Miami War Chief. Born to a Miami chieftain and a Mahican mother in what is present day Indiana, he was given the name Me-she-kin-o-quah. During the American Revolution, frontier fighting brought Little Turtle in conflict with the American ally Augustin Mottin de La Balme who had destroyed Miami villages at Kekionga (present day Ft. Wayne) in November of 1780. At that time, Little Turtle rose to war chief of the Miamis. After the British defeat, the tribes of the old northwest found themselves in a boarder war with the Americans who were attempting to expand into their territory having co-opted it as veteran grant land. In October of 1790 General Josiah Harmar moved against Little Turtle who in turn led an ambush of Harmar's forces, killing almost 200. A second expeditionary group under General Arthur St. Clair was sent to eradicate Little Turtle's power base at Kekionga. Little Turtle led his Confederacy of about 1000 Miami, Delaware, and Shawnee warriors in a devastating defeat of the American army. About 630 soldiers, as well as about half that number of civilian camp followers, were killed in the worst defeat ever suffered by an American army at the hands of Indian forces. A far more thorough expedition under General Anthony Wayne was launched against Little Turtle's Confederacy in 1794. Convinced of the superiority of Wayne's forces, Little Turtle negotiated a peace with the Americans, and tried to convince his allies of their untenable position. Unable to do so, he left leadership to Blue Jacket of the Shawnees, who was then defeated by Wayne at Fallen Timbers. In 1795 Little Turtle represented eleven tribes at the treaty negotiations at Greenville. After he made his mark on the treaty he never went to war again. Little Turtle signed four more treaties in 1803, 1804, 1805, and 1809 that proved to be disadvantageous for the Miamis and lost him a great deal of respect within the tribe. In 1809 he lost his status won as war chief, and Miami leadership fell to others. He was given a government stipend and retired to his village, where within three years, he reportedly died from gout.