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.

In the 1790s, Mihšihkinaahkwa led a confederation of native warriors to several major victories against U.S. forces in the Northwest Indian Wars, sometimes called "Little Turtle's War", particularly St. Clair's defeat in 1791, wherein the confederation defeated General Arthur St. Clair, who lost 900 men in the most decisive loss by the U.S. Army against Native American forces.

[11] Little Turtle was selected as the war chief of the Atchatchakangouen division of the Myaamiaki (Miami people)[5] through his demonstration of military prowess in battle.

[2] 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.

[22] 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.

[5] To end the border war with native tribes in the area, the U.S. government sent an expedition of American troops under the command of General Harmar, but his forces lacked sufficient training and were poorly supplied.

[26] (Because the United States had mostly disbanded its military after the American Revolution, it had few professional soldiers to send into battle, a weakness that Little Turtle and other native leaders fully exploited.)

[citation needed] In August 1791, Little Turtle's daughter was among the women and children who were captured in a raid of a Miami village along the Eel River led by James Wilkinson.

[12][29] By September 1791, a force of 1,400 to nearly 2,000 American soldiers under the command of Arthur St. Clair was moving north from Fort Washington (present-day Cincinnati, Ohio), headed toward the Maumee-Wabash portage.

The warriors captured two prisoners and learned that a large convoy of packhorses had left for Fort Jefferson and was due back in the area within days.

Little Turtle moved north and found the convoy of nearly 100 horses and 100 Kentucky militia under the command of Major John Adair encamped outside Fort St.

[37] Afterwards, Little Turtle counseled his tribesmen to pursue negotiations and peace rather than suffering a defeat in battle, remarking that Wayne was " the chief that never sleeps.

[30][43] Following the Indian Confederacy's defeat at Fallen Timbers, their leaders signed the Treaty of Greenville (1795), a turning point in their resistance to American expansion.

[38] 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.

He also began to adapt to United States cultural habits, including the acquisition of his land but remained adamant in his opposition to alcohol consumption.

[47][48][49] One account of the trip states that on his way to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to meet the president, Little Turtle met General Tadeusz Kościuszko, who presented him with a matching pair of pistols[47] along with instructions to use them on "the first man who ever comes to subjugate you.

[48] President Thomas Jefferson also corresponded with Little Turtle to encourage the introduction of American agriculture to Miami society,[51] although it was Moravian missionaries who demonstrate farming methods to native tribes in the White River area and an East Coast Quaker society from Baltimore, Maryland, who sent Philip Dennis to work with tribes in Fort Wayne to establish a model farm.

[53] At Little Turtle's and other chiefs' request, Jefferson provided agricultural equipment and livestock to the Miamis and Potawatomis to encourage the tribes to adopt farming.

[52] A lifelong teetotaler, Little Turtle made a personal plea to President Jefferson to prohibit the sale and consumption of alcohol in Native American communities.

On 14 January 1802 he delivered a speech to President Thomas Jefferson and members of the US Senate: Father, nothing can be done to advantage unless the Great Council of the Sixteen Fires, now assembled, will prohibit any person from selling spirituous liquors among their red brothers.

[55] In 1809, Little Turtle suffered a break with other Miami leaders when William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana Territory, came to Fort Wayne to renegotiate treaty terms.

[56] Working with Little Turtle and his son-in-law, William Wells, Harrison succeeded in obtaining the Treaty of Fort Wayne (1809), which secured 2,500,000 acres (1,000,000 hectares) of land for the federal government from the Potawatomi representatives and other tribes who cooperated.

"[58] Shawnee war chief Tecumseh and his brother, Tenskwatawa (The Prophet), condemned the treaty and began talks with the British about allying.

His remains were disinterred when workers discovered the burial site during a cellar excavation for a home on Lawton Place in Fort Wayne.

[63][64] Although the plans for the house were altered and Little Turtle's remains were reinterred[62] the objects initially placed in his grave- including the sword from President Washington, the pistols from Kosciusko, and other artifacts-[65] were distributed to collectors and later gathered for public display.