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CONQUEST

CONQUEST OF THE OHIO COUNTRY

 

The Indians of the Ohio country formed a confederacy that successfully defended their land from invasion until they were defeated in 1794. At the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, they gave up all but the northwestern part of the state.

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The U.S. fought the War of 1812 in part to move the 1795 boundary farther westward.The Miami and Delaware nations had already been pushed to Indiana. Through a pair of treaties in 1817 and 1818, the Seneca, Ottawa, Shawnee, and Wyandot nations surrendered most of the rest of Ohio. However, they reserved to themselves a few small parcels. In exchange, the United States granted them modest bene ts and recognized their right to remain there as self-governing peoples. 

Treaty of Greenville, 1814 by Hal Sherman

Courtesy of the Garst Museum

TREATY OF GREENVILLE

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This 1814 meeting took place during the War of 1812. U.S. Commissioners William Henry Harrison and Lewis Cass formally thanked the Shawnee, Seneca, and Wyandot nations for the assistance they had already given the United States.They demanded the other nations in attendance, such as the Miami and Potawatomi, help them as well.The U.S. promised to recognize their allies’ territorial boundaries once the war was over. 

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THE TREATY AT THE FOOT OF THE RAPIDS, 1817

 

By 1815, the white population of Ohio had grown to more than 300,000, while the Native American population declined to about 3,000. Through several treaties of 1817 and 1818, the Seneca, Ottawa, Shawnee, and Wyandot nations gave up more than 4.2 million acres, reserving to themselves scattered parcels totalling less than 200,000 acres.

Images courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration 

Ohio Indian Reserves after 1818, Bases on a map by Roberta Stockwell

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