Northwestern Confederacy

Northwestern Confederacy
Also known asUnited Indian Nations
Founding leaderJoseph Brant
Leaders
Dates of operation1783–1795
Group(s)
Battles and warsNorthwest Indian War
Preceded by
Pontiac's War coalition

The Northwestern Confederacy, or Northwestern Indian Confederacy, was a loose confederacy of Native Americans in the Great Lakes region of the United States created after the American Revolutionary War. Formally, the confederacy referred to itself as the United Indian Nations, at their Confederate Council.[1] It was known infrequently as the Miami Confederacy since many contemporaneous federal officials overestimated the influence and numerical strength of the Miami tribes based on the size of their principal city, Kekionga.

The confederacy, which had its roots in pan-tribal movements dating to the 1740s, formed in an attempt to resist the expansion of the United States and the encroachment of American settlers into the Northwest Territory after Great Britain ceded the region to the U.S. in the 1783 Treaty of Paris. American expansion resulted in the Northwest Indian War (1785–1795), in which the Confederacy won significant victories over the United States, but concluded with a U.S. victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. The Confederacy became fractured and agreed to peace with the United States, but the pan-tribal resistance was later rekindled by Tenskwatawa (known as the Prophet) and his brother, Tecumseh, resulting in the formation of Tecumseh's confederacy.

  1. ^ Congress of the Confederation (1786-12-18). Speech of the United Indian Nations at their Confederate Council. File Unit: Letters from Major General Henry Knox, Secretary at War, 4/1785 - 7/1788.