Editing Little Turtle (section)

== Later years ==
[[File:Little Turtle silhouette.jpg|thumb|Silhouette of Little Turtle by Robert Wyer]]
After the defeat of the Western Confederacy at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and signing the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, Little Turtle refused an alliance with the Shawnee chief [[Tecumseh]]. Little Turtle continued to advocate for peace and accommodation instead of conflicts. He also began to adapt to United States cultural habits, including the acquisition of his land but remained adamant in his opposition to alcohol consumption.<ref name=GS234 /> Little Turtle made multiple trips east to meet with three U.S. presidents, although he refused to travel with Blue Jacket.<ref name="Calloway, 459"/> He accepted annuity payments, other rewards, and enslaved African Americans in exchange for his cooperation.<ref name="Madison, p. 36">Madison, p. 36.</ref>

The United States more highly regarded Little Turtle than Blue Jacket.<ref name=Calloway460>Calloway, p. 460</ref> He was recommended to President [[George Washington]] by General James Wilkinson,<ref name=Calloway460 /> and in November 1796, Little Turtle met with President [[George Washington]], who presented him with a [[ceremonial sword]].<ref name="appletons">{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Little Turtle|year=1892}}</ref> On this trip he also met [[Comte de Volney]].<ref name="appletons" /><ref name=Cayton166>Cayton, p. 166.</ref><ref name=Rafert62>Rafert, ''The Miami Indians of Indiana'', p. 62.</ref> One account of the trip states that on his way to [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], to meet the president, Little Turtle met General [[Tadeusz Kościuszko]], who presented him with a matching pair of [[pistol]]s<ref name="appletons" /> along with instructions to use them on "the first man who ever comes to subjugate you."<ref>Carter, p. 5.</ref> In 1797–98, during a second trip east, Little Turtle met with President [[John Adams]].<ref name=Cayton166 />

President [[Thomas Jefferson]] also corresponded with Little Turtle to encourage the introduction of American agriculture to Miami society,<ref>{{cite web |title=Thomas Jefferson's letter to Chief Little Turtle (page 1)|date=December 21, 1808|work=The Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 1. General Correspondence. 1651–1827|publisher=[[Library of Congress]]|url=http://memory.loc.gov/master/mss/mtj/mtj1/042/1300/1362.jpg | access-date =July 30, 2018}} See also: {{cite web| title =Thomas Jefferson's letter to Chief Little Turtle (page 2) | work =The Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 1. General Correspondence. 1651–1827 | publisher =[[Library of Congress]] | date =December 21, 1808|url=http://memory.loc.gov/master/mss/mtj/mtj1/042/1300/1363.jpg | access-date =July 30, 2018}} Also: {{cite web| title =Thomas Jefferson's letter to Chief Little Turtle (page 3)| work = The Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 1. General Correspondence. 1651–1827 | publisher =[[Library of Congress]]|date =December 21, 1808 |url=http://memory.loc.gov/master/mss/mtj/mtj1/042/1300/1364.jpg | access-date =July 30, 2018}}</ref> although it was [[Moravians|Moravian]] missionaries who demonstrate farming methods to native tribes in the White River area and an [[Eastern United States|East Coast]] [[Quaker]] society from [[Baltimore]], [[Maryland]], who sent [[Philip Dennis]] to work with tribes in Fort Wayne to establish a model farm.<ref name=Madison36-37>Madison, pp. 36–37.</ref> Little Turtle also made two trips to [[Washington, D.C.]], in 1801–02 and 1809–09 to meet with President Jefferson.<ref>Cayton, p. 204.</ref> At Little Turtle's and other chiefs' request, Jefferson provided agricultural equipment and livestock to the Miamis and Potawatomis to encourage the tribes to adopt farming.<ref name="Madison, p. 36" /> Despite these efforts, among others, most of the attempts at assimilation failed, a contributing factor to the federal government seeking further land cession treaties and the eventual removal of the territory's Native American inhabitants from the Northwest Territory.<ref name=Madison36-37 />

A lifelong [[teetotaler]], Little Turtle made a personal plea to President Jefferson to prohibit the sale and consumption of [[Alcohol and Native Americans|alcohol in Native American communities]]. On 14 January 1802 he delivered a speech to President [[Thomas Jefferson]] and members of the US Senate:

<blockquote>Father, nothing can be done to advantage unless the Great Council of the Sixteen Fires, now assembled, will prohibit any person from selling spirituous liquors among their red brothers. The introduction of this poison has been prohibited in our camps but not in our towns, where many of our hunters, for this poison, dispose of, not only their furs, etc., but also their blankets and guns, and return to their families destitute...Owing to the introduction of this fatal poison, we have become less numerous and happy.<ref>[http://international.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsp&fileName=007/llsp007.db&Page=655 Library of Congress, ''A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774–1875,'' American State Papers, Senate, 7th Congress, 1st Session, Indian Affairs: Volume 1: p. 655]</ref></blockquote>

Jefferson and members of Congress were impressed with Little Turtle's arguments, and on 30 March 1802, Congress passed the revised [[Indian Nonintercourse Act]]. This and other federal laws restricting the sale of alcohol to Native Americans remained in effect until 1953.<ref name = "Martin">{{Cite journal |url=http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/2432 |title=Martin, Jill E., "The Greatest Evil:" Interpretations Of Indian Prohibition Laws, 1832–1953 |page=2432 |journal=Great Plains Quarterly |date=January 2003 |access-date=2020-07-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725220432/http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/2432/ |archive-date=2018-07-25 |url-status=live |last1=Martin |first1=Jill }}</ref>

In 1809, Little Turtle suffered a break with other Miami leaders when [[William Henry Harrison]], governor of the [[Indiana Territory]], came to Fort Wayne to renegotiate treaty terms.<ref>Rafert, ''The Miami Indians of Indiana'', p. 71.</ref> Working with Little Turtle and his son-in-law, William Wells, Harrison succeeded in obtaining the [[Treaty of Fort Wayne (1809)]], which secured {{convert|2500000|acre|hectare}} of land for the federal government from the [[Potawatomi]] representatives and other tribes who cooperated.<ref name=Madison39>Madison, pp. 39, 43.</ref> Other tribal leaders who opposed Little Turtle, including [[Pacanne]], [[Jean Baptiste Richardville]] (Pacanne's nephew), Owl, and Metocina, refused to relinquish any more land to the U.S. government. Harrison was forced to recognize the Mississinewa chiefs as the true representatives of the Miamis, not Little Turtle, and to declare that Little Turtle was not a Miami. Although Little Turtle was among the signers of the Treaty of Fort Wayne, afterward, he was "forcibly retired from Miami affairs."<ref>Rafert, ''Miami Indians of Indiana'', pp. 48, 71–72.</ref> Shawnee war chief [[Tecumseh]] and his brother, [[Tenskwatawa]] (The Prophet), condemned the treaty and began talks with the British about allying. That alliance was attacked by the United States at the 1811 [[Battle of Tippecanoe]], in which William Well's brother fought for the United States while another of Little Turtle's sons-in-law, [[White Loon]], fought for [[Tecumseh's Confederacy]].

Little Turtle retired to a Miami village twenty miles northeast of Fort Wayne, Indiana.<ref name=Young136-37>{{cite journal| author=Calvin M. Young | title=The Birthplace of Little Turtle| journal = Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly | volume =23 | pages =136–37| publisher = Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society | location = Columbus, Ohio | date =1914| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=ENUqAAAAYAAJ&q=Little+Turtle&pg=PA414
| access-date =July 30, 2018}}</ref> Following the [[Siege of Fort Wayne]] during the [[War of 1812]], General [[William Henry Harrison|Harrison]] ordered the destruction of all Miami villages within a two-day march of Fort Wayne, an order that may have been in retaliation for the negotiations in 1809. Harrison's forces also destroyed the village where Little Turtle resided,<ref>Rafert, ''Miami Indians of Indiana'', p. 74.</ref> but spared Little Turtle's home, which the U.S. government had built for his use.<ref name=Young136-37 /> The United States defeated the British and their Native American allies at the [[Battle of the Thames]] in 1813, destroying the power of the Native American Confederacy. As a result, many Native Americans moved farther west.<ref name=Madison39 />