Harmar as commander of the United States Army and was commissioned as
10922-723: The interior along the St. Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes from the Atlantic coast, regarded the Shawnee as their southernmost branch. Along the East Coast, the Algonquian-speaking tribes were historically located mostly in coastal areas, from Quebec to the Carolinas. Europeans reported encountering the Shawnee over a wide geographic area. One of the earliest mentions of the Shawnee may be
11049-466: The land area of the United States at the time of its creation. It was inhabited by about 45,000 Native Americans and 4,000 non-native traders, mostly of French Canadian , British or Irish descent . Among the tribes inhabiting the region were the Shawnee, Delaware, Miami, Wyandot, Ottawa and Potawatomi. Notably, the Miami capital along with British trading posts was at Kekionga at the site of present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana. Neutralizing Kekionga became
11176-409: The land rights and applicability of laws to the Native Americans. At first, the territory had a modified form of martial law . The governor was also the senior army officer within the territory, and he combined legislative and executive authority . But a supreme court was established, and he shared legislative powers with the court . County governments were organized as soon as the population
11303-453: The location of Native American settlements near the headwaters of the Wabash River . On November 4 they were routed in battle by a tribal confederation led by Miami Chief Little Turtle and Shawnee chief Blue Jacket . More than 600 soldiers and scores of women and children were killed in the battle, known as " St. Clair's Defeat " and many other names. It remains the greatest defeat of
11430-620: The majority of the territory became public land owned by the U.S. government. Virginia and Connecticut reserved two areas to use as compensation to military veterans: the Virginia Military District and the Connecticut Western Reserve Thomas Jefferson's Land Ordinance of 1784 was the first organization of the territory by the United States; it provided a process for dividing the territory into individual states. The Land Ordinance of 1785 established
11557-743: The margin of the Arkansas river was broken into pieces; and most of the Indians thought that the Great Spirit, angry with the human race, was about to destroy the world. The Muscogee who joined Tecumseh's confederation were known as the Red Sticks . They were the more conservative and traditional part of the people, as their communities in the Upper Towns were more isolated from European-American settlements. They did not want to assimilate. The Red Sticks rose in resisting
11684-654: The near west and the lands bordering the Mississippi. This activity stimulated the development of the eastern parts of the eventual National Road by private investors. The Cumberland–Brownsville toll road linked the water routes of the Potomac River with the Monongahela River of the Ohio/Mississippi riverine systems in the days when water travel was the only good alternative to walking and riding. Most of
11811-804: The next morning, forces under The Prophet prematurely attacked Harrison's army at the Tippecanoe River near the Wabash. Though outnumbered, Harrison repulsed the attack, forcing the Natives to retreat and abandon Prophetstown. Harrison's men burned the village and returned home. On December 11, 1811, the New Madrid earthquake shook the Muscogee lands and the Midwestern United States. While the interpretation of this event varied from tribe to tribe, they agreed that
11938-622: The next year. They were forced to cede large parts of their homeland to the new United States. Other Shawnee groups rejected this treaty, migrating independently to Missouri west of the Mississippi River , where they settled along Apple Creek. The French called their settlement Le Grand Village Sauvage . In the early 19th century, the Shawnee leader Tecumseh gained renown for organizing his namesake confederacy to oppose American expansion in Native American lands. The resulting conflict
12065-636: The northeastern part of Minnesota. Lands west of the Mississippi River were the Louisiana Province of New Spain, formerly New France, acquired by the United States in 1803 by the Louisiana Purchase . Lands north of the Great Lakes were part of the British Province of Upper Canada . Lands south of the Ohio River constituted Kentucky County, Virginia , admitted to the union as the state of Kentucky in 1792. The area included more than 300,000 square miles (780,000 km ) and comprised about 1/3 of
12192-692: The northern Shenandoah Valley: at Moorefield, West Virginia , on the North River ; and on the Potomac at Cumberland, Maryland . In 1753, the Shawnee on the Scioto River in the Ohio Country sent messengers to those still in the Shenandoah Valley, suggesting that they cross the Alleghenies to join the people further west, which they did the following year. The community known as Shannoah ( Lower Shawneetown ) on
12319-452: The organizing of the state of Ohio in 1803. The first Ohio Constitution provided for a weak governor and a strong legislature , in part a reaction to St. Clair's method of governance. In preparation for Ohio's statehood, Congress split the Northwest Territory into two sections in 1800. A new territory, Indiana Territory , encompassed all land west of the present Indiana–Ohio border and its northward extension to Lake Superior , except for
12446-540: The plan for the construction of the Muskingum Academy (now Marietta College ) in Ohio. In 1780, the directors of the Ohio Company appointed him superintendent of all its affairs relating to settlement north of the Ohio River. In 1796, he was commissioned by President George Washington as Surveyor-General of United States Lands. In 1788, he served as a judge in the Northwest Territory's first court. In 1802, he served in
12573-412: The position until Ohio became a state and elected its first governor, Edward Tiffin , on March 3, 1803. The Supreme Court consisted of (1) John Cleves Symmes ; (2) James Mitchell Varnum , who died in 1789, replaced by George Turner , who resigned in 1796, and was replaced by Return Jonathan Meigs Jr. ; and (3) Samuel Holden Parsons , who died in 1789, replaced by Rufus Putnam , who resigned 1796, and
12700-460: The powerful earthquake had to have spiritual significance. The earthquake and its aftershocks helped the Tecumseh resistance movement as the Muscogee and other Native American tribes believed it was a sign that the Shawnee must be supported and that Tecumseh had prophesied such an event and sign. The Indians were filled with great terror ... the trees and wigwams shook exceedingly; the ice which skirted
12827-496: The region, where British subjects outnumbered Americans throughout the 1790s. The following year, the Treaty of Greenville secured peace on the western frontier and opened most of southern and eastern Ohio for American settlement. Sporadic westward emigrant settlements had already resumed late in the war after the Iroquois Confederacy 's power was broken and the tribes scattered by the 1779 Sullivan Expedition . Soon after
12954-579: The region, which they claimed as New France ; among these was the post at Fort Detroit , founded in 1701. France ceded the territory to the Kingdom of Great Britain as part of the Indian Reserve in the 1763 Treaty of Paris , after being defeated in the French and Indian War . From the 1750s to the peace treaty that ended the War of 1812, the British had a long-standing goal of creating an Indian barrier state ,
13081-409: The request of the Miami. Finally, the tribes signed the Treaty of Fort Wayne on September 30, 1809, thereby selling the United States more than 3,000,000 acres (12,000 km ), chiefly along the Wabash River north of Vincennes, Indiana . Tecumseh was outraged by the Treaty of Fort Wayne, believing that American Indian land was owned in common by all tribes, an idea advocated in previous years by
13208-522: The resistance at Prophetstown . In August 1810, Tecumseh led 400 armed warriors to confront Harrison in Vincennes. Tecumseh demanded that Harrison nullify the Fort Wayne treaty, threatening to kill the chiefs who had signed it. Harrison refused, saying that the Miami were the owners of the land and could sell it if they so chose. Tecumseh left peacefully but warned Harrison that he would seek an alliance with
13335-564: The scope of this fort. The military campaign of Gen. Wayne against the Western Confederacy, who were supported by a company of troops from Lower Canada, culminated with victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. Following the battle, in fall 1794, Wayne's army marched unopposed to Kekionga where they constructed Fort Wayne, a defiant symbol of U.S. sovereignty in the heart of Native American Country. Jay's Treaty , in 1794, temporarily helped to smooth relations with British traders in
13462-415: The stipulation that the laws had to have been passed previously in one of the original thirteen states. The laws restructured the court system then in effect in the Northwest Territory. They also protected residents against excessive taxes and declared that English common law would be the basis of legal decisions and laws in the Northwest Territory. The young United States government, deeply in debt following
13589-675: The territory and its successors was settled by emigrants passing through the Cumberland Narrows , or along the Mohawk Valley in New York State. The Continental Congress' title to the lands north of the Ohio River was derived from the Treaty of Paris (1783), the Treaty of Fort McIntosh, and the cessions of four states. Settlement was through several means: squatters, direct U.S. government land sales to settlers, sales of tracts of land to land companies, and state sales of land to veterans in
13716-430: The territory would eventually form three to five new states. Under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which created the Northwest Territory, General St. Clair was appointed governor. When the territory was divided in 1800, he briefly served as governor of the Northwest Territory remnant that included Ohio, the eastern half of Michigan, and a sliver of southeastern Indiana called "The Gore". St. Clair formally established
13843-498: The territory: Virginia claimed all of the portion that was formerly Illinois Country and Ohio Country; Massachusetts claimed the portion that is now southern Michigan and Wisconsin; Connecticut claimed a narrow strip across the territory just south of the Great Lakes; New York claimed an elastic portion of Iroquois lands between Lake Erie and the Ohio River. The western boundary of Pennsylvania was also ill-defined. Virginia's jurisdiction
13970-610: The third an Iroquoian language. After taking part in the first phase of the French and Indian War (also known as "Braddock's War") as allies of the French, the Shawnee switched sides in 1758. They made formal peace with the British colonies at the Treaty of Easton , which recognized the Allegheny Ridge (the Eastern Divide ) as their mutual border. This peace lasted only until Pontiac's War erupted in 1763, following Britain's defeat of France and takeover of its territory east of
14097-424: The tips two thirds of the way round and the piece extended with brass wire till it touches their shoulders, in this part they hang a thin silver plate, wrought in flourishes about three inches diameter, with plates of silver round their arms and in the hair, which is all cut off except a long lock on the top of the head. They are in white men's dress, except breeches which they refuse to wear, instead of which they have
14224-516: The two leaders met, with Tecumseh assuring Harrison that the Shawnee intended to remain at peace with the United States. Afterward, Tecumseh traveled to the Southeast on a mission to recruit allies against the United States from among the " Five Civilized Tribes ". His name Tekoomsē meant "Shooting Star" or "Panther Across The Sky". Tecumseh told the Choctaw , Chickasaw , Muscogee , and many others that
14351-529: The war. The Americans controlled the area during the remainder of the conflict. The Shawnee in Missouri migrated from the United States south into Mexico, in the eastern part of Spanish Texas . They became known as the " Absentee Shawnee ". They were joined in the migration by some Delaware (Lenape). Although they were closely allied with the Cherokee led by The Bowl , their chief John Linney remained neutral during
14478-461: The way for settlement particularly in southern and western Ohio. The Northwest Territory included all the then-owned land of the United States west of Pennsylvania , east of the Mississippi River , and northwest of the Ohio River . It incorporated most of the former Ohio Country except a portion in western Pennsylvania, and eastern Illinois Country . It covered all of the modern states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, as well as
14605-479: The way for white settlement. In 1789, he succeeded in getting certain Native Americans to sign the Treaty of Fort Harmar , but many native leaders had not been invited to participate in the negotiations or had refused to do so. Rather than settling the Native Americans' claims, the treaty provoked an escalation of the "Northwest Indian War" (or "Little Turtle's War"). Mutual hostilities led to a campaign by General Josiah Harmar , whose 1,500 militiamen were defeated by
14732-469: The west, giving British colonists a claim to lands in what are now the states of West Virginia and Kentucky. The Shawnee did not agree to this treaty: it was negotiated between British officials and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, who claimed sovereignty over the land. While they predominated, the Shawnee and other Native American tribes also hunted there. After the Stanwix treaty, Anglo-Americans began pouring into
14859-545: The western frontier. Wayne was commissioned to form a new army of 5120 professional soldiers, dubbed the "Legion of the United States". Wayne recruited and trained his army in Pennsylvania, and moved them to southwestern Ohio in fall of 1793. There they were joined by the Kentucky Militia under Major General Charles Scott . Over the next ten months, the armies marched north up the Great Miami and Maumee River valleys toward
14986-497: Was at Putnam's recommendation that the land was surveyed and laid out in townships of six miles square. He organized and led the first group of veterans to the territory. They settled at Marietta, Ohio , where they built a large fort called Campus Martius . Putnam and Cutler insisted the Northwest Territory be a free territory, with no slavery. The Northwest Territory doubled the size of the United States, and establishing it as free of slavery proved to be of tremendous importance in
15113-527: Was called Tecumseh's War . The two principal adversaries in the conflict, Chief Tecumseh and General William Henry Harrison , had both been junior participants in the 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers . Tecumseh did not sign the 1795 Treaty of Greenville . However, many American Indian leaders in the region accepted the Greenville terms, and for the next ten years local intertribal resistance to American hegemony faded. In September 1809, Harrison, then governor of
15240-516: Was extended westward to a point five degrees of longitude (about 260 miles) from the Delaware River and the western boundary extended to run due north from the westernmost extent of the Mason–Dixon line to the 43rd parallel. This incorporated the eastern part of Ohio Country as western Pennsylvania, and set the eastern boundary of federal lands. "Unlanded" states, such as Maryland, refused to ratify
15367-503: Was formed as were a succession of counties, eventually totaling thirteen. At the time of its creation, the land within the territory was largely undisturbed by urban development. It was also home to several Native American cultures, including the Delaware , Miami , Potawatomi , Shawnee , and others. There were a handful of French colonial settlements remaining, plus Clarksville at the Falls of
15494-474: Was limited to a few French settlements at the extreme western edge of the territory. Massachusetts's and Connecticut's claims were effectively lines on paper. New York had no colonial settlements or territorial government in the claimed lands. The western border of Pennsylvania, previously assumed to run in a north by northeast zigzag, was resolved in 1780 by the Continental Congress. The Mason–Dixon line
15621-437: Was once thought to have been a regional extension of the Mississippian culture. Scholars now believe that Fort Ancient culture (1000–1650 CE) was descended from Hopewell culture (100 BCE–500 CE). The people in those earlier centuries also built mounds as part of their social, political and religious system. Among their monuments were earthwork effigy mounds , such as Serpent Mound in present-day Ohio. Uncertainty surrounds
15748-468: Was replaced by Joseph Gilman . There were three secretaries: Winthrop Sargent (July 9, 1788 – May 31, 1798); William Henry Harrison (June 29, 1798 – December 31, 1799); and Charles Willing Byrd (January 1, 1800 – March 1, 1803). Shawnee The Shawnee ( / ʃ ɔː ˈ n i / shaw- NEE ) are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands . Their language, Shawnee ,
15875-476: Was sufficient, and these assumed local administrative and judicial functions. Washington County was the first of these, at Marietta in 1788. This was an important event, as this court was the first establishment of civil and criminal law in the pioneer country. As soon as the number of free male settlers exceeded 5,000, the territorial legislature was to be created, and this happened in 1798. The full mechanisms of government were put in place, as outlined in
16002-534: Was true everywhere in Ohio before 1800 except the northwest sector above the Greenville Treaty line. It became true in Indiana after the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811; by 1813 Battle of the Thames where Tecumseh was defeated and killed, the frontier had essentially moved to west of the Mississippi. The first U.S. military garrisons in the territory were Fort Patrick Henry, Vincennes, Indiana (1779), Fort Clark at Falls of
16129-454: Was under pressure from traders to allow rum and brandy in trade. Unable to protect themselves, in 1745, some 400 Shawnee migrated from Pennsylvania to Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama and Illinois, hoping to escape the traders' influence. Prior to 1754, the Shawnee had a headquarters at Shawnee Springs at modern-day Cross Junction, Virginia . The father of the later chief Cornstalk held his council there. Several other Shawnee villages were located in
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