BIRTHPLACE OF
LITTLE TURTLE.
CALVIN YOUNG, GREENVILLE.
The village where Little Turtle was born
in 1752 was lo-
cated on the north tributary of the Eel
River, twenty miles north-
west of Ft. Wayne, Indiana, in Whitney
County. This north
tributary is known today as the Blue
River Branch, near its
junction at Blue Lake, to which it
furnished an outlet only a
short distance away. It stood on the
west side of the river
on a high sandy point of land,
surrounded on three sides by a
great bend in the river. A wide prairie
marsh skirted those high
lands north and south, but on the east
the high banks neared each
other, making it an easy ford to the
north bank of the lake only
a few hundred yards to the eastward. The
Blue Lake con-
tained possibly five hundred acres.
Near the foot of the hill, immediate to
the south, a fine
spring of water bubbled forth underneath
the shade of a beau-
tiful grove of barren oak trees. A short
distance south of the
spring nestling in the middle of the
prairie was a small lake
containing four or five acres, and so
very deep that the water
looked a dark blue. It was called by the
Indians "Devil's Lake",
from the fact that something mysterious
had appeared in or near
it entirely unknown to Indian lore
during a dusky Summer
evening, at which the Indians became
terribly frightened and
ran all the way to Ft. Wayne then a
frontier outpost.
Along about 1863, and for a number of
years later, the writer
has been on this peculiar ancient
village site many times, where
Little Turtle was born, and which was
his home nearly all his
life. Along the river banks were Indian
trails, worn several
inches deep, which not only spoke of
primitive, but also of recent
times, as it was a flourishing village
in 1812, and, possibly, was
not entirely deserted until 1846, at
which time the Indians were
all removed to the West.
It seemed that Nature had provided here
with a lavish hand
(236)
Birthplace of Little Turtle. 237
an ideal home for the red man. The soil
was productive for
Indian corn, and the writer saw there
old Indian fields, red with
strawberries in June, wild grapes, wild
plums and hazel-nut
fields, nearby acorns and wild berries
of all kinds in abundance.
There were also red deer, wild Turkeys
and also rivers and lakes
teeming with fish, and over all a scenic
beauty that the poet with
his pen could not describe, nor the
painter with his brush portray.
Such was the birthplace and home of
Little Turtle, the great
Miami chief.
In order to identify exactly this
location, as Little Turtle's
Village, and if possible to leave no
doubt in the mind of the
future student of history, I will state
here, that this location is
just twenty miles northwest of Ft.
Wayne, which agrees in dis-
tance with the very best authority on
the subject now in hand.
We refer the reader to the Hand Book of
American Indians
Bulletin 30 published by the Bureau of
American Ethnology,
page 771. The personal examination of
those grounds and vil-
lage sites near fifty years ago, and the
statement of the early
settler at that time when the Indians
were still present all
corroborate, leaving no room to doubt
the correctness of the
statements herein made. Moreover the
main branch of the Eel
river is crossed by the old Indian trail
(now the Goshen Road),
only eleven miles northwest of Ft.
Wayne, consequently could
not have been the stream on which this
village was located.
Little Turtle's father was a Miami
Chief, and his mother
a Mohican, hence, according to the
Indian rule, he was a Mohican
and received no advantage from his
father's rank-that it-he
was not a chief by descent. However, his
talents having at-
tracted the notice of his countrymen, he
was made chief of the
Miami while a comparatively young man.
Little Turtle was the
principal leader of the Indian forces
that defeated General
Harmar on the Miami River in October,
1790, and General
Arthur St. Clair on the Wabash November 4th,
1791, and he
and Blue Jacket were among the foremost
leaders of the Indians
in their conflict with General Wayne's
army in 1794, although he
had urged the Indians to make peace with
this "Chief who never
sleeps".
After their defeat by the Whites, he
joined in the treaty at
238 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
Greenville, Ohio, August 3rd, 1795,
having arrived at Green-
ville on the 23rd of June, "I am
the last to sign it, and will be
the last to break it". Faithful to
his promise, he remained
passive and counselled peace on the part
of his people until his
death at Ft. Wayne, July 14, 1812.
At the Greenville Treaty the new
Government presented
Little Turtle and the other
participating Chiefs a beautiful silver
medal which was highly prized by the
Savages. This medal was
a facsimile of the Red Jacket Medal
engraved and chased with
a change in the date to 1795 and was
four by six inches in size.
On the obverse side President Washington
is represented in uni-
form, bareheaded, facing to the right and
presenting a pipe to
an Indian Chief who is smoking it. The
Indian is standing and
has a large medal suspended from his
neck. On the left is a pine
tree at the foot of which lies a
tomahawk. In the background
a farmer is plowing. Below in exeque
"George Washington,
President, 1795." On the reverse
side appear the arms and
crest of the United States on the breast
of the eagle. In the
eagle's right talon is an olive branch;
in the left a sheaf of ar-
rows; in its beak the motto "E
Pluribus Unum"; above, a glory
breaking through the clouds and
surrounded by thirteen stars.
Early in 1797, accompanied by Captain
Wells, his son-in-law,
Little Turtle visited President
Washington at Philadelphia, where
he met General Kosciusko, the latter
presenting him with his own
pair of elegantly mounted pistols.
Although Tecumseh endeavored
to draw him away from his peaceful
relations with the Whites,
his efforts were in vain. Little Turtle
signed the following
treaties with the United
States:-Greenville, August 3, 1795;
Ft. Wayne, June 17, 1803; Vincennes,
August 21, 1805; Ft.
Wayne, September 30, 1809.
His name was spelled, and also
pronounced, different ways,
but at the Treaty of Greenville it was
spelled Meshekinnoghquoh.
He was thirty-nine years old at the time
of St. Clair's defeat,
and sixty years old at the time of his
death. The most diligent
search in recent times has failed to
locate the place of his burial,
consequently, he sleeps in an unknown
grave in the vicinity of
his former glory at or near Ft. Wayne,
Ind.
It has been said that the sun of Indian
glory set with him,
Birthplace of Little Turtle. 239
and when Little Turtle and Tecumseh passed away the clouds and shadows, which, for two hundred years had gathered around their race, closed in the starless night of death. He was the noblest Roman of them all, for, like Pontiac thirty years before, he was the soul of fire. Everyone who reads the Treaty of Greenville will be impressed with his high courage and the manly stand which he took for his race and the hunting grounds of his Fathers. |
|