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William Wells and the Struggle for the Old Northwest
Born to Anglo-American parents on the Appalachian frontier, captured by the Miami Indians at the age of thirteen, and adopted into the tribe, William Wells (1770–1812) moved between two cultures all his life but was comfortable in neither. Vilified by some historians for his divided loyalties, he remains relatively unknown even though he is worthy of comparison with such famous frontiersmen as Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. William Heath’s thoroughly researched book is the first biography of this man-in-the-middle.
A servant of empire with deep sympathies for the people his country sought to dispossess, Wells married Chief Little Turtle’s daughter and distinguished himself as a Miami warrior, as an American spy, and as an Indian agent whose multilingual skills made him a valuable interpreter. Heath examines pioneer life in the Ohio Valley from both white and Indian perspectives, yielding rich insights into Wells’s career as well as broader events on the post-revolutionary American frontier, where Anglo-Americans pushing westward competed with the Indian nations of the Old Northwest for control of territory.
Wells’s unusual career, Heath emphasizes, earned him a great deal of ill will. Because he warned the U.S. government against Tecumseh’s confederacy and the Tenskwatawa’s “religiously mad” followers, he was hated by those who supported the Shawnee leaders. Because he came to question treaties he had helped bring about, and cautioned the Indians about their harmful effects, he was distrusted by Americans. Wells is a complicated hero, and his conflicted position reflects the decline of coexistence and cooperation between two cultures.
A servant of empire with deep sympathies for the people his country sought to dispossess, Wells married Chief Little Turtle’s daughter and distinguished himself as a Miami warrior, as an American spy, and as an Indian agent whose multilingual skills made him a valuable interpreter. Heath examines pioneer life in the Ohio Valley from both white and Indian perspectives, yielding rich insights into Wells’s career as well as broader events on the post-revolutionary American frontier, where Anglo-Americans pushing westward competed with the Indian nations of the Old Northwest for control of territory.
Wells’s unusual career, Heath emphasizes, earned him a great deal of ill will. Because he warned the U.S. government against Tecumseh’s confederacy and the Tenskwatawa’s “religiously mad” followers, he was hated by those who supported the Shawnee leaders. Because he came to question treaties he had helped bring about, and cautioned the Indians about their harmful effects, he was distrusted by Americans. Wells is a complicated hero, and his conflicted position reflects the decline of coexistence and cooperation between two cultures.
520 pages, Paperback
First published March 11, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 24, 2024
Now that I've finished up this life and times of William Wells, a man who left everyone he dealt with as an adult with doubt as to what his real loyalties were, I do wonder as to whether the author did himself any favors. In the introduction, there's the red flag of when Heath touts all the research repositories he visited, and all the books he read, to illustrate his commitment as a historical writer, but I'm not sure that his historical imagination rises much above that of the antiquarian. Frankly, this book often feels more like a piling up events and place names then an analysis trying to prove a point.
Still, Heath is to be given credit for what might be the best work available on Wells, who is truly a fascinating figure. The key chapter might be that dealing with how Wells was kidnapped and assimilated into the Miami Nation, was apparently a committed soldier of that people, before beginning his career as an American "Indian scout," all the time remaining a part of the family of the great Miami political leader Little Turtle.
This is where I developed a sense that Heath had missed an opportunity, to assess what being adopted into a tribe of the First Nations really meant for a white person, and why so many of these people were not enthusiastic about rejoining their original families when given the chance. To do so would have meant taking the value structure of the leading edge of American settlers seriously, as to a large degree what they called "freedom," was simply licentiousness and unfettered egotism leading to alienation, whereas the First Nations, at their best, offered a form of belonging and spiritual integration that was superior. I might not have come to this conclusion had I just not read J.J. Anselmi's "Out Here on Our Own," which deals with life and being in a modern fading Western boom town, where the traps of ennui and alienation are on all sides; these modern folks strike me as being not a great deal different than their frontier ancestors, and with the same potential for self-harm and violence.
Be that as it may, Heath demonstrates that Wells played the hand life had dealt him quite skillfully, always in service to family, his real loyalty, but his usefulness as a factor between peoples was at an end once Little Turtle passed on. It does seem that Wells rode to the relief of Fort Dearborn in 1812 with a strong sense that it would be his last act, and it was.
Heath prides himself on telling an unvarnished story of conquest, but new books are always coming. Which is to say there is a small stack of books that one should probably read to put Wells' life into better institutional context. These include Patrick Bottiger's "The Borderland of Fear," "Peoples of the Inland Sea" by David Andrew Nichols, and Mary Stockwell's "Unlikely General" (the most recent account of Anthony Wayne's Fallen Timbers campaign).
3.5 stars would be a more honest rating for this book.
Still, Heath is to be given credit for what might be the best work available on Wells, who is truly a fascinating figure. The key chapter might be that dealing with how Wells was kidnapped and assimilated into the Miami Nation, was apparently a committed soldier of that people, before beginning his career as an American "Indian scout," all the time remaining a part of the family of the great Miami political leader Little Turtle.
This is where I developed a sense that Heath had missed an opportunity, to assess what being adopted into a tribe of the First Nations really meant for a white person, and why so many of these people were not enthusiastic about rejoining their original families when given the chance. To do so would have meant taking the value structure of the leading edge of American settlers seriously, as to a large degree what they called "freedom," was simply licentiousness and unfettered egotism leading to alienation, whereas the First Nations, at their best, offered a form of belonging and spiritual integration that was superior. I might not have come to this conclusion had I just not read J.J. Anselmi's "Out Here on Our Own," which deals with life and being in a modern fading Western boom town, where the traps of ennui and alienation are on all sides; these modern folks strike me as being not a great deal different than their frontier ancestors, and with the same potential for self-harm and violence.
Be that as it may, Heath demonstrates that Wells played the hand life had dealt him quite skillfully, always in service to family, his real loyalty, but his usefulness as a factor between peoples was at an end once Little Turtle passed on. It does seem that Wells rode to the relief of Fort Dearborn in 1812 with a strong sense that it would be his last act, and it was.
Heath prides himself on telling an unvarnished story of conquest, but new books are always coming. Which is to say there is a small stack of books that one should probably read to put Wells' life into better institutional context. These include Patrick Bottiger's "The Borderland of Fear," "Peoples of the Inland Sea" by David Andrew Nichols, and Mary Stockwell's "Unlikely General" (the most recent account of Anthony Wayne's Fallen Timbers campaign).
3.5 stars would be a more honest rating for this book.
April 21, 2021
William Wells is a fascinating character. Was he a hero or a villain? This book doesn't really answer the question, just explains why Wells may have had mixed motives. Was he for the Native Americans or the settlers?
I can never decide if I like William Wells or not. But he's fascinating.
After reading this, Thomas Jefferson definitely comes off as a villain. (Very different from what I remember being taught in school. We learned about his slaves, but not his treatment of Native Americans.) (The one redeeming quality of Jefferson is his writing of the Declaration of Independence. The only thing that keeps him from being a complete villain.)
William Henry Harrison doesn't come off good either. No wonder many Native Americans were upset about their treatment. Greed is always the main motive.
I can never decide if I like William Wells or not. But he's fascinating.
After reading this, Thomas Jefferson definitely comes off as a villain. (Very different from what I remember being taught in school. We learned about his slaves, but not his treatment of Native Americans.) (The one redeeming quality of Jefferson is his writing of the Declaration of Independence. The only thing that keeps him from being a complete villain.)
William Henry Harrison doesn't come off good either. No wonder many Native Americans were upset about their treatment. Greed is always the main motive.
June 22, 2019
I love history and William Wells is my favorite "character" in Fort Wayne's past. However, this book goes into far more detail about battles than I really care about and so it took "forever" to read because I put it down quite often. Wells is not portrayed as positively as I had been led to believe but then most historic persons typically were not totally what we were taught. Thomas Jefferson is a prime example. This book does not make him look like the "hero" we were taught he was in school. I don't know that I would recommend this book to everyone....you really have to find Fort Wayne history interesting to appreciate it.
February 17, 2022
Fantastic biography of William Wells, a man who has only ever featured as a background character in other narratives of the Old Northwest. He was a man of complex loyalties in a region of the American continent where cultures clashed and warfare was ever present. I don’t think it’s justified to call him a villain or hero under the circumstances. He did what he felt was best for himself to survive in an ever changing world, which when told across Heath’s impressive breakdown of the era makes for good history.
September 4, 2016
A Truly Brilliant Biography
This thoughtfully, artfully written book deserves a great deal of praise for bringing to light the fascinating, truly surprising, and extremely complicated story of the Old Northwest Territory in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The author displays a masterful command of the personal, local, regional, national and international forces that impact the life and career of this unusual man who played such an important--and largely unsung--role in US history and, in spite of himself, in Manifest Destiny. Heath writes with tremendous insight, vigor and great heart. As a scholar, I'm impressed; as a native of the region in which the narrative is set, I'm touched and even grateful.
This thoughtfully, artfully written book deserves a great deal of praise for bringing to light the fascinating, truly surprising, and extremely complicated story of the Old Northwest Territory in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The author displays a masterful command of the personal, local, regional, national and international forces that impact the life and career of this unusual man who played such an important--and largely unsung--role in US history and, in spite of himself, in Manifest Destiny. Heath writes with tremendous insight, vigor and great heart. As a scholar, I'm impressed; as a native of the region in which the narrative is set, I'm touched and even grateful.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews