Background
When the Revolutionary War ended in 1783, the new U.S. government claimed control of an area of land they named the Northwest Territory. U.S. citizens immediately began to move into the territory, many of them settling in and around the Ohio River Valley. But the Indigenous communities living there refused to accept the U.S. claims to the land. Many nations* formed a coalition to oppose the settlers. They fiercely fought to defend their lands in a conflict that historians now call the Ohio War. In 1790, the Indigenous coalition defeated the U.S. Army in a major battle.
U.S. President George Washington was furious that the Native American nations of the Ohio River Valley refused to submit to U.S. demands. He instructed his generals to use the same tactics the Americans had used against the Haudenosaunee during the American Revolution. In 1791, a local militia made up of settlers invaded the lands defended by the Indigenous coalition. They burned every town they encountered and kidnapped many women and children. But the tactics that had worked so well against the Haudenosaunee in upstate New York were a complete failure in the Ohio River Valley. By 1792, the United States signed a new treaty with the Ohio River Valley tribes as a way to buy time and regroup.
Images
“List of the Indian prisoners taken by the army under the command of Brigadier General Scott, on the Wabash river, at the Ouitanon town and neighboring villages, June 1st, 1791,” June 15, 1791, A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875. Library of Congress.
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