Snake (Shawnee leader)
The war arose after Sir William Johnson negotiated the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix with the Iroquois, which ceded lands south of the Ohio River (present-day West Virginia and Kentucky) to the British.
[8] British officials successfully prevented other Natives from joining the war, leaving them with only about 300 Shawnee, Mingo, Lenape, and Wyandot warriors to oppose 2,300 men led by Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia.
[9] At the time of the Dunmore's War, Peteusha resided at Snake's Town, located on the Muskingum River in the Ohio Country.
Cornstalk, the principal Shawnee war chief, decided to strike at Lewis's wing before the two armies could unite, initiating the Battle of Point Pleasant on October 10.
[6] Along with Kekewepelethy (Captain Johnny) and Shemanetoo, he became a prominent military leader at Wakatomika, a Shawnee town on the Mad River near present-day Zanesfield, Ohio.
In 1785, Peteusha, Kekewepelethy, and Shemanetoo sent a message to the British in Detroit, alerting them that the resumption of war with the United States remained a possibility.
[14] The success of these raids contributed to the decision by the United States to send a military expedition under General Josiah Harmar against the Natives in 1790.
Some Shawnees leaders, including Blue Jacket, Black Hoof (Catecahassa), and Red Pole (Musquaconocah), decided to make peace, signing the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, ceding what is now southern and eastern Ohio to the United States.
On November 25, 1812, Captain Logan (Spemica Lawba), a cousin of the Snake brothers, died after fighting in a skirmish while serving in the army of American General William Henry Harrison.
In August 1813, Shemanetoo and Captain Lewis joined more than 200 Shawnee and Lenape warriors for Harrison's invasion of Upper Canada, serving as scouts and skirmishers.
[20] As the war turned in the Americans' favor, they sought to gain the loyalty of Natives who had been fighting for the British with the Treaty of Greenville (1814).
Lewis and other American-allied Shawnees were present, and Shemanetoo put his mark on the treaty, where his name was written as "Shammonetho, or Snake.
"[23][1] The American population in Ohio continued to rise after the War of 1812, increasing pressure on the Shawnees to cede their territory and move west of the Mississippi.
In the 1817 Treaty of Fort Meigs, Shawnee other leaders ceded northwestern Ohio to the United States in exchange for carefully delineated reservations.
"[24][1] The Treaty of Fort Meigs created three small Shawnee reservations in Ohio: Wapakoneta, Lewistown, and Hog Creek, encompassing about 170 square miles (440 km2).
Senators disliked the notion of Natives holding land in fee simple, and so they instructed U.S. officials to renegotiate the treaty.
Officials in Washington now favored a policy of Indian removal, which encouraged Natives to cede their lands to the government and resettle west of the Mississippi.
