Fort Ouiatenon - American Period

American Period

Captain Leonard Helm and Lt. Bailey arrived in 1778 to secure the fort for the rebelling Americans. A British Indian agent named Celeron controlled the fort and tried to evacuate, but was captured with a force of 40 men. A British company arrived and hoisted "St. George's Ensign" in the fort by December of the same year. Shortly after the Americans captured Vincennes in 1779, Captain I. Shelby arrived in Ouiatenon and received promises of cooperation from the Wea.

During the 1780s, however, local Indian tribes used it as a base of operations to stage raids against American settlers pushing westward. Consequently President George Washington ordered the fort to be destroyed in 1791. Northwest Territory Governor Arthur St. Clair ordered General Charles Scott to attack villages along the Wabash River, with Ouiatenon as the primary target. Scott crossed the Ohio River in May 1791 and marched to the Ouiatenon area with 750 Kentucky militia. While Colonel John Hardin led a force to the Big Pine Creek to destroy a large Kickapoo village, Scott led the main force to Ouiatenon. The American Indians who were present evacuated, and Colonel James Wilkinson led a battalion of mounted militia down to the river to fire on escaping Indians. Ouiatenon was then burned to the ground, and the militia destroyed several over nearby villages, including the large village of Keth-tio-e-ca-muck near the mouth of the Tippecanoe River.

Besides the villages and crops that were destroyed, 38 Native Americans had been killed, and another 58 were taken prisoner, mostly women and children. The Kentucky militia had no men killed, and only five wounded. The militia returned victorious to Kentucky, but the destruction enraged the Indians, who increased their attacks on the white settlers. Furthermore, since the attack came relatively early in the growing season, the tribes were able to recover some of their lost crops. When Colonel Wilkinson led another expedition into Indiana in Autumn of the same year, he returned along the Wabash and destroyed some of the same villages.