Site of Little Turtle's Miami Village
Near Fort Wayne, Indiana
Near this spot stood a village of Little Turtle, one of the most formidable Native leaders in American history. Born along the Eel River in the middle of the seventeen hundreds, Little Turtle rose to command a confederacy of tribes that handed the young United States two of the worst defeats it ever suffered at Native hands, crushing armies led by Generals Harmar and Saint Clair. After the tide turned at Fallen Timbers, Little Turtle chose diplomacy.
He traveled east, met President Washington in Philadelphia, and pressed for peace and for protecting his people from whiskey traders. He died of gout in July of eighteen twelve. Later that year, American troops swept through this region during the War of Eighteen Twelve and burned Miami villages, including his own.
The marker here remembers a leader who fought ferociously, then spent his last years trying to keep his people alive.
