Little Turtle () (1747 July 14, 1812) was a Sagamore (chief) of the Miami people, who became one of the most famous Native American military leaders. Historian Wiley Sword calls him "perhaps the most capable Indian leader then in the Northwest Territory," although he later signed several treaties ceding land, which caused him to lose his leader status during the battles which became a prelude to the War of 1812. In the 1790s, Mihšihkinaahkwa led a confederation of native warriors to several major victories against U.S. forces in the Northwest Indian Wars, sometimes called "Little Turtle's War", particularly St. Clair's defeat in 1791, wherein the confederation defeated General Arthur St. Clair, who lost 900 men in the most decisive loss by the U.S. Army against Native American forces.
Name Little Turtle is an English translation of mihšihkinaahkwa , the phonetic spelling of his name in the Miami-Illinois language. His native name in historic records includes many variations, including Michikinikwa, Meshekunnoghquoh, Michikinakoua, Michikiniqua, Me-She-Kin-No-Quah, Meshecunnaquan, and Mischecanocquah. The word names a species of terrapin, probably the Midland painted turtle. There is no diminutive on this name in the original Miami-Illinois language.
Early life and physical description There is little documentary evidence for most of Little Turtle's life. The exact year and place of his birth are uncertain. Still, sources generally indicate that he was born in 1747 or 1752, the years before or following the period that his parents lived in the Miami village of Pickawillany. Some historians give 1752 as his probable date of birth; others prefer 1747.Historian Leroy Eid gives 1752 as the date of birth, while Harvey Carter argues that 1747 "is fairly definite". See Carter, p. 45. Also: Eid, "Little Turtle," in
The exact names of Little Turtle's parents have been long debated. Historian Andrew Cayton named Mishikinakwa (The Turtle) as his father and an unnamed Mohican refugee as his mother;Cayton, pp. 145–46. however, Little Turtle biographer Harvey Carter indicated that Little Turtle's father was Cinquenackqua.
Little Turtle was born in what became present-day Whitley County, Indiana, at either a small Miami village along Devil's Lake or a larger nearby village known as Turtletown (present-day Churubusco, Indiana).Carter, pp. 45–47.Historian Andrew Cayton indicates that Little Turtle was born near Blue Lake. See: Little Turtle lived at Turtletown, along the Eel River, until 1780.
Little Turtle has been described as nearly six feet tall.Sword, p. 175. He disdained drunkenness and presented himself as a serious man. Little Turtle was fond of wearing silver on his ears and clothing.
Career Early years
Little Turtle was selected as the war chief of the Atchatchakangouen division of the Myaamiaki (Miami people) 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.Carter, p. 48.
La Balme's Defeat
Little Turtle earned this designation during the American Revolutionary War in action against a French force allied with the American patriots, led by French military adventurer Augustin de La Balme.Rafert, The Miami Indians of Indiana, p. 44. 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 Miamitown at Kekionga (present-day Fort Wayne), as part of his campaign to attack the British in Detroit. When La Balme stopped to camp along the Eel River just three miles south of Little Turtle's village, Little Turtle received permission to lead an attack.Hogeland, pp. 88–89 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."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 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."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 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."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) These events occurred in and around what is today Columbia City, Indiana in Whitley County, Indiana.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. The victory ended the campaign and established Little Turtle's reputation as a war leader.Cayton, pp. 147–48. 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.Carter, Life and Times, 72–75.
Little Turtle's 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.Cayton, p. 160.) Through the Land Ordinance of 1784 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the U.S. government established Northwest Territory in 1787.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 and the western half of the Lower Peninsula of present-day Michigan, and a narrow strip of land in present-day Ohio that was northwest of Fort Recovery. See:
Native Americans living in the territory resisted the encroaching American settlements, and violence escalated in the area. Native tribes formed the 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 Delaware under Buckongahelas. The war with the United States that followed became known as the Northwest Indian War, also called "Little Turtle's War".
Little Turtle helped to lead Native Americans against federal forces led by General Josiah Harmar in late 1790. To end the border war with native tribes in the area, the U.S. government sent an expedition of American troops under the command of General Harmar, but his forces lacked sufficient training and were poorly supplied. (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.Madison, pp. 27, 29.Cayton, pp. 149–54. In addition, previously reluctant leaders among the Ottawa and Wyandot joined the confederacy.
In August 1791, Little Turtle's daughter was among the women and children who were captured in a raid of a Miami village along the Eel River led by James Wilkinson.Cayton, p. 158. 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 (present-day Cincinnati, Ohio), headed toward the Maumee-Wabash portage.Madison, p. 29.
St. Clair's defeat
Little Turtle is generally credited with leadingEid, p. 754.Historian John Sugden states that Little Turtle is generally credited with the overall command of the Confederate Army that defeated St. Clair. See: See 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, and uncritically repeated by historians. See Sugden, pp. 4–6. a coalition force of about 1,000 warriors that 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. See also: Both Little Turtle and Blue Jacket claimed overall command of the combined native forces in the victory, causing tension within the Confederacy.Calloway, p. 459
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 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.Sword, p. 220. 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.Sword, p. 221.
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. The American forces successfully repulsed an exploratory attack on Fort Recovery with an estimated 1,000 warriors in June 1794.Rafert, The Miami Indians of Indiana, p. 53. 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."Gugin and St. Clair, eds., p. 234.