NOVEMBER 3:

1981 Inuvik NWT - Dome Petroleum Ltd. finds huge new oil deposits in Beaufort Sea; about 109 km north of Mackenzie delta.

1952 Chester, New York - Baker Clarence Birdseye markets his first frozen peas; learned the technique of flash freezing from Labrador Inuit.

November 3, 1791:  General Arthur St Clair moved his forced of approximately 1400 men to some high ground on the upper Wabash River, north of present-day Greenville, Ohio.  St Clair was looking for the forces of Little Turtle who had recently defeated General Josiah Harmar's army.  At this point, 600 men had already deserted the original force of 2000.  The soldiers were not being paid and were underfed; St Clair's regular army were having to guard what little supplies they had from the militia forces.  St Clair, feeling that he had a good defensive position, deployed only minimal sentry positions.

1657 Quebec Quebec - Genevieve-Agnes Skanudharoua dies at Quebec a few hours after taking holy vows; daughter of Huron chief the first Native woman to enter religious life

1653 Quebec Quebec - Most Iroquois make peace with French; some Mohawks, Oneidas and Onondagas continue to fight in spite of treaty of Neutrality. 

1644 Quebec Quebec - Martin Prévost marries Manitouabewich; first religious marriage between French-Canadian and an Indian woman; newly married couples given a cow, bull, hog. 

1634 Quebec Quebec - Father Lalemant baptizes Matchonon, a 25 year old Huron. 
 

BACKGROUND:
 

From:   http://users.anderson.edu/~roebuck/Little_Turtle.html
 

Meshekinoquah aka Little Turtle

Meshekinoquah, or Chief Little Turtle, was War Chief of the Miami Nation. He led the confederation of Indians that defeated General Arthur St. Clair, at Fort Recovery on November 3, 1791. His force inflicted the worst defeat ever suffered by the U.S. Army at the hands of native Americans. St. Clair's army consisted of 1300 soldiers. In the battle, 602 were killed and about 300 wounded. The Indian force consisted of approximately 1000 warriors. Only 66 Indians were killed in this battle! It was the greatest defeat the Americans ever suffered at the hands of the Indians. Even worst than the loss suffered at the Battle of Little Big Horn or Custer's Last Stand. Custer only lost about 210 men compared to St. Clair's loss of 602 killed!
 

*****
 

>From Glenn Welker's website at http://www.indigenouspeople.org/natlit/turtle.htm
 

Little Turtle Miami Chief

Hailed as the last Chief of the Miami Indians, he was born in 1782 near Devil's Lake, northwest of Churubusco in Whitley county, Indiana. Little Turtle was the son of the Miami chief Acquenacke and a Mahican mother. His grandfather, Osandiah, was chief at the time of the Battle of the Johnston farm (as it is now called) in 1763. When the tribe ceded their last Indiana reservation in 1838 to the Government, they gave Me-Shin-Go-Me-Sia ten sections of land in Grant County, Indiana.

He led the confederation of Indians that defeated General Arthur St. Clair, at Fort Recovery on November 3, 1791. His force inflicted the worst defeat ever suffered by the U.S. Army at the hands of native Americans. St. Clair's army consisted of 1300 soldiers. In the battle, 602 were killed and about 300 wounded. The Indian force consisted of approximately 1000 warriors. Only 66 Indians were killed in this battle! It was the greatest defeat the Americans ever suffered at the hands of the Indians. Even worst than the loss suffered at the Battle of Little Big Horn or Custer's Last Stand. Custer only lost about 210 men compared to St. Clair's loss of 602 killed! Me-she-kin-no-quah lived the village of Ke-ki-ong-a'. Kekinonga means blackberry patch. This was the Miami capitol (Ft. Wayne, IN).

He fought later against United States militias that had been punishing his and other tribes for raiding settlements in the Northwest Territory. He led defeats of Gen. Josiah Harmar's and Gen. Arthur St. Clair's troops in the early 1790s. Little Turtle and his warriors were not beaten until 1793, when Gen. Anthony Wayne and his garrison routed the Miami at the battle of Fallen Timbers in August 1794. This defeat effectively put an end to two decades of warfare. The battle site is now a state park southwest of Toledo, Ohio. In 1795 Little Turtle signed the Treaty of Fort Greenville, ceding Indian lands in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan by a confederacy of Indians known as the Northwest Indian Confederation. The confederation included Miami, Chippewa, Iroquois, and others. Afterward, Little Turtle advocated peace and kept his people from joining Tecumseh's confederacy. Little Turtle also encouraged his people to abstain from alcohol, to develop new farming techniques, and to be vaccinated against smallpox. He met with George Washington in Philadelphia in 1797. His portrait was painted by Gilbert Stuart before Little Turtle died on July 14, 1812, in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Oral history has it that Little Turtle didn't like to see people being enslaved and mistreated, so he capture the blacks and brought them back to his village at Kekeonga (present day Fort Wayne, Indiana). There, the blacks lived with the Miami Indians. Little Turtle left a will because of all the property he had acquired through the treaty process. In his will, he bequeathed these black people to his daughters and son-in-law. No one has been able to do research to find out exactly what the situation was. Since he captured them and brought them back to Fort Wayne, the way he handled it in his will may have just been his way of making certain that his family was going to ensure their continued freedom. There is nothing in the written record to indicate that they were used as slaves by Little Turtle and there is no written record of what happened to them after Little Turtle's death.

Documentation can be found at the Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Library, 302 E. Berry St., Fort Wayne, IN 46802 Tel: 219-426-288