Wabash

The Wabash River flows through the North American interior towards the Ohio and Mississippi, linking the Great Lakes approaches with the lands to the south. Its name comes from a Miami-Illinois word associated with white or shining water. Miami, Wea, Piankashaw and other peoples lived along the valley, whose waterways and carrying places later drew French traders and missionaries.

In 1717 the French built Fort Ouiatenon on the middle Wabash near Wea villages, followed by a post at Vincennes farther downstream. American forces destroyed Ouiatenon and nearby Indigenous settlements in 1791. In 1808 the Shawnee leaders Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa established a new community near the junction of the Tippecanoe and Wabash; fighting there in 1811 marked another stage in the struggle over the valley.