When the American Revolution ended,the U.S. and Britain reached a comprehensivepeace in the Treaty of Paris. Among the important terms of thetreaty, Britain recognized the colonies as free and relinquishedterritorial claims to them. The two sides then negotiated theboundaries that separated the United States from the British coloniesin present-day Canada.Almost immediately,individual states in America rejected certain provisions and ignoredthem outright, a hallmark characteristic of American federalism thatwould lead to the Civil War 80 years later. Other problems includeddisputes along the boundary with Canada. Some of these problems would fester heading into the 19thcentury, and eventually the British and Americans would go to waragain in 1812.The new United States was faced with afundamental problem: to expand, it had to settle lands to the west ofthe Appalachian Mountains, ceded to it by the British. However, themountains were occupied by Native American groups who had no desireto make way for white settlers.The conflicts thatfollowed consisted mostly of the Native Americans suffering defeat inthe face of a better-equipped adversary, interspersed with bindingtreaties, which, on the side of the federal government, proved notvery binding at all. Occasionally, however, there arose a Native  American leader of such ability that such defeats were temporarilyreversed, and Little Turtle, the war chief of the Miami tribe, wasone such man. Under his leadership, a confederation of Miami andother tribes inflicted the worst defeat ever suffered by an Americanarmy in the newly independent nation. Almost a quarter of the Army’stotal strength was lost in a single battle, but while later NativeAmerican leaders such as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse have becomelegends, Little Turtle is not as well-remembered.