Fort Wayne, Indiana: In search of Little Turtle

We recently found ourselves on a residential street near downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana, searching for the burial place of a Native American known as a great warrior and a dedicated peacemaker.

Sign (right) points to Little Turtle grave (by small slant-top post, left)

I first heard of Little Turtle when we visited Churubusco during our tour of the route of the Lincoln Highway through Indiana. The town, known as Turtle Town USA, takes its nickname from a car-sized turtle allegedly spotted in a farmer's pond during the late 1800s. Churubusco's official Web site mentions the fact that the area was the birthplace of the great Miami chief Little Turtle, referring to it as "an odd twist of fate" for a town that later shot to fame as home to a supposed 500-pound turtle.

Little Turtle again surfaced when I wrote about "Ohio's million-dollar lighthouse". Ohio's Turtle Island, and its lighthouse, takes its name from Little Turtle. I knew I would soon visit Fort Wayne, so it's a story I saved to tell another day.

Today is that day.

Little Turtle was born around 1747 about 15 miles from present-day Fort Wayne and just northwest of Churubusco in either Devil's Lake or perhaps in a Miami village called Turtletown (talk about coincidence!).

Little Turtle is an English translation of Me-she-kin-no-quah from the Miami-Illinois language, although various historical records spell it several different ways.

Little Turtle initially gained fame as a fierce fighter and brilliant military strategist.

The chief fought on the side of British during the United States' Revolutionary War. His defeat of French adventurer Augustin de La Balme after the plundering of a Miami village was near the start of a string of Little Turtle victories that remained unbroken until the mid-1790s.

Native Americans fought the westward expansion that followed the end of the Revolutionary War and Americans gaining control of land that became the Northwest Territory in 1787. Many called the resulting Northwest Indian Wars by the name of Little Turtle's War.

Little Turtle enjoyed several notable victories against the United States in the 1790s, including one of the most decisive defeats ever handed to the U.S. by Native Americans who attacked Fort Recovery and defeated Major General Arthur St. Clair near the Ohio/Indiana border in west-central Ohio. Figures I found for deaths among St. Clair's men range from 600 to 900, while fewer than 100 of Little Turtle's men lost their lives.

When Major General Anthony Wayne defeated Little Turtle's forces in August of 1794 at Fort Recovery, Little Turtle moved into his role as a peacemaker to urge native peoples to negotiate with the Americans. Many of the tribes did not agree with Little Turtle, and he lost much of his prestige with them.

In 1795, Little Turtle was one 12 representatives of Native American nations signing the Treaty of Greenville in Ohio. The treaty ceded Indian lands in (future) Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Michigan to the Americans, paving the way for increased westward expansion of the young country.

Little Turtle never went to war again, concentrating his efforts on things like advocating peace, urging his people to abstain from alcohol and developing new farming techniques among his people.

In his later years, Little Turtle met with presidents George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, but he lost his status as a Miami chief by 1809 because of his peacemaking efforts. He retired to his village near Fort Wayne with a government stipend.

Little Turtle died on July 14, 1812, receiving a full military funeral and burial in a Miami ancestral burial ground near Spy Run.

Two hundred years later, we found ourselves turning off of Spy Run Avenue in downtown Fort Wayne in our search for Little Turtle.

My research said that the gravesite was in a city park on Lawton Place, which turned out to be a 0.13-acre plot of land squeezed between two private homes on a residential street.

Little Turtle's grave was unmarked and unknown for 100 years until a building contractor excavating land to build houses discovered his remains in 1912.

A sword and several other artifacts buried with Little Turtle went to the Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society for display in their museum. The builder left the remains in place and altered plans for the house originally intended for the site.

In 1959, Eleanor Smeltzly and Mary Catherine Smeltzly, a retired history teacher, purchased the grave plot and donated it to the city as a park.

And so it was our search for Little Turtle ended.

Want to learn more about Little Turtle, his times and his people? Check out The Miami Indians of Indiana: A Persistent People, 1654-1994 by Stewart Rafert.

 

© Dominique King 2012 All rights reserved

Comments

[Kimberley]

My mother lived in that house while she was in third or fourth grade. This would have been in the early 1950's. She said there was a huge tree at the bottom of the steps by their back door, and the plaque was beneath it. My grandparents rented that house, soon moving to a home they bought nearby.

[Dominique King]

Thanks for sharing your story, Kimberley! It looks like the house is still occupied today, too. It was funny to find the memorial right there in the middle of a neighborhood. You certainly wouldn't see it if you didn't know where to look for it, would you?

[James Alter]

The grave site was actually a Miami burial site with at least 25 burials exhumed. The laborers and curious carted off the remains and objects. As I understand it all items of value buried with the great chief were pilfered, his earthly remains were scattered, and only his skull was returned to the grave. (cite: The Grave of Little Turtle; J.M. Stouder Sept 1912)
Today the city of Fort Wayne is engaging in a riverfront development project. So who knows how many more graves and historical sites will be despoiled. The people in power in Ft Wayne Allen County are intoxicated by the lure of new money and could care less about their history. (I was born in and lived for 26 yrs in FW 67y.o. now)

[James Alter]

Post Script to my earlier comment.
Little Turtles' birth village was located not far out of Fort Wayne off of SR205. His son was among those who still lived there at the time of Little Turtles death. Within a month Wm Henry Harrison & his troops visited them with a barrel of whiskey. After they were intoxicated Harrison & crew wiped out the inhabitants and burned the village. There is a small plaque commemorating the site. Today it is a trailer park with a pig farm adjacent to it.

[Dominique King]

Thanks for stopping by, James! We'll definitely have to check things out further next time we get down towards Fort Wayne (we're in metro Detroit). The history is always fascinating to me...more especially so as Indiana is celebrating it's 200th anniversary of statehood. Pig farm? I'll have to look for that site!