Back ليتل تيرتل (زعيم قبيلة) Arabic Малката костенурка Bulgarian Little Turtle Catalan Little Turtle German Michikinikwa Spanish Michikinikwa French Piccola Tartaruga Italian 미시키나카 Korean Little Turtle Polish Little Turtle Portuguese
Little Turtle Mihšihkinaahkwa | |
|---|---|
 Lithograph of Little Turtle, reputedly based upon a lost portrait by Gilbert Stuart that was destroyed when the British burned Washington, D.C., in 1813.[1] | |
| War chief of the Miami people | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1747/1752 Miami territory, Illinois Country (modern Whitley County, Indiana, United States) |
| Died | Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Miami people |
| Battles/wars | La Balme's Defeat[2] Northwest Indian Wars |
Little Turtle (Miami-Illinois: Mihšihkinaahkwa) (c.1747 — July 14, 1812) was a Sagamore (chief) of the Miami people, who became one of the most famous Native American military leaders. Historian Wiley Sword calls him "perhaps the most capable Indian leader then in the Northwest Territory,"[3] although he later signed several treaties ceding land, which caused him to lose his leader status during the battles which became a prelude to the War of 1812. In the 1790s, Mihšihkinaahkwa led a confederation of native warriors to several major victories against U.S. forces in the Northwest Indian Wars, sometimes called "Little Turtle's War", particularly St. Clair's defeat in 1791, wherein the confederation defeated General Arthur St. Clair, who lost 900 men in the most decisive loss by the U.S. Army against Native American forces.
- ^ Harvey Lewis Carter (1987). The Life and Times of Little Turtle: First Sagamore of the Wabash. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. pp. 62–63. ISBN 978-0-252-01318-8.
- ^ Rafert, The Miami Indians of Indiana, p. 44.
- ^ Wiley Sword (1985). President Washington's Indian War: The Struggle for the Old Northwest, 1790–1795. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-8061-2488-9.