THE INDIANS WHO OPPOSED HARMAR
By OTHO WINGER
We have a few original sources of
information about the
Indians of the Northwest in and about
Kekionga, now Fort
Wayne, at the time of Harmar's
expedition in the fall of 1790.
George Croghan in 1765 traveled the
length of the Wabash to
Kekionga and gave an excellent report to
his superiors in the East.
In the winter of 1789-90 Henry Hay,
representing British mer-
chants in Detroit, visited Kekionga and
kept a diary of his stay
in the Miami village, and of his visits
roundabout. In the spring
of 1790 Colonel Hamtramck, commander at
Vincennes, sent
Antoine Gamelin, a Frenchman, with a
message of good will to
the Indians along the Wabash and to
Kekionga. One of the finest
of recent histories reviewing all this
and adding much information
is the book, The Land of the Miamis, by
Judge Elmore Barce.
The leading tribe was that of the
Miamis, with several divi-
sions. Their chief town and capital, if
it may be so called, was at
Kekionga. There were strong divisions of
this tribe along Eel
River and the Mississinewa, called Eel
Rivers and Mississinewas,
the Weas at Ouiatenon near the present
Lafayette, and the Pianka-
shaws near Vincennes. The Miamis, who
once claimed all of
Indiana and western Ohio as their
ancient domain, still held the
Wabash and the strategic center here at
the junction of the St.
Mary's and the St. Joseph. To the north
in the Michigan penin-
sulas were the tribes composing
"The Three Fires," the ancient
Chippewa with their kindred, the Ottawa
and the Potawatomi.
The Potawatomi had spread over northern
and western Indiana,
where they were closely connected with
the Kickapoo from Illinois.
The Ottawa had spread over northwestern
Ohio, north of the
Maumee. The Hurons, or Wyandots, were
masters of the land
east of the Auglaize and south of Lake
Erie. South of them were
the ancient Delawares. The Shawnees,
having been driven from
their former homes in the South, had
settled chiefly in southern
(55)
56
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
Ohio, where their great chief, Tecumseh,
was born on Mad River
about 1770. There were general, but not
absolute, boundary lines
between the tribes. At one time or
another various tribes had
villages around Kekionga.
Antoine Gamelin, on his visit in the
spring of 1790, found
much opposition to the Americans and
much sympathy for the
British in all the villages. Here at
Kekionga, besides the Miamis,
he found both Shawnees and Delawares.
The Shawnee chief,
Blue Jacket, and the renegade Girty
brothers among the Delawares
prevented any friendly response. The
number of warriors in these
villages was not given. The secretary of
war, General Knox,
estimated that the number of warriors on
the Wabash would be
more than fifteen hundred, but some
think that number was too
large. One writer, James Smith, said
there were not more than
three thousand Indian warriors in all,
west of Pennsylvania.
Gamelin's report of conditions here in
Kekionga was about
the same as George Croghan reported
twenty-five years earlier,
and similar to the conditions reported
by Hay the year previous.
There were a few French and British
traders here, among whom
was John Kinzie, noted for his
connection twenty years later with
Fort Dearborn and the massacre there.
Trade was at a low
level. Whiskey was already beginning to
have its terrible effect
upon the Indians.
H. S. Knapp, in his history of the
Maumee Valley, tells of
seven villages here at the time of
Harmar's expedition. First of
all, there was the main Miami village at
Lakeside at the junction
of the St. Joseph and Maumee. There was
another Miami village
across the river between St. Mary's and
the St. Joseph with thirty
houses. Two miles down the Maumee was
the Shawnee village,
Chillicothe, with fifty-eight houses.
Across the river was another
Shawnee village with eighteen houses.
There were two Delaware
villages two miles up the St. Mary's
with forty-five houses and
another Delaware village three miles up
the St. Joseph. The total
number of houses, or cabins, in all
these villages was given at one
hundred eighty-five, although the
original number was not known,
for the Indians had burned many of their
houses before Harmar's
army arrived.
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL
PROCEEDINGS 57
From all these accounts, it would seem
that the number of
Indians here varied from time to time
and was never very large.
Those who fought Harmar were largely the
Miamis in and about
Kekionga and from Eel River.
Little Turtle, the Miami, was by far the
most important op-
ponent of Harmar. The Little Turtle
village was on Eel River
about sixteen miles northwest of
Kekionga. Here his father, the
great Chief Aquenacque, had made this an
important Indian
center. Here Little Turtle was born. Two
miles up the river
from this village was the famous Eel
River trading post, where
furs were collected by the traders to be
transported to Fort Wayne
by portage.
The first battle with Harmar's forces
occurred on Eel River
eleven miles northwest of Fort Wayne on
the old Indian trail that
led to Fort Dearborn. It is now known as
the Goshen Road, or
U. S. Route 33. While some of Harmar's
men thought the forces
were very large, others had put the
number of Little Turtle's army
at only about a hundred. But whereas
Hardin's division of
Harmar's army was poorly made up and
poorly equipped, they
were opposed by some of the finest of
all Indian warriors, com-
manded by the greatest Indian general
who ever opposed the
white man. Although outnumbered two to
one, Little Turtle
annihilated Hardin's forces by strategy
unequaled for cleverness
of conception and efficient execution.
Thomas Irvin, one of the
soldiers in that expedition, wrote that
Little Turtle had prepared
the ambuscade "as neatly as one
sets a trap for a rat."
Three days later Little Turtle and these
same Indians set a
similar trap at the Maumee and
annihilated the regulars under
Captain Willys and so crippled the
entire force of Harmar's army
that he returned at once to Fort
Washington. Although Harmar
reported victory over the Indians, most
historians believe he was
defeated by the superior generalship of
the Miami chief, Little
Turtle. Theodore Roosevelt, in Winning
of the West, Vol. I,
page 91, wrote, "The net
result was a mortifying failure." It is
true that the troops were poor specimens
of soldiers and poorly
equipped and that the brave but rash
Hardin was at odds with the
inefficient Colonel Trotter, but
Roosevelt criticizes Harmar for
58
OHIO ARCH EOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
allowing divisions among his men and
subordinate generals and for
keeping his main army inactive only
seven miles away while the
brave Willys and other brave men were
being cut to pieces in
small, uncoordinated divisions.
These conflicts with Harmar gave
excellent training for Little
Turtle and his Indians to meet the
combined forces of St. Clair
one year later on the Wabash at what is
now Fort Recovery, Ohio.
Harmar's expedition plainly showed
Little Turtle that a large
army would soon be sent against
Kekionga, "the glorious gateway
of the West." Warriors came from all the chief tribes of
the
Northwest to be trained by Little Turtle
for the coming conflict.
With a thousand warriors, well trained,
this "Napoleon of the
Red Men" met a much larger force
under St. Clair on November
4, 1791. Little Turtle outgeneraled and
outfought St. Clair, who
had the largest and best equipped army
ever sent against the In-
dians, and inflicted upon them the
greatest defeat the white men
ever suffered at the hands of the
Indians.
After all, Little Turtle, with his
genius and greatness, was
worth a whole army of either whites or
Indians and was the
chief explanation of the defeat of
Harmar and St. Clair. He de-
feated more white armies than any other
Indian, but his greatness
is not shown by that alone. After he had
done all he could to
protect the land of his fathers, he made
peace with Wayne at
Greenville and spent the remaining
seventeen years of his life as
the friend of the Americans and tried to
get his people to adopt
the best ways of the white man's
civilization.
At Wayne's suggestion, he visited
President George Washing-
ton, who received him as a great warrior
and patriot and conferred
upon him the highest honors possible.
Little Turtle later visited
Presidents John Adams and Thomas
Jefferson in the interests of
the Indians. He endeavored to introduce
among his people tem-
perance, agriculture, vaccination for
smallpox, and the arts of
peace. That fine monument on the battle
field of Fallen Timbers
has a worthwhile suggestion for us all.
While it gives due credit
to General Wayne for his great ability
and his service to the
Northwest and similar praise to the
hardy pioneers who supported
General Wayne in his conquest, there is
also generous praise for
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL
PROCEEDINGS 59
Little Turtle, who bravely defended the
land of his fathers against
the conquering white men. We shall all
be glad to see a fine
monument erected here in Fort Wayne to
that great general after
whom the city is named. But some day we
shall also recognize the
greatness of Little Turtle and either
here or somewhere along his
native Eel River, the Ke-na-po-co-mo-co,
we shall erect a suitable
monument for him also.