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: 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; American Indian agents
Places: Piqua (Ohio); Miami County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photograph showing Short Bull, the oldest living Mandan Indian, at 72 years old. Short Bull died in 1907. He is seen here at Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in western North Dakota, surrounded by his grandchildren. The Mandan are an American Indian tribe thought to have originated in the Ohio River Valley area, but who migrated to the region of the Heart River in modern-day North Dakota. In the 1930s, the Mandan joined with the Hidatsa and the Arikara peoples into the Three Affiliated Tribes, also known as the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: P129_B01_F07_001_A
Subjects: American Indian history and society; American Indians--Portraits; Ohio History--Natural and Native Ohio; Families
Places: Fort Berthold (North Dakota)
 

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 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)