Delaware Indians settled around present-day Yorktown. After 1800 there is no record of fighting with native Americans in our area. When Oliver H. Smith platted Yorktown, he named the town for the “York Indians”. The native Americans who settled along the White River, were part of the Lenape/Delaware Tribe coming originally from the area that became New York stopping in Ohio on their journey.
The Treaty of Greenville was negotiated to end the violence and establish lands for the tribes. The Miami tribes were given the lands in the Wabash River watershed with the exception of the White River which was to be occupied by the Delawares. This was but a temporary measure for as the white Americans pushed west the agreement was nullified.
George Washington (February 22, 1732– December 14, 1799) served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. As a General Washington, he led Patriot forces to victory in the Revolutionary War. In 1787, he presided at the Constitutional Convention which established the U.S. Constitution and a federal government.
Little Turtle’s War, also known as the Northwest Indian War, was fought between 1785-1795. Britain ceded the land in the Northwest Territory to the United States after the end of the Revolutionary War but Britain maintained military forts and outposts around the Great Lakes even after that time. The agreement between the U.S. and Britain, the Treaty of Paris (1783), marked the Great Lakes as a boundary between the two countries.
Britain continued to support Native American agitators. Native Americans had a centuries-old history of conflict among themselves over the land surrounding the Great Lakes. In 1785, Native Americans formed the Western Confederation of tribes with the help of Britain to resist European settlers encroaching on the tribal lands. The tribes also wanted all land north of the Ohio River This is considered to be the first conflict of the United States Indian Wars.
The United States was defeated badly in Harmar Campaign in 1790 and St. Clair’s Defeat in 1791. The St. Clair’s Defeat cost the lives of 1,000. President Washington sent General “Mad Dog” Anthony Wayne to lead the forces to enforce land rights in the Northwest Territory. (Note: Ft. Wayne, Indiana is named for Anthony Wayne.)
Unknown to the Western Confederacy who thought that Britain would help them, the Brits had signed the Jay Treaty in 1795 which gave assurances to the U.S. that Britain would no longer aid the Native Americans.
In 1794, General Wayne won a decisive victory in the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794.
After the defeat of the Western Confederacy, the Native Americans were compelled to sign the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. The treaty, included the Delaware, Wyandot, Shawnee, Ottawa, Chippewa, Potawatomi, Miami, Wea, Kickapoo, and Kaskaskia tribes. The treaty redefined the boundary between the U.S. and Native American land. This line was known as the Greenville Treaty Line. The treaty gave a large swath of land to the United States government that included northwestern Ohio and a strip of land in southern Indiana.
(Map from Ohio Lands and Their Subdivisions (1918) page 98)
9132 W Smith St., Yorktown, Indiana 47396
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