Editing Steuben County, Indiana (section)

==History==
After the [[American Revolutionary War]] established US sovereignty over the territory of the upper midwest, the new federal government defined the [[Northwest Territory]] in 1787 which included the area that is present-day Indiana. In 1800, Congress separated Ohio from the Northwest Territory, designating the rest of the land as the Indiana Territory. President Thomas Jefferson chose William Henry Harrison as the governor of the territory, and Vincennes was established as the capital. After the Michigan Territory was separated and the Illinois Territory was formed, Indiana was reduced to its current size and geography. By December 1816, the Indiana Territory was admitted to the Union as a state.

This area was historically occupied by the [[Potawatomi]] people, one of the tribes in the [[Council of Three Fires]]. Typically they lived in highly decentralized bands. Treaties signed by some leaders with United States representatives ceded large areas of their territory to the US. Starting in 1794, Native American titles to Indiana lands were extinguished by usurpation, purchase, or war and treaty. The United States acquired land from the Native Americans in the [[Treaty of Fort Wayne (1809)|1809 treaty of Fort Wayne]], by the [[Treaty of St. Mary's (1818)|treaty of St. Mary's in 1818]], and in 1826 by the [[Treaty of Mississinewas]], which included the future Steuben County.

The Indiana State Legislature passed an omnibus county bill<ref>[https://archive.org/details/standardhistoryo01tynd/page/286/mode/2up John W Tyndall & OE Lesh, ''Standard history of Adams and Wells Counties, Indiana''. pp. 284-6 (accessed 9 August 2020)]</ref> on February 7, 1835, that authorized the creation of thirteen counties in northeast Indiana, including Steuben.<ref>The counties are Dekalb, Fulton, Jasper, Jay, Kosciusko, Marshall, Newton, Porter, Pulaski, Stark, Steuben, Wells, and Whitley. Newton County was merged with Jasper County in 1839 and was re-authorized as a separate county in 1859.</ref> In 1837 the county was organized. It was named for [[Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben|Baron Frederick von Steuben]], an officer of the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref>{{cite book|author=De Witt Clinton Goodrich & Charles Richard Tuttle|publisher=R. S. Peale & co.|year=1875|location=Indiana|title=An Illustrated History of the State of Indiana|url=https://archive.org/details/anillustratedhi02tuttgoog| pages=[https://archive.org/details/anillustratedhi02tuttgoog/page/n585 573]}}</ref> In 1840 the Potawatomi were forcibly removed from this area and neighboring territory in Michigan and Ohio to Indian Territory in Kansas.

A Potawatomi chief, [[Baw Beese]], led a band that was based at what later became known as Baw Beese Lake nearby in Michigan. His daughter Winona married Negnaska and lived in what is now Indiana. She was executed in the 1830s by her husband's people after she killed Negnaska for selling her pony.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=gCDiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA582 Fuller, George Newman and Beeson, Lewis]''Michigan History Vol. 6'' Lansing: Michigan State Historical Society, 1922. p. 582</ref> Winona's husband had pledged his rifle to Aaron B. Goodwin of [[Fremont, Indiana|Fremont]] for the use of a 5-gallon keg. The Indians had the keg filled with whiskey at Nichols' store in Jamestown, and he took all the money they had. Negnaska sold his wife Winona's pony in order to pawn his rifle. Winona owned the pony outright, either as a gift from her father or having bought it with her own money. She killed Negnaska in anger for selling what was hers. Winona was held by the tribe for a few hours until her husband's nearest relative arrived to execute her. As was their custom, he stabbed her to the heart as she had her husband.<ref name=WH/>

John D. Barnard and Sheldon Havens encountered the Potawatomi group after the execution; they helped them move the bodies to a nearby grave that had been dug. The Indians did not bury the bodies until after the white men were out of sight. But Dr. B.F. Sheldon found out about it and exhumed the bodies for dissection a few days later, outraging the mourning Potawatomi. About two weeks later some Potawatomi returned the keg to Goodwin and tried to retrieve Negnaska's rifle, but Goodwin pretended not to know the man had been killed and refused to release the rifle to his friends.<ref name=WH>[https://archive.org/stream/historyofsteuben00inte/historyofsteuben00inte_djvu.txt ''History of Steuben County, Indiana''], Chicago: Inter-state Publishing Company, 1885. pp. 550-551.</ref>