The Northwest and Indiana Territories

Research from Indiana Historical Society, Wikipedia, America250, Encyclopedia Britannica, Indianahistory.org, and in.gov. This is “history lite.” For every paragraph, every headline, every photo, a wealth of information exists that brings this major historical era to life. Please take the time to do your own research.

Note: This writer will use the popular shorthand “America” and “American” often when referring to the United States of America. The shorthand is in no way intended to ignore the two continents that make up the Americas.

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We continue our celebration of the Semiquincentennial with a brief history of the Northwest Territory, the Indiana Territory, and the carving out of the State of Indiana from that vast body of land.

Before There Was A Northwest Territory …

Most of what would become the original 13 colonies and what would later become the Northwest Territory was populated by Native Americans characterized by the Northeast Culture Area.

This Culture Area included a variety of native peoples, including the Algonquin, Iroquois, and Siouan nations.

Algonquian Family

Of the language families represented in the Northeast, Algonquian groups were the most widely distributed. Their territories comprised almost the entire region. The major speakers of Algonquian languages include hundreds of tribes; these would be familiar to persons in Pulaski County.

Anishinaabe
- Chippewa or Ojibwe
- Ottawa or Odawa
- Potawatomi
Miami
Shawnee

Most Northeastern peoples engaged in agriculture, and for them the village of a few dozen to a few hundred persons was the most important social and economic unit in daily life. Groups that had access to reliably plentiful wild foods generally preferred to live in dispersed hamlets of extended families.

Several villages or hamlets formed a tribe, and groups of tribes sometimes organized into powerful confederacies. These alliances were often very complex political organizations and generally took their name from the most powerful member tribe.
Cultivated corn (maize), beans, and squash (commonly known as the three sisters) formed the economic base for farming groups.
All Northeastern peoples hunted animals for food, including deer, elk, moose, waterfowl, turkeys, and fish.
Houses were wickiups (wigwams) or longhouses. Both house types were constructed of a sapling framework that was covered with rush matting or sheets of bark.
Other common aspects of culture included dugouts made of the trunks of whole trees, birchbark canoes, clothing made of pelts and deerskins, and a variety of medicine societies.

Claim to the Land

The Algonquian language family represents one of the largest and most widespread Indigenous language groups in North America. Its history and timelines are generally categorized in two ways:

Ancestral presence: The ancestors of Algonquian speakers initially arrived in North America from Asia during the last Ice Age – between 15,000 and 20,000 years ago – via coastal routes or the Bering Land Bridge.
Linguistic development: Studies indicate that Algonquian languages have been developing in place for approximately 2,500 to 6,000 years. Archaeologists estimate that specific Algonquian culture emerged around the Great Lakes and Ottawa Valley roughly 2,000 to 8,000 years ago.

By the time European explorers and settlers arrived in the 16th and 17th centuries, Algonquian tribes and bands occupied a massive geographic footprint. They stretched from the subarctic regions of Canada down to the Atlantic Coast and as far west as the Great Plains.

In the end, that didn’t matter much.

Formation of the Northwest Territory

Under the Proclamation of 1763, the British government designated this region as an Indigenous reserve and strictly forbade American colonists from settling there to prevent conflict with Native American tribes. Before and during this era, the region transitioned through several hands and claims:

The French established early outposts and fur-trading centers in the area, such as Cahokia in 1699 and Detroit in 1701.
Great Britain gained control of the territory following the French and Indian War.
During the Revolutionary War, George Rogers Clark captured British outposts in the “Illinois Country.” He claimed the vast expanse of land on behalf of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

After the Revolutionary War, the Confederation Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. This landmark legislation was created to organize the ceded lands west of the Appalachians into a formalized American territory.

The Northwest Ordinance

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 predated the passage of the Constitution of the United States. The Ordinance significantly changed the development of the young nation. Following are the most significant points.

New states developed from the Northwest Territory would share a coequal status with the original 13 states.
The process by which territories could become states was established.
The Ordinance established a government structure, with initial officials appointed by Congress.
Once a territory had 5,000 male settlers, a state legislature could be formed.
Once a territory had 60,000 male settlers, the territory could apply for statehood.
The Northwest Ordinance was the first and only anti-slavery policy established before the Civil War.
Territory settlers were guaranteed freedom of religion, the right to a jury trial, due process of the law, safety from cruel or unusual punishment, the right to government detention only if legally justified (habeas corpus), compensation for government use of private land for public use (eminent domain), and the right to make private contracts.
The Ordinance established a township system.
The Ordinance required that public schools exist in each township.

While the Northwest Ordinance was critical for the expansion of the young nation, Native Americans were exempted from any protections.

Carving The Indiana Territory from The Northwest Territory

Indiana, meaning “Land of the Indians,” references the fact that most of the area north of the Ohio River was still inhabited by Native Americans. Formal use of the word dates from 1768, when the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy reserved about 5,000 acres of land in the present-day state of West Virginia.

The land was deeded to a trading company that engaged in trade with the native tribes in the Ohio River valley. The company named their land claim Indiana, in honor of its previous owners.

In 1776 the land claim was transferred to the Indiana Land Company and offered for sale. The government of Virginia disputed the claim, arguing that it was the rightful owner because the land fell within its boundaries.

The United States Supreme Court took up the case and extinguished the company’s right to the land in 1798. Two years later (1780), Congress applied the Indiana Land Company’s name to the new territory.

Northwest Indian War

Passage of the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 committed the U.S. government to continued plans for western expansion. Increasing tensions with the Native Americans who occupied the western lands erupted into the Northwest Indian War.

During the autumn of 1790, American forces were unsuccessful in their battles with the Miami near present-day Fort Wayne. In the meantime, other American forces participated in an expedition from Fort Knox to Native villages on the Wabash, Vermilion, and Eel Rivers. American forces lacked sufficient provisions to continue, forcing a return to Vincennes.

In 1791, the governor of the Northwest Territory, Arthur St. Clair, led a campaign to establish a chain of forts and enforce peace in the area. In the early morning of November 3, 1791, nearly 1,000 Native Americans under the leadership of Chief Little Turtle launched a surprise attack on the American camp near the Miami town of Kekionga. This cost the Americans nearly nine hundred casualties and forced the militia’s retreat. St. Clair’s defeat remains the U.S. Army’s worst defeat by Native Americans in history.

In August 1794, General “Mad Anthony” Wayne organized the Legion of the United States and defeated a Native American force at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. The battle was a turning point for the Americans, who took control of the area near the strategically important Maumee–Wabash portage, as well as Fort Miami at Kekionga (rebuilt as Fort Wayne). In addition, several other forts were built in the territory to maintain American control.

The Treaty of Greenville (1795) ended the Northwest Indian War and marked the beginning of a series of land cession treaties. Under the terms of this treaty, native tribes ceded southeastern Indiana and two-thirds of present-day Ohio to the U.S. government.

As a result of the treaty, the Miami tribes considered themselves allies with the United States, and thousands of acres of newly ceded western lands attracted an increasing number of new settlers to what would become the Indiana Territory.

The First New Territory

The Indiana Territory was the first new territory created from the lands of the Northwest Territory. It was created by President John Adams on May 7, 1800. It was subdivided to create the Michigan Territory (1805) and the Illinois Territory (1809).

William Henry Harrison, the Indiana Territory’s first governor, managed treaty negotiations with Native Americans with an extremely heavy hand. In 1809, the U.S. Congress established a legislative body for the territory, including an elected House of Representatives and an appointed Legislative Council.

The territorial government focused on plans for a basic transportation network and an education system, but efforts to attain statehood were delayed due to war.

Tecumseh’s War

Tecumseh’s War was a conflict between the United States and a Native American confederacy led by the Shawnee leader Tecumseh and his brother, the spiritual leader Tenskwatawa. Fought primarily in the Indiana Territory from 1811 to 1813, it was the final Native American effort to halt American expansion into the Great Lakes region.

Natives were furious over a series of unfair treaties that ceded millions of acres of tribal land to the U.S. Tecumseh sought to unify various tribes to defend their ancestral homelands, establish an independent Native American state, and reject white cultural influences.

They built a headquarters at a village called Prophetstown in present day Tippecanoe County.

At the outbreak of Tecumseh’s War, the Indiana Territory was the front line of battle. While Tecumseh was away recruiting other tribes in the South, U.S. forces led by Indiana Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison attacked Prophetstown in the Battle of Tippecanoe (1811). Tenskwatawa’s forces were defeated, shattering the confederacy’s momentum.

Tecumseh allied his surviving forces with Great Britain, seeing the broader war to come as an opportunity to secure an independent Native nation under British protection.

Tecumseh’s War ended when Tecumseh was killed in Canada fighting Harrison’s army (1813). Following his death, his confederacy disintegrated.

The Battle of Tippecanoe Led to the War of 1812

When U.S. forces discovered that the Native American warriors they fought were armed with British muskets, they accused the British in Canada of inciting Native unrest. U.S. newspapers widely reported that Native Americans were using British-supplied firearms, stoking anti-British sentiment across the frontier. Ultimately, President James Madison asked Congress for a formal declaration of war in June 1812.

We will discuss the War of 1812 next month. For now, we’re pushing forward.

The Wars End; The Push For Statehood Resumes

The formation of the State of Indiana was dependent not only on a legitimate government. It was also dependent on obtaining Native America lands.

Removing the Natives

For a history of the treaties that created Indiana from the wilderness, see our webpage: https://pulaskihistory.net/historical-museum/pulaski-countys-native-american-history/indiana-takes-shape/. Each treaty made was broken by the U.S. government.

Political Issues

As well as gaining control over native lands, other issues stood as impediments to becoming a state.

Governor Harrison’s cruel and underhanded way of dealing with Native Americans caused many settlers to distrust and openly oppose him.

To form a government that would be acceptable to the U.S. Congress, decision making had to shift from the near-authoritarian rule of Governor Harrison to elected officials. Elections were held to send delegates to the legislative branch of territorial government and to elect a delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. Both supporters and opponents to Governor Harrison were elected.

The opposition to Governor Harrison was evident in the battle over another major issue: slavery.

Slavery

In December 1802, territorial delegates passed a resolution in favor of a ten-year suspension of Article Six of the Northwest Ordinance, which prohibited slavery in the original Northwest Territory. Delegates also petitioned Congress for the suspension in order to make the region more appealing to slave-holding settlers and ultimately make the territory economically viable by increasing its population.

In addition, the petition requested that slaves and their children brought into the territory during the suspension period should remain slaves even after the suspension ended. Benjamin Parke, a pro-slavery supporter, carried the petition to Washington, D.C. The Congress failed to take action, leaving Harrison and the territorial judges to pursue other options.

In 1803 Harrison and the general court judges passed legislation that evaded the Ordinance of 1787 in order to permit slavery in the Indiana Territory. This was done through the use of indentured servitude laws. The laws would allow settlers to bring into the territory adult slaves owned or purchased outside the territory. Slaves would be bound into service for fixed terms set by the slave owner.

The territory was granted representation in Congress in 1805. Benjamin Parke was elected. Parke was able to convince Congress to pass legislation to suspend Article Six for ten years, granting the territories covered under the ordinance the ability to legalize slavery in their territories.

The attempts by Harrison and his political allies to allow slavery in the Indiana Territory caused significant opposition from the Quakers who had settled in the eastern part of the territory. They responded by forming an anti-slavery party. Davis Floyd of Clark County was the only anti-slavery representative elected to the territory’s House of Representatives in the 1805 election, but Harrison’s measures to legalize slavery in the territory were blocked by the two representatives from St. Clair County. They refused to authorize slavery unless Harrison supported their request for a separate territory, which Harrison opposed.

In 1809, five years after Congress established the Michigan Territory, St. Clair County settlers successfully petitioned Congress for the formation of a separate territory. Despite Harrison’s disapproval, Congress approved the formation of the Illinois Territory from the western portion of the Indiana Territory, in addition to granting the inhabitants of the Indiana Territory the right to elect a delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives and members of the territory’s Legislative Council.

Harrison, whose political power was reduced by these changes, found himself at odds with the territorial legislature when the anti-slavery party came to power after the 1809 elections. Voters promptly rebuffed many of his plans for slavery. In 1810, the territorial legislature repealed the indenturing laws that Harrison and the judicial court had enacted in 1803.

Note: Harrison was elected the ninth President of the United States in 1941. He died 31 days into his term, making him the shortest serving president and the first president to die in office.

Indiana Becomes a State

Critical dates:

December 11, 1815: The Indiana Territorial Assembly sent a formal petition to Congress requesting statehood.
April 19, 1816: President Madison signed the act allowing Indiana to draft a constitution.
June 1816: 43 elected delegates met in Corydon – the state’s first capital – to write the state constitution. The new constitution banned slavery.
November 1816: After elections were held, Jonathan Jennings was inaugurated as the first Governor, paving the way for the final federal admission.
December 11, 1816: President James Madison signed the congressional resolution admitting Indiana to the Union, making Indiana the 19^th state to join the United States.

Next Month

We’ll dive into the War of 1812, which, as you recall, began shortly after – and in fact because of – the Battle of Tippecanoe.