Appendix H - Historical Archaeological and ... - CBP.gov

Disagreements over this area erupted into violence as both Great Britain and France claimed the
lands in the Ohio Country. While French efforts were focused on areas along Lake Erie, the
British infiltrated the area from the south during the 1740s by building a trading post on the
Great Miami and forming the Ohio Company to develop the Indian trade. By the 1750s, British
trading posts began to emerge among several Indian nations in the Ohio valley, notably at Logs
Town, a Seneca village west of Fort Duquesne, along the Miami River, near what is now Piqua,
Ohio, and within a settlement of Miami Indians known as Pickawillanees (Howe, 1852; Hurt,
1995; OHC, 2010; OHO, 2010; Hunter, 1978:590). During this period, George Washington
represented Virginia’s interests in expanding into this area, and his efforts to survey the area
sparked the French and Indian War.
The rivalry between the British and the French reached crescendo in 1754, when the two
countries went to war. British losses early in the conflict allowed the Indians to reclaim some of
their territory in the Ohio Country. Late in the war, however, Britain’s fortunes reversed and the
French were driven from the area. Skirmishing between Native Americans and the English
continued throughout the remainder of the French and Indian War and extended into the early
post-war period as British forces in the frontier confronted Indian attempts to drive them back
over the mountains. Great Britain issued the Proclamation of 1763 in an attempt to slow
immigration over the Alleghenies as an olive branch to the native nations. However, Pontiac
marshaled the disparate tribes into a loose, short-lived confederation to attack British positions,
and achieved some success in the Ohio Country (1763-1765) (Hunter, 1978).
Frontier
The Ohio Country was an active war zone during the American Revolution, and during the postwar
period. Various Ohio Indian nations allied themselves with the British during the American
Revolution, and participated in raids on American settlements in western Virginia and
Pennsylvania. From 1777 to 1794, numerous battles and strikes were fought by American and
Indian forces in the Ohio Country. Sometimes the Americans claimed the field and sometimes
the Indians did. Treaties at Fort Stanwix (1784) and Fort McIntosh (1785) marked the end of
formal occupation of the Ohio Country by Native Americans. These treaties were reaffirmed by
the Treaty of Fort Harmar (1789). With Indian title largely extinguished, large was parceled off
in large tracts to speculators and land companies in the 1780s and 1790s. Despite these
agreements, Native nations remained in the area and tensions between settlers and Indians
escalated. American and Indian raids and reprisals plagued the Ohio Country for the next 20
years (Howe, 1852; Hurt, 1995; Mahon, 1988; Horsman, 1988).
After the Revolution, eastern states with claims on unappropriated western lands ceded those
claims to the Federal Government, except Connecticut (Western Reserve) and Virginia (Military
Tract). This resulted in the designation of these unappropriated areas as the Northwest Territory,
where the U.S. Congress implemented a mechanism for the creation of new states from the area
and appointed General Arthur St. Clair as territorial governor in 1787. Land companies were
formed to serve as land agents to populate the area in the late 1780s. Settlement schemes were
implemented by New England Company, the Scioto Land Company, the Miami Company, the
Connecticut Land Company John Cleves Symmes, and Congress’s French Grant (Howe, 1852;
Hurt, 1995; Horsman, 1988:31; OHC, 2010; OHO, 2010). Settlers came from various points
east, especially Connecticut, establishing farms along the rivers and creating a developed and
Northern Border Activities H-93 July 2012