Author Talk:
"William Wells and the Struggle for the Old Northwest"
by William Heath

Eugene and Marilyn Glick
Indiana History Center
Monday, April 13, 2015
6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Guest $5, IHS Member $3

Join author William Heath as he explores the complex history surrounding William Wells (1770–1812). Born to Anglo-American parents on the Appalachian frontier at age thirteen Wells was captured by Miami Indians who adopted him into their tribe. Wells moved between the 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. Heath’s thoroughly researched book is the first biography of this man-in-the-middle.

Wells became a servant of the American empire while harboring deep sympathies for the native people Americans sought to dispossess. He married Chief Little Turtle’s daughter and distinguished himself as a Miami warrior, then became an American spy, and 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. This yields rich insights into Wells’s career and into broader events on the post-revolutionary frontier, where Americans were pushing westward and competing with the Old Northwest Indian nations 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 Shawnee Prophet’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 historical figure; his conflicted position reflects the decline of coexistence and cooperation between the two cultures.