Eel River Indians
The Eel River Indians were a tribe living primarily in northwestern Indiana during the late 1700s and the early 1800s. Following the signing of the Treaty of Greeneville in 1795, they joined the Miami Indians. They took their name from the Eel River in northern Indiana. They were part of the Algonquian Indians.
Portrait of LittleTurtle, also known as Mich-I-kin-I-Qua, a war chief of the Miami Tribe, ca. 1790-1812. Little Turtle and Shawnee chief Tecumseh led the Miami and Shawnee people to resist white settlers in the western part of Ohio. They successfully defeated United States soldiers led by Josiah Harmar in October 1790 and soldiers led by Arthur St. Clair in 1791. An attack on Fort Recovery failed in 1794 and Little Turtle wanted to negotiate with the settlers. Other chiefs wanted to continue fighting. The Native Americans lost at the Battle of Fallen Timbers and in 1795 they signed the Treaty of Greenville ceding most of Ohio to the settlers.
References and Suggested Reading
- Barr, Daniel P., ed. The Boundaries Between Us: Natives and Newcomers Along the Frontiers of the Old Northwest Territory, 1750-1850. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2006. - Available from Amazon.com
- Bond, Beverley W., Jr. The Foundations of Ohio. Columbus, OH: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1941.
- Hurt, R. Douglas. The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1996. - Available from Amazon.com
- O'Donnell, James H., III. Ohio's First Peoples. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2004. - Available from Amazon.com
- Ricky, Donald B., ed. Encyclopedia of Ohio Indians. St. Clair Shores, MI: Somerset Publishers, Inc., 1998. - Available from Amazon.com
Time Periods
Citation
"Eel River Indians", Ohio History Central, July 1, 2005, http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=585
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