Little Turtle's grave was found on Lawton Place in 1912 · Washington's sword proved it. — Famous Stories & the Record, Fort Wayne

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A strong circumstantial identification, reported at the time. On 4 July 1912 the Lochner brothers, digging a cellar at 634 Lawton Place, uncovered Miami burials in the known burial ground by William Wells's farm. J. M. Stouder's account (Journal-Gazette, 4 Aug 1912; reprinted in the Indiana Magazine of History) lists eight silver bracelets, three silver medals, 23 one-inch silver crosses, and “one sword, with silver hilt, wrapped with gold braid, which we are certain is that presented to the chief by General George Washington.” The skull went to the Smithsonian. The goods match documented gifts, but the identification is an inference over one of 25+ burials on the site, and the 1912 headline's “beyond all doubt” overstates it.

His birth year, c.1747 in some sources, c.1752 in others. His death date, 14 July 1812, is consistent everywhere.

Primary account: Indiana Magazine of History, scholarworks.iu.edu; memorial plot: acgsi.org

What became of the grave goods is a matter of fuller record than the identification itself. The National Park Service's 2016 notice under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (Federal Register, 16 December 2016) records 76 cultural items removed from the burial in 1912 at 634 Lawton Place, where a house was being built for Dr. George W. Gillie by the builders Albert and Charles Lochner; the collector Jacob M. Stouder acquired many of them. The Historical Society's own staff and consultants formally determined the objects to be from Little Turtle's burial, and on 12 June 1960 the Society dedicated the small park and memorial plaque that still mark the Lawton Place site. The 2016 notice is a formal intent to repatriate the items to lineal descendants and the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, with the Pokagon Band consulted. Stouder's fuller inventory — eight silver bracelets, two silver anklets, three silver medals, 23 one-inch and four six-inch silver crosses, four silver brooches, earrings, shell beads, the remnant of a gun and a pistol, vermilion pigment — is the checklist the Washington's-sword story rests on. Little Turtle died on 14 July 1812 at the Fort Wayne home of his son-in-law, Capt. William Wells, and was buried with military honours.

Added sources: Federal Register, Vol. 81, No. 242 (16 December 2016), FR Doc. 2016-30338, via govinfo; Stouder account, Indiana Magazine of History; ACGSI cemetery page

Little Turtle's grave was found on Lawton Place in 1912 · Washington's sword proved it.

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