The Treaty of Grouseland, 1805
The Miami Chief Little Turtle was the Miami representative for the treaty negotiations. This image is actually a lithograph, an ink print copy, of the original portrait by Gilbert Stewart. The original was burned during the British attack on Washington D.C. in 1814. Source: Courtesy of Wikimedia commons Creator: Robfergusonjr
The Treaty of Grouseland, signed in 1805, was between the U.S. government and the Miami nation. The treaty sold lands in southern and northeastern Indiana, as well as northwestern Ohio. The U.S. side was led by Indiana Territorial Governor (and later the 9th President) William Henry Harrison while the Miami representative was Chief Little Turtle, an experienced leader and veteran of the Northwest Indian War. This war was fought against U.S. colonizers ignoring previously established borders and taking Native lands for themselves. These colonizers were trespassers on Miami lands straining natural resources and disrupting Miami hunting and gathering. American colonizers did not see any issue with this. There were no villages on the land they were using.
To an American in the 1800s, and to us today, owning land means having a legal right to it. This often takes the form of a physical deed proclaiming ownership of it. You can then build on this, farm it, use it for businesses, or even sell it to someone else. Native peoples saw land as a shared resource, something belonging to and used by the community rather than individuals. Crops planted would be tended by and used for the whole of the village instead of individual planters. Hunting grounds would be shared by all members of a community, or even by different communities belonging to the same nation. Sometimes different nations even made agreements to share such hunting grounds, even those that were openly hostile. Lands used for hunting were left mostly untouched for exactly these reasons. Colonizers would then assume the lands were empty and take them for themselves, unknowingly and often uncaringly trespassing on Native lands and disrupting their way of life.
Images
The Miami Chief Little Turtle was the Miami representative for the treaty negotiations. This image is actually a lithograph, an ink print copy, of the original portrait by Gilbert Stewart. The original was burned during the British attack on Washington D.C. in 1814. Source: Courtesy of Wikimedia commons Creator: Robfergusonjr
Pictured is the historical marker commemorating the Treaty of Grouseland, courtesy of the Indiana Historical Bureau. The marker is located between State Road 7 and Country Road 500 N, south of Scipio in Jennings County. Source: Courtesy of the Indiana Historical Bureau
A portrait of William Henry Harrison, painted during his short presidency in 1841. Harrison , the treaty's chief negotiator from the U.S. side, would use his Native American policies as Indiana's territorial government to help him run for president. Source: Courtesy of Wikimedia commons Creator: ContemporaryHistory Date: March 1841
A photo of William Henry Harrison's Grouseland, also known as the William Henry Harrison Mansion and Museum. This house is the location of the treaty signing, and allegedly got its name from Harrison due to all of the grouse (birds) in the area. Source: Courtesy of Wikimedia commons Creator: Nyttend Date: 2011
Illustrated here is a color coded map of Indiana showing the names of treaties, the associated dates, as well as the lands those treaties were related to. Look in the center middle and top right of the map for the Treaty of Grouseland territories. Source:
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons