Group - Little Turtle

Little Turtle or Mishikinakwa (c. 1747 – July 14, 1812) was a chief of the Miami tribe in what is presently Indiana, and one of the most successful Native American military leaders of his era. He led his followers in several victories over the United States in the 1790s, but was an advocate for peace with the U.S. in the years leading up to the War of 1812. Because there is very little documentary evidence for most of Little Turtle's life, the exact year and place of his birth are uncertain. He was born just before or just after the period that his parents lived in the Miami village of Pickawillany, which was from 1747 to 1752. Some historians give 1752 as his probable date of birth; others prefer 1747. He was born in what is now Whitley County, Indiana, at either a small Miami village by Devil's Lake, or at a larger nearby village known as Turtletown. Little Turtle was named after his father, a Miami war chief named Mishikinakwa (or "Turtle"), a signer of the 1748 Treaty of Lancaster, which established relations between the Miami and colonial Pennsylvania. The son was often called "Little Turtle" to distinguish him from the elder Turtle. Little Turtle's father's name is sometimes given as "Acquenacque", a variant rendering of "Mishikinakwa". Little Turtle's mother's name is lost to history; tradition says she was a Mohican.