"A Common Dish" The Ohio Indian confederacy and the struggle for the Upper Ohio Valley, 1783-1795 /

Abstract

Following the close ofthe American Revolution, the Federal Government, reeling from the strain ofa massive war debt, looked toward the lands ofthe Old Northwest as a possible source of compensation for its war veterans. In response to the ensuing encroachments on to their native lands, which Great Britain had unjustifiably surrendered under the terms ofthe peace treaty of 1783, Indian nations ofthe Great Lakes Region and the upper Ohio Valley sought to reestablish what had proven to be a tenuous alliance. This alliance will be traced from its roots in the mid 1750s, through its collapse following General Anthony Wayne's crushing victory at the battle ofFallen Timbers, 1794. Particular attention will be paid to the late 1780s and early 1790s, when the struggle for the Ohio Country brought the region's Indian nations a degree ofunity which had long alluded them. United by the principles ofcommon land ownership and a united diplomatic voice, the confederation nevertheless remained shrouded in local and regional concerns. It is the manner with which the tribes struggled to overcome these concerns while searching for the unity that they so desperately needed in the face ofa rapidly expanding enemy that will be explored in depth. Historians have long ignored the Ohio Indians' efforts. Portrayed as mere pawns of British diplomacy, the tribes remain shrouded under a veil of misperception. While more and more scholars are slowly beginning to reexamine the Indians' role, they have done so at the expense oflimiting the tribes' motivations to those shared by their European counterparts. An "Indian perspective" of these events will serve to highlight the distinctions between Indian and European agendas, while demonstrating the extent to which the Ohio Indian Confederacy remained subject to its own divisive strains amid a struggle that would define a region.