Pickawillany's destruction directly encouraged greater British fortification and military presence at other outposts in the Ohio Valley, and has been seen as a precursor to the wider British-French conflict that would become the French and Indian War.

"[1][3] In the two decades preceding the French and Indian War, France struggled to maintain military and economic control of the Ohio Country, which was strategically crucial to lines of supply and communication between Canada and Louisiana.

French dominance largely depended on the continued favorable relations between the government of New France and the Native American tribes living in the region, primarily the Miamis (Twightwees), the Wyandots (Hurons), and the Shawnees.

[5] The French forced the Wyandots to abandon Junundat in that year, but they were then faced with the growing influence of the newly-founded Miami community of Pickawillany, under the leadership of Memeskia,[2] a Piankeshaw war chief.

[12][11]: 24  This treaty guaranteed commercial access to tribes across the Ohio Valley as far west as the Wabash River, an unprecedented diplomatic achievement for the English.

[22]In late 1750, the Pennsylvania Provincial Council sent gifts to the people of Pickawillany and requested permission to build a "strong house", a fortified enclosure designed to withstand attack, but technically not a fortress, as the pacifist Philadelphia Quakers felt that they could not ethically finance any military structures.

William Trent describes the fort's construction in 1750: Having obtained permission from the Indians, the English, in the fall of 1750, began the erection of a stockade, as a place of protection, in case of sudden attack, both for their persons and property.

Trent describes these storehouses as ordinary log cabins, the trading being carried on below, while an "upper storey" or "loft" was used as a place to store away skins and combustible material ...

[23]: 269–70 In his deposition to the Pennsylvania Assembly on 17 October 1752, Patten referred to Pickawillany as "the Twightwee Town, which lies near the head of that Western branch of the Ohio called by the English, Miamis River."

He reported that "this Miami Town was computed to have about 200 fighting men, all of the Twightwee Nation, settled therein, and are some of those who left the French seven or eight years ago [from 1752], in order to trade with the English.

Gist and Croghan finalized a treaty of friendship with Memeskia: "We had Drawn Articles of Peace and Alliance between the English and the Wawaughtanneys and Pyankashees; the Indentures were signed and selad [sealed] and delivered on both sides.

"[22] Leaders of Pickawillany were invited to attend a conference at Logstown in May 1751, where Croghan distributed gifts and further cemented the relationship between the English and the Ohio Valley Indian communities.

"[26]: 85  Benjamin Stoddert reported to Sir William Johnson that "two hundred Orondack Indians under the command of Monsieur Belletre and Chevalier Longville ... design against a village of the Twightwees where the English are building a trading-house.

"[11] Two escaped English prisoners, Morris Turner and Ralph Kilgore, reported to Governor Dinwiddie "that in the Spring an army of five hundred Frenchmen would march to Ohio, and either bring back the Shawnees and Owendats (Wyandots) or kill them.

"[27]: 265  In fact, French troops and Ottawa warriors under the command of Céloron de Blainville assembled at Detroit, but the Indians complained that the force did not have sufficient strength to attack Pickawillany and refused to proceed.

[28]: 107 In late 1751, François-Marie Picoté de Belestre led a raiding party of seventeen warriors to Pickawillany,[23]: 284–85  but found the town nearly deserted, as most of the population was away hunting.

[2] In response, Memeskia had three captured French soldiers killed, cut off the ears of a fourth prisoner, and sent him back to Canada as a warning to the Governor of New France.

His successor, Charles III Le Moyne, Baron de Longueuil, worked unsuccessfully to put together a force of French troops and Indian warriors to attack the town again.

"[23]: 288  Hamilton was skeptical, but in any case did not have the power to send assistance to the Miami Indians at Pickawillany without the approval of the Pennsylvania Provincial Council, and no action was taken.

As they were heavily outnumbered and had no water, the fort's well having gone dry, the Miamis decided to hand over three of the five English traders, one of whom (a blacksmith) was badly injured from a gunshot wound to his abdomen.

[6]: 4  Two other traders, gunsmith Thomas Burney and Andrew McBryer, "whom the Indians hid," escaped with the help of the Miamis, fled "during the night"[34]: 60  and made their way to Lower Shawneetown.

At Lower Shawneetown on 29 July, Trent met "the young Pianguisha king, Musheguanockque, or the Turtle, two more men, Old Britain's wife and son, with about a dozen women and their children."

[39]: 123–187 William Trent, in his journal, makes no mention of Langlade, but instead states that the attack was led by a "Monsieur St. Orr, afterward distinguished in the French and Indian war."

[40]: 84 Thomas Burney, one of the two English survivors, reported on the raid to Captain Robert Callender in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on 29 August, who in turn wrote to Governor Dinwiddie with the following statement: Last night, Thomas Burney, who lately resided at the Twightwees' town in Allegheny, came here and gives the following account of the unhappy affair that was lately transacted there: On the twenty-first day of June last, early in the morning, two Frenchmen and about two hundred and forty Indians came to the Twightwees' town, and in a hostile manner attacked the people there residing.

[23]: 298 The four existing newspaper articles (all from November, 1752) focus heavily on the "acts of barbarity" of the murder of captives, the mutilation of corpses, and the cannibalizing of an English trader and of Chief Memeskia.

[36]A letter from The Baron de Longueuil on 18 August 1752, reports: A party of about 210 savages of Missilimakinac attacked the Fort of La Demoiselle, who is dead; and they destroyed about 26; and the others asked for pardon ...

At the same time, the French made efforts to establish an alliance with the Miami Indians living in nearby Piqua, "lavishing upon them a very large amount of money and a great variety of costly presents.

[11]: 53–55 General Anthony Wayne built a small fort at the site of Pickawillany in the fall of 1794, but it was abandoned a year later after the signing of the Treaty of Greenville.

Historians believe this is an error in translation, and that he said "a fort built by Mishikinakwa (The Turtle)," the name of an early Miami leader (also written Musheguanockque) known to have been at Pickawillany, who escaped to Lower Shawneetown after the raid.

[53] Three iron axes stamped with the letter "B" have been found in the Upper Piqua area or in the vicinity of the Pickawillany site, turned up during farming activities over the years.