All language subtitles for Kevin.Costners.The.West.S01E01.Fallen.Timbers.1080p.NOW.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

What do we see
when we think of the West?

A gunfight between some smalltown
sheriff and a gang of outlaws?

Maybe a cowboy playing his banjo
under the stars,

or a wild herd of buffalo hunted
by a party of Comanche or Lakota?

For me, it's an image...

from a movie I saw
at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood

when I was just seven years old.

A birch bark canoe
skimming across a mirrored lake

guided by a man who knows he's free,

living by his wits,
answering to no one.

Whatever we see, the West
has a power like nowhere else

to fire the imagination
and stir the soul.

But if we choose
to look a little closer,

we can see beyond these images
to another kind of story...

...of people who come to make a home
no matter who's already there...

...of a nation that claims
an entire continent...

no matter what the cost...

and of a land that shows us bounty,

yet all too often gives us blood.

These stories will captivate us,
inspire us and shock us.

And that's why we have to tell them.

Because though the United States
was founded in the East...

the country we know today
was forged in the West.

People live on myths,

and the myths that really stick
in the American experience

are the myths of the West.

The mountains were taller.
The deserts were harsher.

The snows were deeper.

American West conjures wonder,
possibility, opportunity.

The figure of the mountain man.

Notorious outlaws.

The cowboy.

The discovery of gold
in California.

This train of wagons
trailing across the prairie.

Everybody has a reason
for wanting this land.

But most of that land
was already occupied.

We have been residents
for more than 10,000 years.

But this is a clash
of two different ways

of seeing life itself...

fighting for the future
of your homeland on the one side...

...and fighting for the destiny of
the new republic on the other side.

The history of the West
is a creation story.

It's the creation of what
we think of as modern America.

The West is a place
where anything is possible.

It is the essence
of the American dream.

The core of this is
what are we to be as a nation?

The reckoning is coming.

The West is this canvas
on which American dreams

become larger than life.

The final shots
of the Revolutionary War

mark a new era
for Britain's former colonies.

The United States wins
not only independence...

...but a vast tract of new land...

...a place they call the West.

The United States,
of course, when it is founded,

is on the East Coast

and really no farther
than the Appalachian Mountains.

And then in the Treaty of Paris

that settles
the Revolutionary War in 1783,

the British cede all their holdings
from the East Coast

all the way
to the Mississippi River.

The Americans are euphoric

because they've not only
defeated the British,

but the British have ceded
this enormous sweep of land

in the bargain.

Most of that land is not
the United States, in reality.

It was already occupied
by scores of Indian nations

and by millions of Indian people.

The suggestion that this
was somehow a wilderness

or an uninhabited virgin land,

is one of the most enduring
and troubling fallacies

in American history.

There were already relatively
stable trade relationships

between the various
Indigenous Nations with the British,

but settlers didn't
just want to trade and leave.

They wanted to stay.

To live on a piece of land

has been a dream of people
all over the world forever.

These Anglo-Americans
who've been hemmed in

on the Atlantic side
of the Appalachians,

suddenly the war has been won;
this immense territory

is being granted
to the United States,

and there's a deep desire
to go out into this fertile land.

But where so many settlers
see opportunity,

some of the founding fathers
see risk.

Benjamin Franklin calculated
that the American population

was doubling
roughly once per generation.

If this is the case,
and if most of 'em are farmers,

you gotta double the size
of the United States

about every generation.

It was the question for Washington,
"Where are we gonna expand into?"

Washington has two major concerns

with regard to this new land.

The first is about security.

The British
were still on the border.

But the greater risk
is the enthusiasm

of the American settlers themselves.

They see this as free land.
They don't want to pay for it.

There's no playbook
for George Washington.

No one had done this before.

He knows that he is setting
a precedent for the future,

and that's an enormous
pressure on him.

I mean, the country's population
is expanding continually,

and the West is so important.

What he fears is that settlers are
just going to put down their claims

wherever they want, and in
a willy-nilly, anarchic fashion,

trampling on the interests
of Native Peoples who are out there,

and creating conflict
with those Native Peoples.

By the mid 1780s,

armed settlers
have already blazed a trail west

from Virginia into Kentucky,

forcing the Shawnee
and the Delaware off their homeland.

Before they can push any further,

Congress lays down new laws

to govern the land
above the Ohio River,

and gives this region a name:

The Northwest Territory.

The year that the Constitution
was written, 1787,

the Northwest Ordinance
is passed by the Congress

and the Northwest Ordinance
has emphatically

that the Americans have a duty

to show the utmost good faith
to the Indigenous People,

and not to take their lands
without due compensation

and without actual negotiation.

And so, the idea is for
the US to buy lands from the Indians

and then sell it
in very large chunks

to these, essentially...
aristocrats and land speculators.

And the theory is
this is gonna work really easily.

George Washington is thinking
once the Indian tribes see

the superior ways of
white civilisation and agriculture,

they'll immediately take it up.

And so they'll be happy
to just sell those lands to us

and, you know,
become white farmers essentially.

Early American capitalists,
politicians, people of means,

hope to petition the government,

get tens of thousands of acres

in order to sell it
to small-time landholders,

understanding that they
don't yet control that land.

By contrast, many settlers
have a mind of their own.

They want land and they want it now,

and they want it
as cheaply as possible.

In fact, they want it for free.

Despite all
of Washington's plans,

some settlers see this new land
as the spoils of war,

and they're not afraid to take it.

Many of the people
who come out here are squatters.

They're ahead of the law,
they're ahead of legal right.

They're not to be blamed necessarily

because they're fulfilling
their own dream of happiness...

...but they go out
and they find a little clearing

or cut down the trees
to build a farm.

When people saw
the American West as opportunity,

the Indians were
nowhere in that picture,

except as something to overcome.

What we have to keep reminding
ourselves is this was their land.

The Northwest Territory
is already home

to at least 50,000 Native Americans
from more than a dozen tribes...

...including the Delaware,
the Shawnee,

the Wyandot, and the Miami.

So, from the settlement
of the French and Indian War,

all the way through the American
Revolution and into the 1780s,

this region is embroiled
in an ongoing conflict.

Native Peoples
across the Ohio River Valley

are increasingly incensed

that the American settlers
are flooding into their homelands.

For the Indigenous People,
it's an ancestral claim.

For the settlers, it's free land,

the opportunity
to strike out on one's own.

Both are willing to fight
and to die for it.

As the late 1780s
bring an onslaught of settlers,

these Native Nations
will not only make a stand...

...Miami leader, Little Turtle,
will lead them into war.

Once the skirmish starts,
it's going to build

until somebody suffers
enough to stop.

For centuries,
the thousand-mile Ohio River

has been
an artery of trade and transport

connecting Native Peoples
of the Great Lakes region

to the Mississippi and beyond.

But after the Revolutionary War,

it becomes a path to a new
future for Americans seeking land.

Every year, there are boats
upon boats upon boats

filled with family, livestock,
floating down the Ohio River.

On the south is the American side,
Kentucky,

where people expect to squat -
find land, and live there.

By the late 1780s,

the Bluegrass lands of Kentucky
are filling up,

and settlers are pushing north

across the Ohio River
and into Miami territory.

Miami War Chief, Little Turtle,

sees the growing United States
as a dire threat to his people.

When you're
encroached upon by others,

you have no choice
but to try to defend that space.

I think any nation understands that.

And so, at the very core,

this was about defending
our right to be in our homelands.

Miami people have been living

in what would become
the Northwest Territory

for several centuries
before the 1780s.

The nucleus of Miami life

is a string of villages
that are on the Wabash River,

the Upper Maumee,
going up towards modern-day Ohio.

The Miamis are growing vast corn
fields for as far as you can see,

and harvesting actively from
the wetland areas of that region.

There are bison even in some
of the woodland areas at that time.

Like other Native Americans
across the continent,

the Miami used controlled burning
to manage game and enrich the soil.

Their abundant resources
now attract land-hungry settlers

determined to move here,
whether they're welcome or not.

George Washington
is not someone

who wants to wage war
against Native Americans.

He understands that
if you take the continent by force,

that doesn't comport with the ideals
of the American Republic.

"Scum" is a term he uses
to describe these squatters

who are turning
to the federal government saying,

"You need to clear these Natives
off these lands."

Land speculators
and congressmen also demand action.

Washington hands the problem
off to General Arthur St Clair.

Arthur St Clair is the
governor of the Northwest Territory.

He's a military leader.

He's also a speculator, a perfect
symbol of this conflict of interest.

He stands to gain by conquering
Native American territory.

The US has this idea that
it's going to protect its settlers

over the mountains.

But there's no army to send.

Once the revolution is over,
the continental army

essentially disbands

and defence
is gonna be left to state militias.

There's 300 or so soldiers
in the US Army.

Now, they have to have control
over a territory

stretching from the Great Lakes
down to the Gulf of Mexico.

That's not gonna work.

So, they cobble together
these various militias

without a whole lot
of formal training

and send them over the mountains.

And trouble begins.

In the fall of 1790,

St Clair orders an attack
on the Miami capital of Kekionga,

hoping to quell the raids

and force the Miami into a treaty
that gives up their land.

Little Turtle and allies
from the Shawnee and Delaware

fend off the attack,
routing the militia.

But St Clair strikes back,

sending Kentucky cavalry
to attack the Miami

and burn down their homes.

The American military campaigns
had a direct objective

of going into the village
and destroying these stored crops,

the goal being to wipe out
their food source

so that they didn't have
any means of surviving the winter.

Far from weakening the Miami,

these raids fuel their defiance...

and in the aftermath, Little Turtle
gains a valuable ally...

...an American settler captured
eight years earlier by the Miami

and raised as one of them.

William Wells.

William Wells
is captured as a young boy

in Kentucky during a raid,

brought into what we call
Myaamionki, or the Miami country.

This is a common occurrence
in Kentucky in this time period.

There are a lot of reasons
why a Myaamia family

would want to take a captive.

One might be to replace someone
who's died through violence

or through disease, perhaps,
to fill a gap in the community.

The story of frontier
is also one of what we might call

cross fertilisation
of these colliding people,

and they're are also
being brought together.

And the captivity
and the adoption of Americans

could be seen as a rather dramatic
and a very poignant example

of that kind of cultural exchange
between these peoples.

William Wells' mother had died,

then his father had been killed
in an Indian ambush.

So he just embraces it
in a way that a 13-year-old could.

Eight years after
being taken captive himself,

a 21-year-old William Wells
sees his Miami wife and son

kidnapped by Kentucky raiders
in 1791.

Wells marries
Little Turtle's daughter,

known in English as Sweet Breeze,

and ends up having four children,

one of which
is a grandmother of mine.

Little Turtle brings Wells
into a growing army

of Native resistance
to US expansion,

and begins to unite the Miami

with allies across
the Ohio River Valley and beyond.

Forging an alliance to resist
settlement among so many tribes

will be a test of Little Turtle's
leadership and diplomacy.

Just as the American Republic
is bringing together

what had formerly been
separate colonies,

so too, in the Great Lakes area,
emerges a confederation

among previously diverse
and disparate Indian peoples.

Seven nations from Canada,

six nations
from modern-day New York,

all the nations
from the immediate region,

create an effective military force

that's larger than any one of the
nations could provide on its own.

Indigenous Peoples understand
that their futures are imperilled,

and they begin connecting
with one another,

forming the Northwest
Indian Confederacy

to protect their homelands
and sovereignty.

The Native Americans
are in a confederacy

unprecedented in their history.

They're well organised,
they're determined to resist.

It is pretty remarkable,
the ways in which peoples

from across the Ohio country
and the Great Lakes region

are coming together to put forth

a united front
against American expansionism.

Little Turtle rises to become
one of the leading war chiefs

of the Northwest Confederacy.

The British also lend their support,

to protect their North American
trade with Native Nations

and to halt US expansion.

Washington now sees a threat
to national security

and orders St Clair
to crush the Confederacy.

St Clair pulls together
what you might call

the prototype to the US Army.

And there's some trained regulars,
but not many.

It's this cobbled-together force -
frontiersmen, Kentucky militia,

and others who have
served in the revolution.

St Clair wants to reassure
settlers that the region is safe

by conquering the Native alliance.

He again targets the Miami capital,

but this time he leads
the invasion himself.

Little Turtle has his scouts
tracking St Clair the whole time,

and waits for St Clair
to get to a really vulnerable spot.

On November 3rd, 1791,
St Clair makes camp,

still 50 miles from Kekionga.

But the long march and low pay
have taken their toll on his men.

A quarter of his 2,000 recruits have
succumbed to disease or deserted.

Meanwhile, Little Turtle
and other Native leaders

have brought together
1,000 warriors.

Under cover of darkness,
they close in.

Little Turtle and his warriors,

he has
this entire camp surrounded...

...and as these soldiers
are just awakening...

...all of a sudden there are several
hundred warriors running at them,

full-on tomahawks, muskets,
knives, war clubs.

So, it's a surprise attack.

St Clair's completely
unprepared for it.

On the morning
of November 4th, 1791,

Miami War Chief, Little Turtle,

leads a confederacy
of Native forces

in a surprise attack
on General Arthur St Clair's army.

American military commanders
underestimate

the sophistication
and organisation of Little Turtle

and the Native Confederacy.

They believe
that the Native Americans

are really
a chaotic fighting force -

they are incapable
of modern warfare.

Little Turtle is gonna prove them
deadly wrong.

Little Turtle
routs the Kentucky militia,

throwing St Clair's camp into chaos.

But the American artillery
springs into action.

St Clair's whole scheme
is kind of based around

the superiority of this cannon fire.

But Little Turtle
brings in sharp shooters

and they effectively take out
the artillery crew.

And now, St Clair
and the rest of them are cooked.

Over three long hours,
St Clair tries to fend off

a carefully planned
sequence of Indian attacks.

He has three horses shot from
under him, then flees for his life.

Two thirds of his soldiers
never make it out.

A survivor describes
their freshly scalped heads

as a "field of pumpkins".

St Clair loses almost 700 men,

the largest loss of American troops
to Native Americans in our history.

US soldiers,
they are going into territories

with this false notion that,

"Oh, if there are a few Indians
there, we'll take care of it."

And there's
a certain arrogance to that.

The Indian warriors
go around stuffing dirt

in the mouths
of dead American soldiers.

And I think that's
such a telling moment

because in a sense
what they're saying is,

"You really wanted this land
so badly?

Here, taste it, eat it."

And it seems to suggest
that this Indian Confederacy,

as long as it remains united,

is going to be the lasting entity
north of the Ohio River,

and that the American Confederation

is the one
that's on the verge of collapse.

For Little Turtle
and his allies, it's a triumph.

Not only have they wiped out
America's only army,

they've blocked westward expansion.

And the nation
that claimed its independence

only eight years earlier now looks
vulnerable to a British takeover.

The British believe
that the American Republic

is destined to fail,

and they're ready
to swoop in and reclaim

parts of their former
imperial domain.

The British have promised
to vacate the area,

to remove their troops,
and to remove their forts,

but they have not done so.

And they have this sort of handshake
alliance with the Native Americans,

encouraging Native tribes
to attack white settlers

who have pushed out
onto the frontier.

We have to remember

the United States
feels threatened all the time

by these imperial forces
circling around them like sharks.

So it's very important
for Washington to defeat the tribes

to show the strength
of the United States.

Every time there's
a setback for the United States,

our reaction is not to rethink
Western policy.

Our reaction is to get more serious
with lethality.

Finally, George Washington says,

"We've got to take enough force
to get this done."

And so he sends
Mad Anthony Wayne out.

Anthony Wayne is known
widely as "Mad" Anthony Wayne

because of his
famously fiery temper.

But actually,
he is mad for discipline.

He is mad for training
and preparedness.

Washington instructs Wayne

to build a training base
near Pittsburgh in 1792

and ready the Republic's
first professional army,

a 2,000-strong force named
the Legion of the United States.

Mad Anthony
really puts together a force

that's aimed directly at reining
in this Northwest Confederacy.

So he trains them
at bayonet use extensively.

Bayonets are incredibly effective
in close quarter fighting

and in bayonet charges.

But you have to have troops
that are disciplined.

He tells them, "You might
think you're gonna fight the Indians

the way you might fight
the British or whomever.

No, it's not gonna go that way.
It's gonna be hand-to-hand combat.

However we start,
that's where it's gonna end up."

And so, the US backtracks on many
of its revolutionary principles.

To raise an army
requires raising taxes.

This is the creation of
an American fiscal military state,

and it's in response
to Native American power.

Before ordering troops
into the Northwest Territory,

Washington sends peace envoys

out to meet
with leaders of the Confederacy.

Meanwhile, Little Turtle
sends William Wells

and other Miami leaders
on their own peace mission,

down the Wabash River

to the frontier trading town
of Vincennes,

to negotiate the release
of Miami captives.

William Wells goes
to orchestrate the freedom

of his first wife and child.

He comes to the attention
of American officials

who want
Anglo-American interpreters.

The US military commander
at Vincennes

agrees to help Wells
get his family back,

but it will take three months.

In the meantime, Wells ventures
across the Ohio River into Kentucky.

What he sees is a world transformed.

When his family had moved
to Kentucky, it was just frontier.

And now, by this time
in the early 1790s,

it seemed a real town.

By the early 1790s,
the US population is four million.

The 74,000 Americans in Kentucky

have eclipsed the 50,000 or so
Native Americans

living in the southern Great Lakes.

And to Wells' surprise,
the settlers are thriving.

William Wells observes the growth
of established communities

in that part of the country.

He sees the changes that are coming.

The more time Wells spends
in that white world,

the more he sees...
one, how permanent it is,

and two, how numerous
are the American settlers.

And he starts thinking,

"We can keep fighting all our lives
and they can just keep coming at us.

This is not a happy end."

For William Wells,
this is a shock.

He has to be thinking to himself,
"What does this mean for the Miami?

What does this mean
for Little Turtle?

What does this mean
for me and my family?"

Wells is finally reunited

with his captured
Miami wife and son.

To secure their freedom,
he agrees to work as an interpreter

for the United States,

but first, Wells reports back
on what he's seen.

It's clear to Little Turtle
at this point

that the Americans
are not gonna stop.

They can't halt this onslaught
of settlers into their territory.

Little Turtle
is trying to figure out

how to preserve the Miami nation.

He wants to keep fighting,
protecting the homeland.

By late 1792,

President Washington
has made little progress

in his effort to subdue
the Northwest Confederacy.

His new army is still in training.

In the meantime,
he makes a final effort

to secure Native lands
without a fight.

So while George Washington
is trying to resolve

the great security crisis
on the western border,

there's another huge crisis
unfolding in the United States,

which we know
as the Whiskey Rebellion.

Basically, thousands of farmers in
Western Pennsylvania are up in arms

about a tax that's been imposed
on distilled liquors.

It really looks like, to George
Washington and his administration,

that they have a civil war brewing.

This is the first major test
of this new presidency.

He has to somehow
put down law and order.

He has to have the taxes

because the debt
from the Revolutionary War

has now reached
unprecedented heights.

He sends the troops.

They put down the rebellion,
and had he not done otherwise,

then there would really have not
been a sense of whether or not

the government
could control its own people.

Washington is looking
at these wars

against the Ohio Indian Confederacy

and saying, "Wait a second.

There's a vast expensive manpower
here and a vast loss in blood.

We've gotta find a different path."

So, they send
a team of negotiators out

to meet with leaders
of the Indian Confederacy...

...and they basically sort of say,

"Well, what if we pay you
to sort of cede some lands to us?"

In spring 1793,

Confederacy leaders from across
the Great Lakes region

hold a grand council and debate
whether to accept the offer.

In the wake of their victory
over St Clair's army,

they take a hard line.

Native Americans have defeated
the American army

and successfully defended
their homes,

their people, their crops.

So Little Turtle is thinking
about creating a lasting peace

while Native Americans
have the upper hand.

The Indigenous People in that area

had managed to stave off

American interest for a long time,

and their partnership
with the British

also kept Americans out of there.

The Indian leaders -
Little Turtle among them -

say, "Money, to us, is of no value.

Rather than you giving us money,

you should pay your poor settlers.

You should use the money
to pay them to retreat."

The Confederacy makes
a bold proposal,

demanding a permanent boundary
at the Ohio River

with Native Nations on the north
and the United States on the south.

But the idea is soundly rejected.

Meanwhile, British agents
offer weapons and money

to the Indian Confederacy
if they'll keep up the fight.

When the peace talks
finally collapse,

Anthony Wayne gets orders from
a frustrated President Washington:

"Prepare to attack."

From Pittsburgh, Wayne's army
moves down the Ohio River

through the invasion
of Miami country...

...and they begin cutting,
pulling, and burning corn...

...the most immense fields
that Anthony Wayne

has ever seen in his life, he says.

Through the summer of 1794,

Wayne pushes the Legion
deeper into Miami territory,

supplying his troops
through a series of forts.

Meanwhile, Little Turtle
and other Confederacy leaders

struggle to agree
on their next move.

The timeline is a problem

because Mad Anthony is moving

very slowly and deliberately,

which is part of his strength.

And the gathered warriors
have come from far away.

I mean, even hundreds of miles away
and they've left their families,

and the warriors are getting
really impatient.

Against Little Turtle's advice,

the Shawnee lead an attack
on Fort Recovery,

built by Wayne
on the site of St Clair's defeat.

First, they take out the supply
lines with help from British troops,

then they strike the fort itself.

The idea of attacking a fort was
antithetical to Indian ways of war.

The casualties that you would suffer
were unthinkable...

...but they're certain they can win.

Part of
the Northwest Confederacy decides

it's time to go ahead and attack
directly on Fort Recovery.

And it just blows them away.

Both sides lose
around 30 men,

but while the US quickly regroups,

Native morale is shattered.

The failure to take Fort Recovery
is the first loss

that some of these Native Americans
have had in several years.

That ends up being
very demoralising

for the Northwest
Indian Confederacy.

The warriors start dispersing,
and meanwhile,

Mad Anthony Wayne has this crushing
force marching towards them.

After a failed attack
on Fort Recovery in 1794,

the Indian Confederacy
begins to splinter.

Some tribes
return to their homelands,

but the Miami and others
keep fighting.

Little Turtle asks the British
for troops and cannons.

The British are up in Canada
and they have this idea

to create what
they call an Indian barrier state,

a big, huge strip of land
held by Indian tribes

as a way, essentially,

of keeping the United States sort
of bottled up on the East Coast.

But to create this zone,

the Confederacy needs
military support.

And while the British agree
to supply gunpowder and food,

they won't commit
the soldiers or artillery

that Little Turtle asks for.

Meanwhile, Mad Anthony Wayne
pushes north from Fort Recovery.

The Native American army believes
it can slow the Americans down

while their families

are continuing
to evacuate the region

as it's being burned.

Little Turtle
and his fellow war chiefs

have just 1,500 men left to fight
Wayne's 2,000-strong army

and 1,600 Kentucky militia.

They take up position a mile from
their British allies at Fort Miami,

choosing terrain that's
scattered with fallen trees,

a natural barrier against bayonet
charges and cavalry attacks.

Wayne has the benefit
of a lot of intelligence coming

about the Confederacy side
and what they're up to.

He hears a report that the Indians
are ready, preparing for battle.

And part of it is fasting.

Warriors engage with no food
or water during that time.

And this prepares the warrior

spiritually, mentally,
and physically

to engage in a battle
and have success.

Wayne plays a waiting game

as the Native allies
fast for three days.

But just after
a storm hits, he strikes.

This is a clash of two different
ways of seeing life itself,

fighting for the destiny of
the new Republic on the one side...

and fighting for the future
of your homeland on the other side.

This is very difficult terrain,

but Mad Anthony's trained
his foot soldiers so well

in bayonet warfare
and hand-to-hand combat.

And that pushes the Indians
out of the fallen timbers.

At that point, then his cavalry
can much more easily

push the Indians back.

The Native allies
are not willing to accept

mass casualties in pitched battles

and would rather
easily retreat off the battlefield

rather than allow
many of their men to be killed.

They're in this open field,
with cavalry coming down on them

with thousands of soldiers.

And so, it ends up being
basically a rout.

As their battle lines collapse,

the Native forces retreat.

Saving themselves from annihilation,

they run to their British allies
at Fort Miami for help.

So at this time, a treaty is
actually under negotiations.

It's eventually gonna be called
the Jay Treaty,

between the new United States

and the very powerful
and threatening Great Britain,

principally to get the British
to remove their troops

and to remove their forts
from US territory.

And also to allow
a little more trade.

The Indians get to Fort Miami
and the gates are locked.

The British commander
gets up on top of the stockade

and shouts over the gate,

"You are painted too much,
my children.

I cannot let you in."

That's the metaphorical
way of saying,

"You are too much into war
right now.

You're stirring things up too much."

Because if the British commander
opens the gates,

Mad Anthony is likely
to attack the fort.

The British commander
is under strict orders

not to provoke and to engage
in a way that will trigger a war.

And that's the moment when
this whole Northwest Confederacy,

I mean, it's literally like
the gates close on it.

And so now their ally has
left them swinging in the wind,

left them hanging,
and that completes the defeat.

Five years
after destroying the US army,

the Northwest Confederacy is now
soundly beaten at Fallen Timbers

and broken up once and for all.

But a victorious Anthony Wayne

is not finished with his conquest,

and Little Turtle
is now powerless to stop him.

Wayne's army
burn the corn fields

and leave Ohio Indians
without a food supply

and starve them into submission.

This is an apocalyptic
type of scene.

The river valley is in flames.
There's no food.

People are struggling with,
not the defeat at Fallen Timbers,

but the disintegration

of their lives.

So Anthony Wayne takes
another hammer to Miami morale

when he builds a fort

smack dab in the centre

of their capital, Kekionga.

And to add salt to the wound,

Wayne names the fort after himself,
Fort Wayne.

We called Anthony Wayne
"eelaamhsenwa",

which literally means "the wind,"

because of the way

he just kind of blew in

and blew over
everyone that was there.

For many Indigenous leaders,
this is enough to convince them

that violent resistance
is no longer a viable path

to the survival of their people.

As Wayne scorches the earth,
Native leaders push for peace talks.

They convene at Fort Greenville
in June 1795.

Little Turtle brings in
William Wells as his interpreter.

They come to surrender

and want to sign a treaty

that surrenders
as little as possible.

And that's Little Turtle's
main objective,

surrendering but in a way
that keeps Myaamia integrity,

keeps Myaamia sovereignty,
keeps Myaamia independence,

with this new, powerful neighbour

that is willing
to go to great lengths

to inflict violence on his people.

But they are in
a very weak position,

and so they end up surrendering
huge swaths of territory,

pushing the line of settlement
for the Americans

many many hundreds of miles
into the interior.

Little Turtle
is the last Native leader

to agree to the Greenville Treaty.

As he signs, he declares
he'll also be the last to break it.

It's completed just six weeks after
Congress approves the Jay Treaty,

which expels British forts
and troops.

George Washington's goal
of securing the Northwest Territory

is now complete.

But for Native Americans,
it's just the beginning.

The Treaty of Greenville

opens most of the Ohio Valley
to white settlement,

but it sets a kind of pattern,
a module, a template,

for what's going to follow -

land cessions,
by purchase if possible,

by coercion if necessary,

by war, including genocidal war,
if absolutely necessary.

The Treaty of Greenville
really set in motion

what was a cascade of 13 treaties

which caused the complete
dispossession of homelands

for the Miami people.

And within
just a very short period of time,

thousands, tens of thousands,

and eventually
hundreds of thousands of people

will pour into this territory,

expanding the United States
quite significantly.

Miami leaders
such as Little Turtle,

they'd lived through
the Revolutionary War

and found themselves
contemplating a future

in which they might coexist,
essentially,

with the American Republic.

So, it must have been
incredibly devastating

to see American state power
grow so quickly

and project violence
into this region.

Little Turtle dies in 1812.

That same year, the British back
a new Native uprising

to wrest control of the Great Lakes
region back from the US.

Britain and America take up arms
in the war of 1812.

And once again
in the Northwest Territory,

the United States confronts
an Indian alliance and destroys it.

Anglo-American civilisation
knows from the beginning,

no matter how much
it wants the West,

that getting it is going to involve

some ruthlessness.

But the fact is,
we did it.

We did it as peacefully as possible
and as ruthlessly as necessary.

We, today, have to recognise

how green and raw
and new this nation was.

At that moment, the United States
was not a done deal.

It was just barely an idea.

And it figured
some things out really well,

and some things, it did not.

And it, by brute force,

pushed its way west.

The Battle of Fallen Timbers
and the Treaty of Greenville

marked the final defeat
of Little Turtle

and the Northwest Confederacy,

setting what will become
a familiar pattern

of Native resistance
and American conquest.

Nine years later,
President Thomas Jefferson

will double the size of the United
States with the Louisiana Purchase.

And just as they first crossed
the Appalachian Mountains,

explorers, settlers, and soldiers

will push the nation
beyond the Mississippi,

seeking their fortunes
in a foreign land

and marching west
with bloody footsteps.

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