Blanchard's Fork Reserve was an

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Indian Reserve In Canada, an Indian reserve () or First Nations reserve () is defined by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty, that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band." ...

located in northwestern

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

along the

Blanchard River The Blanchard River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 19, 2011 tributary of the Auglaize River in northwestern Ohio in the United States. It drains a primarily rur ...

, also known as the Blanchard's Fork of the

Auglaize River The Auglaize River ( Shawnee: ''Kathinakithiipi'') is a tributary of the Maumee River in northwestern Ohio in the United States. It drains a primarily rural farming area in the watershed of Lake Erie. The name of the river was derived from the ...

, a tributary of the

Maumee River The Maumee River (pronounced ) (; ) is a river running in the Midwestern United States from northeastern Indiana into northwestern Ohio and Lake Erie. It is formed at the confluence of the St. Joseph River (Maumee River), St. Joseph and St. Mar ...

which ran to

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

. The Reserve was established under the 1817 Treaty at the Foot of the Rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie (). This group became known officially as the Ottawa of Blanchard's Fork. It consisted of within the exterior boundaries of the Reserve. Within the Reserve were the villages of Upper Tawa Town and the Lower Tawa Town. Lower Tawa Town, present-day

Ottawa, Ohio Ottawa is a village (United States)#Ohio, village and the county seat of Putnam County, Ohio, United States. It is located about southwest of Toledo, Ohio, Toledo. The population is 4,456 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Hist ...

, is reported to be the last Ottawa reservation active in Ohio. The area of the reserve was part of the

Great Black Swamp The Great Black Swamp (also known simply as the Black Swamp) was a glacier, glacially fed wetland in northwest Ohio and Northern Indiana, northeast Indiana, United States, that existed from the end of the Wisconsin glaciation until the late 19 ...

, and was not generally settled by whites until after the Civil War. The Reserve was ceded and dissolved under the 1831 Treaty of Miami Bay of Lake Erie (). In 1898, Charles Royce in ''Eighteenth Annual Report'' enumerated the Blanchard's Fork Reserve as Tract 167. After selling their land, the Ottawa of Blanchard's Fork moved to Kansas, and then to

Indian Territory Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United States, ...

, where they joined other Ottawa people. In 1904, their group, which included other Ottawas, numbered 179 people.

References

Former American Indian reservations in Ohio History of Ohio Odawa {{PutnamCountyOH-geo-stub

See also

References