Ohio Country

Control of the territory and the region's fur trade was disputed in the 17th century by the Iroquois, Huron, Algonquin, other Native American tribes, and France.

The states' claims were largely extinguished after negotiations with the federal government by 1787, and it became part of the larger, organized Territory Northwest of the River Ohio.

In the 17th century, the area north of the Ohio River was occupied by the Algonquian-speaking Shawnee and some Siouan language-speaking tribes, such as the Omaha and Ponca.

Around 1660, during a conflict known as the Beaver Wars, the Iroquois and allied tribes seized control of the Ohio Country, driving out the Shawnee and Siouan peoples.

In the 1720s, a number of Native American groups began to migrate into the Ohio Country from the east, driven by pressure from encroaching European colonists.

A number of Seneca and other Iroquois peoples also migrated to the Ohio Country, moving away from the Anglo-French rivalries and warfare south of Lake Ontario.

[2] With the arrival of Europeans to America, both Great Britain and France had claimed the territory and sent fur traders into the area to do business with the Ohio Country Indians.

Having initially remained neutral, eventually the Ohio Country Indians largely sided with the French who were more interested in hunting in the region and were not actively settling the area as was their British colonial rivals.

The area, however, was officially closed to European settlement by the Royal Proclamation of 1763, an attempt to preserve the western lands as territory exclusively set aside for use by Native American peoples.

Despite the Crown's actions limiting westward expansion, frontiersmen from the Virginia and Pennsylvania colonies had migrated across the Allegheny Mountains for over a decade since the Proclamation.

In 1778, after several Patriot military victories in the region by an expeditionary force led by General George Rogers Clark, the Virginia legislature organized a nominal civil government over the area.

Map of Ohio Country showing battles in the area between 1775 and 1794
Ohio Country areas impacted by the 17th century Beaver Wars
1752 trader 's map by John Patten indicating that the borders of the Ohio Country were the Wabash River to the west, the Cumberland River to the south, Lake Erie to the north and the Thirteen Colonies to the east.
The Proclamation line of 1763 preserved the western lands for exclusive use by Native American peoples
The respective claims of the original 13 states to western lands.