Native Name
Weyapiersenwah or Wehyehpiherhsehnwah
White Name
Blue Jacket
Nation
Shawnee
Blue Jacket was born in the 1840s. There is some controversy about whether Blue Jacket was Euro-American or Native American.
Immediately after the Revolutionary War settlers started streaming into Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio. More than 45,000 people moved into Ohio in the next 20 years. A coalition of Native people attempted to maintain their hunting grounds and raided settlements taking the lives of as many as 1,500 settlers. The new American government was upset about these losses. Washington sent Gen. Josiah Harmer to present-day Cincinnati with 1,500 troops. He was soundly defeated by Little Turtle, chief of the Western Alliance. This period of time and series of skirmishes became known as Little Turtle’s War. Washington sent “Mad Anthony” Wayne to do take care of the "Indian problem."
The Western Alliance suffered its first defeat under Mad Anthony. Little Turtle believed that there were so many American troops now living in Ohio that further resistance was futile. Blue Jacket was handed leadership of the coalition of about 1,500 warriors. In the area west of Lake Erie, the Natives prepared for battle by performing the rites of fasting and prayer. Wayne intentionally waited to attack until the Indians were “half-starved” and many had gone in search of food. The warriors fell back to Fort Miami hoping that their British allies would help, but the help never came. They locked the door to the Fort and many hundreds of Natives died. “So ended the Battle of Fallen Timbers, the last major clash of what history remembers as Little Turtle’s War.” (Through Indian Eyes New York: The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. 1995 p. 178)
The following summer, 1,130 chiefs and warriors gathered at Fort Greenville, Ohio. The Greenville Treaty was signed opening Ohio to white settlement. He died about 1810, possibly near Detroit, Michigan.
Resources
Blue Jacket
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=43
Weyapiersenwah or Wehyehpiherhsehnwah
White Name
Blue Jacket
Nation
Shawnee
Blue Jacket was born in the 1840s. There is some controversy about whether Blue Jacket was Euro-American or Native American.
Immediately after the Revolutionary War settlers started streaming into Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio. More than 45,000 people moved into Ohio in the next 20 years. A coalition of Native people attempted to maintain their hunting grounds and raided settlements taking the lives of as many as 1,500 settlers. The new American government was upset about these losses. Washington sent Gen. Josiah Harmer to present-day Cincinnati with 1,500 troops. He was soundly defeated by Little Turtle, chief of the Western Alliance. This period of time and series of skirmishes became known as Little Turtle’s War. Washington sent “Mad Anthony” Wayne to do take care of the "Indian problem."
The Western Alliance suffered its first defeat under Mad Anthony. Little Turtle believed that there were so many American troops now living in Ohio that further resistance was futile. Blue Jacket was handed leadership of the coalition of about 1,500 warriors. In the area west of Lake Erie, the Natives prepared for battle by performing the rites of fasting and prayer. Wayne intentionally waited to attack until the Indians were “half-starved” and many had gone in search of food. The warriors fell back to Fort Miami hoping that their British allies would help, but the help never came. They locked the door to the Fort and many hundreds of Natives died. “So ended the Battle of Fallen Timbers, the last major clash of what history remembers as Little Turtle’s War.” (Through Indian Eyes New York: The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. 1995 p. 178)
The following summer, 1,130 chiefs and warriors gathered at Fort Greenville, Ohio. The Greenville Treaty was signed opening Ohio to white settlement. He died about 1810, possibly near Detroit, Michigan.
Resources
Blue Jacket
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=43