Description: Gary Ness, former director of the Ohio Historical Society, and Gilbert Dilley, former Society trustee, at the opening of "The First Ohioans" exhibit at the Ohio History Center in Columbus, Ohio, 1986. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06574
Subjects: Other--Ohio Historical Society; American Indian history and society; Museum exhibits
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Illustration of Simon Girty, Ohio Country frontiersman, printed in Volume 6 of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications by the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society. Girty was born in Chambers Mill, Pennsylvania, in 1741. During the French and Indian War, his family sought refuge in Fort Granville, which was captured in 1755 by an army of French soldiers and native Indians. Girty eventually found himself in the hands of the Seneca Indians who took him to the Ohio Country and adopted him. His knowledge of Indian culture and language was highly sought after during the American Revolutionary War as both the British and Americans hoped to secure alliances with various local tribes. Girty first aligned himself with the Americans. However, he was discharged from the American military in 1777 and afterwards offered his help to the British. After the war, Girty continued to aid the Indians of the Ohio Country in resisting further settlement of the Ohio Country, participating in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. He eventually moved to Canada, where he died in 1818. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SC2697_Girty_001
Subjects: American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783; Fallen Timbers, Battle of, Ohio, 1794; Forts & fortifications; American Indian history and society; Warfare; American Indians; Ohio History; Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood
Places: Ohio
 

Description: Illustration of Simon Girty, Ohio Country frontiersman, from "History of Ohio in Words of One Syllable" by Anne Cole Cady, printed in "An Ohio Portrait" by George W. Knepper. Girty was born in Chambers Mill, Pennsylvania, in 1741. During the French and Indian War, his family sought refuge in Fort Granville, which was captured in 1755 by an army of French soldiers and native Indians. Girty eventually found himself in the hands of the Seneca Indians who took him to the Ohio Country and adopted him. His knowledge of Indian culture and language was highly sought after during the American Revolutionary War as both the British and Americans hoped to secure alliances with various local tribes. Girty first aligned himself with the Americans. However, he was discharged from the American military in 1777 and afterwards offered his help to the British. After the war, Girty continued to aid the Indians of the Ohio Country in resisting further settlement of the Ohio Country, participating in the Ba View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SC2697_Girty_002
Subjects: American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783; Fallen Timbers, Battle of, Ohio, 1794; Forts & fortifications; American Indian history and society; Warfare; American Indians; Ohio History; Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood
Places: Ohio
 

Description: This calumet, or ceremonial pipe, seen here in two views, was used at the signing of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. Possibly crafted by a member of one of the tribes who were signatories on the treaty, it is made of red catlinite with inlaid metal designs and a carved wooden stem, and was one of several pipes smoked by participants over the course of solemnizing the treaty negotiations. General Anthony Wayne defeated the American Indian confederacy led by Blue Jacket at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794. Abandoned by the British at Fort Miami, the American Indians agreed to a peace settlement. A year later, representatives from twelve tribes met at Greenville, in present-day Darke County, to negotiate with Wayne. Among the leaders were Little Turtle of the Miami, Tarhe of the Wyandot, and Blue Jacket and Black Hoof of the Shawnee. The treaty confined the American Indians to northwestern Ohio. Despite Wayne's hope that the treaty would hold "as long as the woods grow and waters run" American Indians were removed to the West by the mid-19th century. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: H39471_1
Subjects: American Indian history and society; Wayne, Anthony, 1745 - 1796; American Indian tribal leaders; Treaty of Greenville; Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood;
Places: Greenville (Ohio); Darke County (Ohio);
 

Description: This map shows American Indian trails and war roads throughout the southwestern Ohio region, dating from the last decades of the 18th century. Also identified on the map are locations of towns, camps and settlements; millitary forts and stockades; important natural resources; sites of battles during the Ohio Indian Wars; and other points of interest. According to the title, the map was drawn by Morten Carlisle and published in 1930, and was compiled from a map by R. G. Lewis and Walter M. Dawley with the aid of W. H. Burtner and John B. Hunley. The original map has been split into six pieces. The final digital image shows these pieces positioned in their original order. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: MAPVFM0434_4_01
Subjects: American Indian history and society; Maps; Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood; American Indian tribal leaders; Battlefields;
Places: Southwestern Ohio
 

Description: This image shows Fort Recovery, which stands on the spot where Fort St. Clair once stood.In December 1793, General Anthony Wayne ordered one United States artillery unit and eight infantry companies to the site of St. Clair's Defeat. The soldiers were to construct a fort on the former battlefield. Wayne intended to use this fort as a staging area for his assault against the region's American Indian tribes in the spring of 1794. He named the stockade Fort Recovery. Following the Battle of Fallen Timbers in August 1794, most American Indians realized they had little chance in stopping white settlement of their lands. In August 1795, many of the area's tribes agreed to sign the Treaty of Greeneville. They gave up all claims to land south and east of a line that extended south from Lake Erie, along the Cuyahoga River, to the Tuscarawas River, and then to Fort Laurens. From Fort Laurens, the line ran west to Fort Loramie, then northwest to Fort Recovery, and then straight south to the Ohio River. Anthony Wayne had secured from the American Indians the majority of modern-day Ohio with the exception of the northwestern corner of the state. The city of Fort Recovery, Ohio, stands today on the site of the frontier fort. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06521
Subjects: American Indian history and society; Fort St. Clair (Ohio); American frontier
Places: Fort Recovery (Ohio); Mercer County (Ohio)
 

Description: The once-massive limestone rock outcropping standing in the Maumee River known as Roche de Boeuf has marked many events in the history of the Maumee Valley. It was a legendary site for American Indians and the place where they gathered before the Battle of Fallen Timbers in August 1794. Early records indicate a nearby French settlement in the 1700s was called both Roche de Bout and Roche de Boeuf (spelled here Rouche de Boeuf), but for the last hundred years or so the latter has been most frequently used for both the rock and the lost settlement. About one-third of the rock was destroyed when the railroad bridge was built which caused a great controversy. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07687
Subjects: American Indian history and society; Ohio History--Natural and Native Ohio; Maumee River (Ind. and Ohio); Geology--Ohio
Places: Waterville (Ohio); Lucas County (Ohio)
 

Description: Dated ca. 1907-1912, this photograph shows the barracks at Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Founded by the United States government in 1879, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was a boarding school for American Indian peoples. Students were taught common school subjects, such as English, history, and math, and also learned professional trade skills for their careers after school. Many American Indians criticized the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, and other boarding schools for native youths, because the schools forced children to leave their families and abandon their native language and culture. Jim Thorpe attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School as a young man. Jim Thorpe, a Sac and Fox Native, was an American athlete, playing professional football and baseball, and an Olympic track gold medalist. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV235_1_9
Subjects: Carlisle Indian Industrial School; Thorpe, Jim 1887-1953; American Indians; American Indian history and society; Education; Athletics and athletes
Places: Carlisle (Pennsylvania); Cumberland County (Pennsylvania)
 

Description: This image shows John Johnston's estate in Piqua, Ohio. John Johnston (also spelled Johnson) was an Indian Agent in Ohio in the early years of the new state. He was born in 1775 in Ireland. While he was a young child, his family moved to Pennsylvania. Johnston participated in Anthony Wayne's assault on American Indians living in the Northwest Territory during the early 1790s. President James Madison selected Johnston as the Indian Agent overseeing the native reservations in northwestern Ohio. He served in this position for more than thirty years until the 1840s. His office was located in Piqua. Johnston played an important political and social role in Ohio as well. He was a strong advocate of the Whig Party. He helped found Kenyon College and also served on the board of trustees of Miami University. Johnston also published one of the earliest histories of the American Indians that once called Ohio home. He died in 1861 in Washington, DC. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06522
Subjects: American Indian history and society; Land settlement--Ohio; Indian agents
Places: Piqua (Ohio); Miami County (Ohio)
 

Description: This broadside, printed in 1791, commemorates the Columbian Tragedy, a reference to the Battle of the Wabash, also known as "St. Clair's Defeat." The battle occurred on November 4, 1791, near several Miami villages along the Wabash River in what is now Mercer County, Ohio. At daybreak that morning, a large alliance of American Indians, led by Shawnee chief Weyapiersenwah (Blue Jacket) and Miami chief Mishikinakwa (Little Turtle), surprised and overwhelmed an American army of about 1,600 men under Major General Arthur St. Clair, wounding or killing over half of the unprepared troops. The conflict is known as the greatest Indian victory over American military forces in the nation's history. 39 officers, whose names are listed on this broadside, were killed, along with over 900 soldiers. Also included on the broadside are engravings of Major General Richard Butler, who was killed in the battle, and a scene titled "Bloody Indian Battle Fought at Miami Village, Nov. 4, 1791," as well as a lengthy funeral elegy.. The location of the Columbian Tragedy is now the site of Fort Recovery State Memorial and the village of Fort Recovery. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: OVS2500
Subjects: Warfare; St. Clair, Arthur, 1734-1818; Battlefields; Ohio History--Settlement and Early Statehood; Little Turtle, 1747?-1812; American Indian history and society;
Places: Fort Recovery (Ohio); Mercer County (Ohio)
 

Description: Reproduction of a portrait of Colonel William Crawford at age forty. Crawford served in the French and Indian War, Lord Dunmore's War and the Revolutionary War. In 1782, he led an attack on the Seneca-Cayuga and Delaware tribes along the Sandusky River. Crawford's troops fought off the Native Americans and their British allies at the Battle of the Olentangy on June 6, but on June 7, Crawford was captured. The Native Americans burned Crawford at the stake in revenge for the Gnadenhutten massacre. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL02924
Subjects: Crawford, William, 1732-1782; Ohio--History, Military--18th century; Warfare; American Indian history and society;
Places: Ohio
 

Description: This image is an engraved portrait of Major Ebenezer Denny (1761-1882), Revolutionary War soldier and first mayor of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In this portrait, Denny is wearing a ruffled shirt and a high-collared waistcoat and coat. This engraving appears opposite the title page of his book "Military Journal of Major Ebenezer Denny, An Officer in the Revolutionary and Indian Wars" (1859), published in Philadelphia. Denny was born March 11, 1761, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and joined the Continental Army in 1778. He witnessed the British surrender at the 1781 Siege of Yorktown (Yorktown, Virginia) and wrote a description of that event in his war journal. It is one of the most frequently quoted accounts of the event. After the Revolutionary War, Denny also witnessed two of the worst military defeats of U.S. military forces by American Indians: Harmar’s Campaign and St. Clair’s Defeat. Both events occurred in the Northwest Territory, in present-day Ohio. In fall 1790, Josiah Harmar, commander of the U.S. army in the Northwest Territory, was stationed at Fort Washington (present-day Cincinnati). He received orders from Secretary of War Henry Knox to end the threat of American Indian attack in western Ohio. Harmar marched from Fort Washington with 320 regular soldiers and roughly 1,100 militiamen, primarily from Pennsylvania and Kentucky. The militiamen were poorly trained and badly equipped, and the U.S. forces were soundly defeated in a series of battles with the American Indian forces led by Miami chief Mishikinakwa (Little Turtle). Following Harmar's defeat, native attacks against settlers increased. In 1791, Major-General Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory, led another campaign against the American Indian tribes in western Ohio, hoping to succeed where Harmar had failed. Lieutenant Ebenezer Denny was St. Clair’s aide-de-camp. St. Clair ordered the construction of forts in what is now western Ohio. He and his men left Fort Washington in September 1791. After a two-day journey, the troops stopped and built Fort Hamilton. Then they advanced forty-five miles northward and built Fort Jefferson. From the beginning of his campaign, St. Clair had trouble with his poorly trained and demoralized troops. Although it was still early fall, his men faced cold temperatures, rain, snowfall, and insufficient food. Despite these problems, St. Clair continued to advance against the Miami natives. By November 3, his men had arrived on the banks of the Wabash River, near some of the Miami villages. The next day Little Turtle, along with Shawnee chief Weyapiersenwah (Blue Jacket), led a large alliance of seasoned volunteer warriors from nine different American Indian tribes against the U.S. troops and soundly defeated them. In his account of the day’s events, Denny wrote, “The ground was literally covered with the dead.” The battle known as “St. Clair’s Defeat” remains the worst defeat of the U.S. Army at the hands of American Indians. On November 19, Denny left for Philadelphia, where he had the unenviable task of informing President George Washington and Secretary of War Knox of the defeat. Washington demanded that St. Clair resign from the army. St. Clair did so on April 7, 1792, but remained governor of the Northwest Territory. In 1794, Washington dispatched General Anthony Wayne to succeed where St. Clair had failed. Wayne defeated the Native Americans at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in August 1794. In 1795, most natives in modern-day Ohio signed the Treaty of Greeneville, relinquishing all of their land holdings in Ohio except what is now the northwestern corner of the state. Denny continued his military service until 1794, when he resigned his commission and settled near Pittsburgh. He entered local politics and held several offices before being elected the city’s first mayor in 1816. He resigned the office in 1817 because of ill health. He died in July 1822. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07028
Subjects: American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783; Kekionga, Battle of, Ohio, 1791; Warfare; Northwest Territory--History; Veterans; Mayors; American Indian history and society;
Places: Carlisle (Pennsylvania); Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania);