Indiana and Cities Related Info

The State of Indiana history goes back to 8000 BCE when Paleo Indians came to North America from Asia. They used to survive by hunting mastodons, bison and deer. During the Archaic Period the Archaic Indians possibly entered Indiana from the south in about 4,000 B.C. These people were nomadic. The Archaic Indians use to roast and boil their food. Then came Woodland Period which overlapped with the Archaic Period, beginning in approximately 800 B.C. and lasting until the arrival of Europeans. The Woodland Period includes the Adena, Hopewell, and Fort Ancient people. This period saw several developments which include pottery, agriculture, and the invention of the bow and arrow. These made their lives more comfortable and secure against the wild animals. These discoveries made life much easier and gave people more time to develop social institutions, such as religion. The numerous burial mounds serve as examples of the Woodland Indians’ cultural developments. A separate tribe called The Lenne Lenape, also arrived in Indiana during the Late Woodland Period.

By the time European arrived in the 16th century, the main tribes living in Indiana were the Miamis, Potawatomis, Piankashaws, and the Weas. The French began to explore the Great Lakes region in the 1670s and the first white men to reach present-day Indiana were Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet. Their main focus of the French was to extract furs and to strengthen their presence and protect against English encroachment, they built a number of forts. The Fort Ouiatenon was the first fort built in the area. The fort began with few fur traders along with soldiers but it grew to become a large fort with significant settlement. Fort Miami was built in 1719. But when English colonies started to grow along the Atlantic, the French government decided to send more colonists in hopes of further securing France’s claim to the land. Settlers who came to the New World from France were called habitants. They were farmers, who settled in permanent agricultural villages near the forts. A significant number of habitants lived at Vincennes, and remained there after France lost control of the area. Competition between British and English began to control the fur trade and culminated in a succession of Indian wars. The English took control of the Northwest by 1760, and officially received claim of the land in the Treaty of Paris. To the dismay of local tribes, they managed the fur trade much differently than the French had. They were not as cordial and did not present the Natives with gifts, like the French had done. This different and unfriendly treatment quickly led to trouble between the English and the Native Americans.

Pontiac, an Ottawa war chief from the area near Detroit, was especially unhappy with the English fur trade and wanted to restore French rule. The French and Indian War was not officially over (the Treaty of Paris was signed later that year) which meant that France technically still had a chance to win back the Northwest, at least in the eyes of Pontiac. He raised Indian troops near Detroit and initiated a siege on the British forts that lasted for months. Indian warriors from neighboring areas joined in strengthening the attack. By July of 1763, nine forts in the Great Lakes region had fallen to the Indians. The siege began in the spring and lasted until October, when the Treaty of Paris was signed and the British legally had control of the French claims. Pontiac’s rebellion came to an end, yet Pontiac remained hostile, as did some of the other tribes. After a few skirmishes and attempts to reconcile, the English were eventually able to make peace with the Native Americans. British rule of the Great Lakes region was short-lived and, save Pontiac’s War, largely uneventful. The Quebec Act of 1774 annexed the land above the Ohio River to Canada, which upset the English settlers (Americans) who wanted to expand westward. This, among other actions, such as increased taxation, set Americans on the path to fight for their Independence from Great Britain.

With exception of the campaigns of George Rogers Clark, the Old Northwest was not home to many Revolutionary battles. Clark and his troops easily occupied the Northwest at the beginning of the war and based themselves at Vincennes. The French habitants readily swore American loyalty, and it seemed that the Northwest was securely under American control. Four months later, British Colonel Henry Hamilton arrived at Fort Vincennes with 200 British and French troops and 400 Indians, and recaptured the fort. Hamilton and his troops settled in for the winter, not anticipating any attacks until spring. That winter was especially harsh; huge snowstorms were followed by bouts of warm weather, turning the Midwest into an icy swamp. Hamilton never expected Clark to lead his men through the storms to Vincennes, but he did. Clark and his troops surprised Hamilton and retook Vincennes, regaining the upper hand in the Northwest and securing the region for Americans.

Unlike the French and British, the Americans expanded rapidly. The French occupied the Northwest for a century, but only managed to settle a few thousand people. It took only a couple of decades for the Americans to populate Indiana with tens of thousands of people. Once land became available, thousands of families from the Upper South quickly settled in Indiana. At first, life in Indiana was difficult. It was a wilderness with scattered forts, settlements, and Indian villages. Hostility between the Americans and the Native Americans remained rife, culminating in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811.

Indiana went through a number of territorial transitions during the first two decades of the 19th century. It became its own territory in 1800, and included what is now Illinois, Wisconsin, and parts of Michigan and Minnesota. Michigan Territory was formed in 1805, and Illinois Territory in 1809, leaving Indiana Territory sent size. The population of Indiana continued to increase, and the territory achieved statehood in 1816. At this time, Indiana entered into a phase of incredible population growth and development.

Indiana Resources

Indiana.gov -  Indiana state government website

Visit Indiana – Indiana official tourism website