Blue Jacket, Anthony Wayne, and the Psychological and Symbolic War for Ohio, 1790–95

The conclusion of the American Revolution ended hostilities on the eastern side of the Appalachian Mountains, but a volatile and violent situation persisted in the Ohio Country. Unlike the sporadic traders, who for over a century wandered their way through the region, a new stream of settlers poured over the Ohio River, intent on becoming permanent residents. The numerous indigenous nations of the region resolved that they would not give up their homelands without a fight. As white settlers traveled down the Ohio River in 1788, Indian raiding parties destroyed white settlements with disturbing effectiveness, frequently dispatching their floating targets.¹ Peace negotiations stalled as the United States failed to control its settlers, and the Indian nations failed to restrain their warriors. The ratification of the Constitution and the election of George Washington brought a new phase to the struggle for the Northwest Territory. Afraid of losing the region to Great Britain or even Spain, the new commander in chief ordered an official government campaign to subdue the hostile Indians and pacify the Ohio Country for white settlement. This would prove to be a difficult task as two different American military campaigns ended in humiliating defeats.

In the autumn of 1790, Gen. Josiah Harmar led an unsuccessful attack against the Indian town of Kekionga (Fort Wayne, Indiana), where a coalition of Indians led by Shawnee Chief Weyapiersenwah (Blue Jacket) and Miami Chief Mihšihkinaahkwa (Little Turtle) sent his soldiers fleeing southward in retreat.² While the Americans viewed the campaign as a disappointment, the destruction of several villages and their surrounding fields of crops had a significant impact upon the indigenous peoples living in the region. Suffering from a lack of food, many individuals moved eastward toward a new indigenous political center at the Grand Glaize. The homes and crops could eventually be replaced, but fire also consumed several boxes of important spiritual artifacts. These artifacts served as mnemonic devices that helped preserve the community’s history, and their loss was still lamented decades after the battle.³ Unaware of the psychological and symbolic blow that this campaign dealt to the Indian coalition, the Americans deemed it a failure.

The following spring, Weyapiersenwah and his fellow warriors went on the offensive in an attempt to stop American encroachment. Although minor victories militarily, the torturing of a captive in sight of the soldiers at Dunlap’s Station and the raid of Big Bottom successfully frightened the white settlers and slowed the flow of settler invasion. The Indian offensive also placed pressure on the American government to protect its settlers.⁴ Following Harmar’s defeat and the Indian coalition’s subsequent attacks, Washington approved the largest offensive action to date.

In the fall of 1791, Gen. Arthur St. Clair led a force of approximately one thousand soldiers and militia toward the Wabash River. The Indian coalition led by Weyapiersenwah, Mihšihkinaahkwa, and Lenape Chief Buckongahelas did not back down and delivered what was “proportionately the biggest military disaster the United States ever suffered.”⁵ St. Clair led a hasty retreat, leaving wounded and dying soldiers to the mercy of the Indian coalition. After the battle, members of the coalition sent a clear message to their American counterpart by filling the mouths of the dead bodies with dirt and leaving them to rot.⁶ Animals and microbes eventually ate away the flesh of the corpses and the sun bleached the remaining skeletons, leaving behind a macabre memorial to the battle. For three years, this Indian victory haunted Americans as it grew in symbolic importance and provided confidence to the defiant Indian coalition.

In the fall of 1794, Gen. “Mad” Anthony Wayne finally accomplished what his predecessors could not and led a successful campaign to expand the territorial control of the United States. Following a victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, Wayne negotiated the Treaty of Greenville the subsequent year with a coalition of Indian nations who ceded most of modern-day Ohio to the United States. While numerous scholars have detailed Wayne’s military campaign at length and...