What happened to the Indians of the Old Northwest Territory? Conflicting portraits emerge and answers often depend on who s telling the story, with each participant bending and stretching the truth to fit their own view of themselves and the world. Bones on the Ground, written by Elizabeth O Maley, presents biographical sketches and first-person narratives of Native Americans, Indian traders, Colonial and American leaders, and events that shaped the Indians struggle to maintain possession of their tribal lands in the face of the widespread advancement of white settlement.
The book covers events and people in the Old Northwest Territory from before the American Revolution through the removal of the Miami from Indiana in 1846, including the Gnadenhutten Massacre, Little Turtle, William Wells, Fallen Timbers, the Treaty of Greenville, Tecumseh, the Battle of Tippecanoe, William Conner, Frances Slocum, the Potawatomi Trail of Death, and Jean Baptiste Richardville, among others. As America s Indian policy was formed, and often enforced by the U.S. military, and white settlers pushed farther west, some Indians fought the white intruders, while others adopted their ways. In the end, most Indians were unable to hold their ground and the evidence their presence now lingers only in found relics and strange-sounding place names.