Big Bottom Massacre in the Ohio Country

Background. In 1787, the Ohio Company purchased approximately 1,500,000 acres (6,100 km2) in the Northwest Territory from the United States, though Congress did not patent the purchases until 1792. In 1789, the Treaty of Fort Harmar was signed between the United States and what an American recorded as an "unrepresentative gathering of undistinguished chiefs," leaving Native grievances unresolved in the Ohio Country.

Warning and Attack. In late December 1790, Colonel William Stacy, a war veteran, ice skated thirty miles up the frozen Muskingum River to warn two of his sons at the Big Bottom settlement about the risk of an attack. Several days later, on January 2, 1791, Lenape and Wyandot warriors raided the settlement from the north, killing several settlers.

Aftermath. Settlers and other Americans dubbed the killing the "Big Bottom Massacre." It became part of the Northwest Indian Wars, in which a coalition of Native American tribes tried to expel American settlers from the territory. On April 21, 1792, Congress authorized the Donation Tract, a 100,000-acre area along the northern border of the Ohio Company lands, hoping to create a buffer zone sheltering those lands from Native American incursions.