Plaque # 1 The Shawnee Indians were driven from
the southern United States in the late 17th
and early 18th centuries by white settlers
and Catawba, Cherokee and Chickasaw
Nations. the Shawnee were given permission
by the Miamis and Wyandots to settle in Ohio
and following the French and Indian War, the
Miamis largely withdrew from Ohio leaving
the Shawnees as the dominant Indian power
in the region. In 1782 the Shawnees occupied
Wapakoneta after being driven from Piqua by
General George Rogers Clark in retaliation
for Shawnee raids on Ohio River traffic and
frontier settlements in Kentucky.
Plaque #2
The Treaty of Greenville in 1795
reserved most of the Old Northwest Territory
for the Indians. Many Indians were convinced
however, that in spite of Treaty promises to
the contrary, all Indian lands would eventually
be occupied by the white man. To forestall such
a development, the legendary Tecumseh launched
a campaign to unite all Indians in a single
confederacy dedicated to driving the whites
back beyond the Alleghenies. In defiance
of Black Hoof and other Shawnee chiefs at
Wapakoneta, who counseled peace, Tecumseh
traveled from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico
urging all Indian Nations to join him in a war
to expel the white man from lands west
of the mountains.
Plaque #3 Tecumseh enjoyed little success in forming
a confederacy and his defiance of the
chiefs led to his expulsion from Wapakoneta
in the early 1800's. This, as a result of
internal dissension. The Shawnee divided
during the War of 1812 with Tecumseh and
his followers supporting Britain while the
majority of the Shawnees under Black Hoof
either remained neutral or actively
supported the United States.
Following the war with Britain, the Treaty
of Spring Wells (1815) guaranteed all pre-war
boundaries between Indian and white man. In
treaties at the Maumee Rapids (1817) and St.
Marys (1818) The Spring Wells pact was
repudiated by the Americans, however, and the
Shawnees were forced onto reservations at
Hog Creek, Lewistown, and Wapakoneta in an
effort to more easily influence them into
adopting the ways of white civilization.
Plaque #4 During the 1820's public opinion
concluded that "civilization" of the eastern
Indians had not been successful and this
opinion resulted in enactment of the Indian
Removal Act of 1830. The Act authorized the
President to exchange public land west of the
Mississippi for all remaining land in
the eastern United States and to remove the
eastern Indians to the west at government
expense.
Consequently, treaties were concluded
with the Shawnee in 1831 providing for
cession of their Ohio reservations and Shawnee
removal to Kansas. The Lewistown and Wapakoneta
Shawnees migrated westward in 1832 thus bringing
to a close the Shawnee era in Ohio.
Plaque #5 Among the many prominent Shawnees who
lived at Wapakoneta were the following,
Tecumseh, the most famous of all Shawnees
this skilled orator, statesman and strategist
organized and led the last great Indian
resistance to the Americans in the old
northwest. Commissioned a Brigadier General
in the British army, he was killed while
leading his warriors against the Americans
at the Battle of the Thames in 1813.
Weh-Yah-Pih-Ehr-Sehn-Wah, or Blue Jacket,
a white captive who became a war chief of
the Shawnees and who, with Little Turtle
of the Miamis, led the Indians in the
annihilation of General Arthur St. Clair's
army in 1791. St. Clair's Defeat is remembered
as the worst ever suffered by the U.S. Army
in campaigning against American Indians.
Plaque #6 Catahecassa, or Black Hoof, was an
unrelenting foe of the white man for
most of his life. he made peace with the
Americans at the Treaty of Green Ville in
1975 and thereafter, until his death in
1831, was a firm advocate of peaceful
coexistence with the white man.
Spamagelabe, or Captain James Logan,
was raised and educated by the white man.
He returned to his tribe in Wapakoneta and
became a powerful chief. He lost his life
while serving with the U.S.Army during the
War of 1812. To honor this gallant Indian
ally, a section of land, today known as
Logan Township, was given to his children.
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