Editing Springfield, Ohio (section)

===Before European settlement===

The original pre-contact inhabitants of Springfield were the [[Shawnee|Shawnee people]].

During the 18th century, the [[Ohio Country]] saw warfare, waves of migration and displacement, and imposition of claims by rivaling colonial powers [[New France|France]] and [[British America|Britain]]. With the end of the [[French and Indian War]] in 1763, the British became the sole European claimants of the region.

The area was home to the major [[Shawnee]] village in the region, called Peckuwe or Piqua. It belonged to the Shawnee septs (sub-clans) of [[Pekowi]] and [[Kispoko]] and had a population of about 3,000.<ref>{{Cite web | title = Peckuwe Shawnee Memorial Marker | work = HNdb.org, The Historical Marker Database | access-date = February 17, 2013 | url = http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=35274 | archive-date = March 5, 2013 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130305133206/http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=35274 | url-status = live }}</ref><ref>Hand, Tom (April 4, 2024). Americana corner: The battle of Piqua. Bryan County News - Bryan County News. [https://www.bryancountynews.com/opinion/americana-corner-battle-piqua/] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240411031940/https://www.bryancountynews.com/opinion/americana-corner-battle-piqua/|date=April 11, 2024}}</ref> It stood at 39° 54.5′ N, 83° 54.68′ W, less than four miles southwest of the current city of Springfield and less than six miles from its center.

During the [[Western theater of the American Revolutionary War]], the area saw a major battle that pitted the Americans against the Shawnee and their indigenous allies. The Shawnees had formed an alliance with the British and the [[Lenape]], the [[Wyandot people|Wyandot]], and the [[Mingo]], refugees from warfare and displacements elsewhere, and had been raiding into Kentucky with the aim of driving out American settlers.<ref name="sudgen"/> On August 8, 1780, Piqua was attacked by American soldiers under the command of General [[George Rogers Clark]]. It was a ferocious battle that ended with the destruction of the Shawnee village and the exodus of its inhabitants. Clark's men spent two days burning as much as 500 acres of corn surrounding the village.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=2SBCAAAAIAAJ&q=451&pg=PA656 George Rogers Clark Papers 1771-1779 p.451-454 account of the battle]</ref><ref>Lodge, D. (1997). Shawnee Indians A monument commemorates their departure in Hardin. Shelby County Historical Society. [https://www.shelbycountyhistory.org/schs/indians/shawnee.htm]</ref>

[[Tecumseh]], the Shawnee chief and warrior who later took part in the war of resistance against the U.S. and its expansionist settlement policy, lived in Piqua from 1777 until 1780.<ref name="sudgen">{{cite book |last=Sugden |first=John |title=Tecumseh: A Life |location=New York |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |year=1997 |isbn=0-8050-4138-9|pages=30–31}}</ref>

The Springfield area was officially ceded to the United States by the Shawnee and their indigenous allies under the [[Treaty of Greenville]] on 1795, six years before the city was founded.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gaff |first=Alan D. |title=Bayonets in the Wilderness. Anthony Waynes Legion in the Old Northwest. |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |location=Norman |year=2004 |isbn=0-8061-3585-9 |page=366 }}</ref>