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Little Turtle (Miami-Illinois: Mihšihkinaahkwa) (c. 1747 — July 14, 1812) was a Sagamore (chief) of the Miami people, who became one of the most famous Native American military leaders.
The name lived on as Illinois Territory between 1809 and 1818, and as the State of Illinois after its admission to the union in 1818. The Spanish-controlled portion of Illinois Country west of the Mississippi was acquired by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
The Miami (Miami–Illinois: Myaamiaki) are a Native American nation originally speaking one of the Algonquian languages. Among the peoples known as the Great Lakes tribes, they occupied territory that is now identified as north-central Indiana, southwest Michigan, and western Ohio.
Oct 6, 2024 · The Miami Tribe, known as the Myaamia in their own language, has deep roots in the Great Lakes region of North America. Their ancestral territory stretched across parts of present-day Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, encompassing fertile lands along the Great Miami River and its tributaries.
- Name
- Early Life and Physical Description
- Career
- Later Years
- Death and Legacy
- Honors and Tributes
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 terrapi...
There is little documentary evidence for most of Little Turtle's life. The exact year and place of his birth are uncertain, but sources generally indicate that he was born in 1747 or 1752, the years prior to or following the period that his parents lived in the Miami village of Pickawillany. Some historians give 1752 as his probable date of birth; ...
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 war chief of the leading division of the tribe, Little Turtle was never the head chief of the Miami, which was a hereditary position.
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. 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 alon...
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.) Through the Land Ordinance of 1784 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the U.S. government established Northwest Territoryin 1787. Native Americans living in the territory resisted t...
After the defeat of the Western Confederacy at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and signing the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, Little Turtle refused an alliance with the Shawnee chief Tecumseh. Little Turtle continued to advocate for peace and accommodation instead of conflicts. He also began to adapt United States cultural habits, including acq...
Little Turtle died on July 14, 1812, at the home of his son-in-law William Wells, not far from Kekionga. Little Turtle had been suffering from gout and rheumatism for some time. He was honored with a military-style funeral with full military honors at Fort Wayne. Little Turtle was buried in his ancestral burial ground near Spy Run. Wells died one m...
Burial site
In 1959 Fort Wayne residents Mary Catherine Smeltzly and her sister, Eleanor Smeltzly, purchased Little Turtle's burial site with the intention of honoring his peacemaking efforts by donating the property to the city as a public park. A bronze plaque attached to a granite boulder erected on the site was dedicated in 1960. In 1994 the memorial was improved with additional markers and a trust was established for its maintenance. A small memorial stone placed at Little Turtle's gravesite reads:
Indiana sites named for Little Turtle
1. Camp Chief Little Turtle (a Boy Scout camping facility near Angola) 2. Little Turtle Elementary School, Columbia City, Indiana. 3. Little Turtle Branch of the Allen County Public Library
Ohio sites named after Little Turtle
1. A neighborhood that includes a private golf course in Columbus. 2. A street named "Little Turtle Court" in Ross, Ross Township. 3. Little Turtle, Ohio, a town founded by Roger Lippman in 1968. 4. Turtle Creekin Turtlecreek Township, Warren County.
Little Turtle (Miami-Illinois: Mihšihkinaahkwa) was a Sagamore (chief) of the Miami people. He was a very famous Native American military leader. He was important in the fights over the Northwest Territory. He was a key leader in the Northwest Indian Wars.
People also ask
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Where did the Miami Indians live in 1820?
May 29, 2018 · History and Cultural Relations. The Miami evolved out of the prehistoric Fisher and Huber cultures of the southern Lake Michigan region. In the late 1660s fear of Iroquois raids prompted them to move west of the Mississippi with the Illinois people.
