Fort Ouiatenon

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The historical marker at Fort Ouiatenon.
The historical marker at Fort Ouiatenon.

Fort Ouiatenon was the first fortified European settlement in what is now called Indiana.[1] It was a French trading post at the joining of the Tippecanoe River and the Wabash River located approximately three miles southwest of modern-day West Lafayette.[2] The name 'Ouiatenon' is a French rendering of the name in the Wea language, waayaahtanonki, meaning 'place of the whirlpool'.

Contents

[edit] French period

Fort Ouiatenon was originally constructed by the French government as a military outpost to protect against Great Britain’s western expansion. Its location among the unsettled woodlands of the Wabash River valley also made it a key center of trade for fur trappers. French merchants and trappers from Quebec would arrive at Fort Ouiatenon in search of beaver pelts and to take advantage of trade relations with the native Wea Indian tribes.

In 1717, Ensign François Picote de Beletre (related to another Picoté de Bélestre, see Adam Dollard des Ormeaux) arrived at the mouth of the Tippecanoe and Wabash with four soldiers, three men a blacksmith and supplies to trade with the nearby Wea people, an Algonquian-speaking nation closely related to the Miami people. They built a stockade on the Wabash, eighteen miles below the mouth of the Tippecanoe. François-Marie Bissot, the Sieur de Vincennes assumed command of the fort sometime in the 1720s. The French settled on the north bank, with Wea villages on the south bank.[3]

In order to convince the Wea to trade exclusively with the French, the Governor-General of New France, Philippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil, issued permits for trade at Ouiatenon. Traders immediately began to bring a steady flow of goods to the new town.[4] Soon the officials in Louisiana sent more men to help Vincennes to hold the Wabash River.[5] At its peak level of activity during the mid-18th century Fort Ouiatenon was home to over 2,000 residents.[citation needed]

[edit] British period

After the surrender of New France to the British in September of 1760, Robert Rogers dispatched troops to occupy Ouiatenon. a contingent of British soldiers led by Lieutenant Edward Jenkins arrived in 1761, capturing and occupying the fort.[6]

On June 1, 1763, during Pontiac's War, the Wea, Kickapoo and Mascouten peoples captured Ouiatenon.[7] They surprised Lieutenant Jenkins and his men and captured Fort Ouiatenon without firing a shot. Seven similar posts were also captured in the widespread Indian uprising against the British presence.

The British made little use of Fort Ouiatenon after the French and Indian War; it was never garrisoned. In the mid-1770's, the fort was described 70 yards from the Wabash river.

The Ouattanon nation of Indians is on the opposite side, & the Kiccaposses are round the Fort, in both villages about 1000 men able to bear arms.[8]

As late as 1778, Ouiatenon was a staging ground for war parties fighting on behalf of the British government. [9]


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.[10] A British company arrived and hoisted "St. George's Ensign" in the fort by December of the same year[11]. 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.

[edit] Twentieth century

The replica blockhouse.
The replica blockhouse.

In 1930, a "replica" of Fort Ouiatenon was built by a local physician named Richard Wetherill. The Daughters of the American Revolution had placed a small commemorative marker near this spot in 1909. Dr. Wetherill's blockhouse was actually patterned after those more typical of British fortifications (using horizontal logs) and does not match the style or type of construction of the original Fort Ouiatenon (with vertical logs). The "replica" blockhouse is now the focal point of a county park. The true site of Fort Ouiatenon, one mile from the replica's site, was discovered and confirmed archaeologically in the late 1960s. In 1970 the site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Today, the blockhouse is open to tourists and is the location of the annual Feast of the Hunters’ Moon. Many rare artifacts from the original Fort Ouiatenon are displayed by the Tippecanoe County Historical Association during the Feast.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "Fort Ouiatenon History," Tippecanoe County Historical Association
  2. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica Online s. v. "West Lafayette," http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9076617?query=Wabash&ct= (Accessed May 17, 2006).
  3. ^ Cayton, Andrew R. L. Frontier Indiana (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1996), 5, 7.
  4. ^ Cayton, 5.
  5. ^ Cayton, 18
  6. ^ Cayton, 27.
  7. ^ Cayton, 28.
  8. ^ The Road from Detroit to the Illinois Dunn, Jacob Piatt, ed., Documents relating to the French Settlements on the Wabash. Indiana Historical Society Publications. 1894. V2, pp. 403-442. Available online at the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology website.
  9. ^ Hamilton to Carleton, 25 April 1778. in Haldimand Papers and in Michigan History Collections V9 p. 434. Available online at the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology website.
  10. ^ *English, William Hayden. Conquest of the Country Northwest of the River Ohio 1778-1783 and Life of Gen. George Rogers Clark Vol I. ©1896. The Bowen-Merrill Company. Indianapolis, Ind., and Kansas City, Mo. pg 204
  11. ^ Lt-Gov. Henry Hamilton's journal describes their arrival, and is available online

[edit] External links

*Wea Indian Tribe (WIT)*

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