Editing Little Turtle (section)

== Career ==
=== Early years ===
[[File:Chief Little Turtle.jpg|thumb|alt=Chief Little Turtle|Little Turtle, from U.S. Army Military History Institute<ref>{{cite web |title=Little Turtle |url=http://www.army.mil/media/220061 |publisher=United States Army Military History Institute |date=September 15, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150913073528/http://www.army.mil/media/220061/ |archive-date=September 13, 2015 }}</ref>]]
Little Turtle was selected as the [[Tribal chief|war chief]] of the ''Atchatchakangouen'' division of the Myaamiaki ([[Miami people]])<ref name=GS233 /> 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.<ref>Carter, p. 48.</ref>

===La Balme's Defeat===
{{main|La Balme's Defeat}}
Little Turtle earned this designation during the [[American Revolutionary War]] in action against a French force allied with the [[Patriot (American Revolution)|American patriots]], led by French military adventurer [[Augustin de La Balme]].<ref name=Rafert44>Rafert, ''The Miami Indians of Indiana'', p. 44.</ref> 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 [[Fort Miami (Indiana)|Miamitown]] at [[Kekionga]] (present-day [[Fort Wayne, Indiana|Fort Wayne]]), as part of his campaign to attack the British in Detroit.<ref name="greenevincennesknox">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zBQVAAAAYAAJ&dq=Augustin+de+La+Balme+Little+Turtle&pg=PA217|title=History of Old Vincennes and Knox County|author-first=George|author-last=Greene|publisher=S.J. Clarke Publishing Co.|publication-date=1911|access-date=2021-10-24}}</ref>{{rp|217}} When La Balme stopped to camp along the [[Eel River (Wabash River)|Eel River]] just three miles south of Little Turtle's village, Little Turtle received permission to lead an attack.<ref name=H89>Hogeland, pp. 88–89</ref> 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.<ref>"Notes on Old Cahokia: Part Two: Fort Bowman (1778–1780)" Charles E. Peterson ''Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society'' Vol. 42, No. 2 (Jun. 1949), p. 194</ref> 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.<ref>"Notes on Old Cahokia: Part Two: Fort Bowman (1778–1780)" Charles E. Peterson ''Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society'' Vol. 42, No. 2 (Jun. 1949), pp. 199</ref><ref name="greenevincennesknox"/>{{rp|217}} 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.<ref>"French Imperial remnants on the middle ground: The strange case of August de la Balme and Charles Beaubien" – Birzer, Bradley J. ''Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society''; Springfield Vol. 93, Iss. 2, (Summer 2000)</ref> These events occurred in and around what is today [[Columbia City, Indiana]] in [[Whitley County, Indiana]].<ref>Gaff, Alan D. (2004). "Bayonets in the Wilderness". Anthony Waynes ''Legion in the Old Northwest''. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-3585-9.</ref> The victory ended the campaign and established Little Turtle's reputation as a war leader.<ref>Cayton, pp. 147–48.</ref> 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.<ref>Carter, ''Life and Times'', 72–75.</ref>

=== Little Turtle's War ===
{{main|Northwest Indian War}}

Under the terms of the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)]], 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. (The United States considered this region to be theirs by right of conquest.<ref>Cayton, p. 160.</ref>) Through the [[Land Ordinance of 1784]] and the [[Northwest Ordinance]] of 1787, the U.S. government established [[Northwest Territory]] in 1787.<ref>The U.S. government further subdivided the land north of the [[Ohio River]] into the [[Indiana Territory]] in 1800 and what became the state of [[Ohio]] in 1803. The Northwest Territory initially comprised most of the present-day state of [[Indiana]], all of the present-day states of [[Illinois]] and [[Wisconsin]], fragments of present-day [[Minnesota]] that were east of the [[Mississippi River]], nearly all of the [[Upper Peninsula of Michigan|Upper Peninsula]] and the western half of the [[Lower Peninsula of Michigan|Lower Peninsula]] of present-day [[Michigan]], and a narrow strip of land in present-day [[Ohio]] that was northwest of Fort Recovery. See: {{cite book | author=Jervis Cutler and Charles Le Raye | title =A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana | publisher =Arnot Press | year =1971 | location =New York | pages =53–54 | isbn=978-0-405-02839-7|orig-year=1812}}</ref>

Native Americans living in the territory resisted the encroaching American settlements, and violence escalated in the area. Native tribes formed the [[Western Confederacy|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 [[Lenape|Delaware]] under [[Buckongahelas]]. The war with the United States that followed became known as the [[Northwest Indian War]], also called "Little Turtle's War".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dye |first1=D. H. |last2=Keel |first2=M. F. |year=2012 |chapter=The Portrayal of Native American Violence and Warfare: Who Speaks for the Past? |editor-last=Chacon |editor-first=R. |editor2-last=Mendoza |editor2-first=R. |title=The Ethics of Anthropology and Amerindian Research |publisher=Springer |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4614-1065-2 }}</ref>

Little Turtle helped to lead Native Americans against federal forces led by General [[Josiah Harmar]] in late 1790.<ref name=GS233 /> To end the border war with native tribes in the area, the U.S. government sent an [[Harmar Campaign|expedition]] of American troops under the command of General Harmar, but his forces lacked sufficient training and were poorly supplied.<ref>{{cite book | author=James H. Madison | title = Hoosiers: A New History of Indiana| publisher =Indiana University Press and the Indiana Historical Society Press | year =2014 | location =Bloomington and Indianapolis | page =27 | isbn =978-0-253-01308-8}}</ref> (Because the United States had mostly disbanded its military after the [[American Revolution]], it had few professional soldiers to send into battle, a weakness that Little Turtle and other native leaders fully exploited.) In October 1790, Little Turtle and Blue Jacket won two victories against Harmar's men. These successes encouraged further resistance.<ref>Madison, pp. 27, 29.</ref><ref>Cayton, pp. 149–54.</ref> In addition, previously reluctant leaders among the [[Ottawa (tribe)|Ottawa]] and [[Wyandot people|Wyandot]] joined the confederacy.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}}

In August 1791, Little Turtle's daughter was among the women and children who were captured in a [[Battle of Kenapacomaqua|raid]] of a Miami village along the Eel River led by [[James Wilkinson]].<ref name=OSC /><ref>Cayton, p. 158.</ref> 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 (Cincinnati, Ohio)|Fort Washington]] (present-day [[Cincinnati, Ohio]]), headed toward the Maumee-Wabash portage.<ref name=Madison29>Madison, p. 29.</ref>

=== St. Clair's defeat ===
{{main|St. Clair's defeat}}
[[File:Glaize.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Native towns at the Glaize in 1792]]
Little Turtle is generally credited with leading<ref>Eid, p. 754.</ref><ref>Historian John Sugden states that Little Turtle is generally credited with the overall command of the Confederate Army that defeated St. Clair. See: See {{cite book |author=John Sugden |title=Blue Jacket: Warrior of the Shawnees |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bluejacketwarrio00sugd/page/118 118–20] |location=Lincoln |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-8032-4288-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/bluejacketwarrio00sugd/page/118 }} Sugden also argues that Blue Jacket was the preeminent native leader. The notion that Little Turtle commanded the Confederacy was a myth perpetuated by Turtle and his son-in-law, [[William Wells (soldier)|William Wells]], and uncritically repeated by historians. See Sugden, pp. 4–6.</ref> a coalition force of about 1,000 warriors that [[St. Clair's Defeat|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.<ref name=Madison29 /><ref>{{cite web| title =Michikinikwa | work =Ohio History Central | url=http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Michikinikwa?rec=240| access-date =July 30, 2018}} See also: {{cite web| title =St. Clair's Defeat | work =Ohio History Central | url=http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/St._Clair's_Defeat?rec=557 | access-date =July 30, 2018}}</ref> Both Little Turtle and Blue Jacket claimed overall command of the combined native forces in the victory, causing tension within the Confederacy.<ref name="Calloway, 459">Calloway, p. 459</ref>

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 (Ohio)|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.<ref>Sword, p. 220.</ref> 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.<ref>Sword, p. 221.</ref>

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.<ref name=Madison29 /> The American forces successfully repulsed an exploratory [[Siege of Fort Recovery|attack on Fort Recovery]] with an estimated 1,000 warriors on June 1794.<ref>Rafert, ''The Miami Indians of Indiana'', p. 53.</ref> 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."<ref name=Madison29 /><ref name=GS234>Gugin and St. Clair, eds., p. 234.</ref>

When Little Turtle was unable to persuade the leaders of the tribal Confederacy to negotiate peace, he stepped down as the intertribal war chief.<ref name=GS234 /> Little Turtle is said to have ceded command to Blue Jacket, although he retained leadership of his group of Miami tribesmen.<ref>Rafert, ''The Miami Indians of Indiana'', p. 54.</ref> Little Turtle's son-in-law, [[William Wells (soldier)|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.<ref>Madison, p. 37.</ref>

=== 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.<ref>Cayton, p. 163.</ref><ref name=Sword331>Sword, p. 331.</ref> After the battle, the Miamis abandoned Kekionga and relocated to other villages along the Eel, [[Mississinewa River|Mississinewa]], and [[Wabash River|Wabash]] Rivers.<ref name=Madison29 /><ref>Rafert, ''The Miami Indians of Indiana'', p. 55.</ref>

Following the Indian Confederacy's defeat at Fallen Timbers, their leaders signed the [[Treaty of Greenville]] (1795), a turning point in their resistance to American expansion. Little Turtle traveled with his wife to [[Greenville, Ohio|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.<ref name=Madison30>Madison, p. 30.</ref> His wife died in camp the next day. Her funeral and burial included American soldiers as [[pallbearer]]s, American music, and a three-gun salute.<ref name=Sword331 />

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.<ref name=Madison30 /> 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.<ref name=GS234 />