WAYNE'S SCOUTS.

937

CHAPTER XXXI.

WAYNE'S SCOUTS.

HE treaty with the Iroquois, or Six Nations, at Fort Stanwix (October 22, 1784), by which these Indian tribes ceded to the United States all their claims to the lands west of Pennsylvania, opened up the question of settling these lands by the sturdy pioneers. But as other Indian tribes claimed the right of domain, a conference was held the next year at Fort Mcintosh, near the mouth of Big Beaver River, with the Chip-pewas, Delawares, Ottawas, and Wyandots, and a treaty concluded for the purchase of their claims. These treaties created a great commotion among certain Western Indians, who claimed that neither the Six Nations nor the tribes here mentioned had a right to cede to the United States the land in question. Accordingly, a large Indian council, composed of chiefs and delegations of the different Western tribes, was held in the month of August, 1785 at Ouatenon, oh the Wabash. At this council it was reported that several Indians were killed at the hands of the whites whereupon they demanded the removal even of their old friends, the French inhabitants of Post Vincennes, declaring that the Indians were determined to make war on the American settlers, and that the French remaining would have to share their fate.

In view of these proceedings, in the autumn of 1785, Major Doughty was ordered to the mouth of the Muskingum, where he erected Fort Harmar.   Enraged at this inroad made upon