William Wells ( soldier ) William Wells ( c . 1770 – 15 August 1812 ) , also known as Apekonit ( " Carrot top " ) , was the son - in - law of Chief Little Turtle of the Miami . He fought for the Miami in the Northwest Indian War . During the course of that war , he became an United States Army officer , and also served in the War of 1812 . Apekonit of the Miami . Wells was born at Jacob ' s Creek , Pennsylvania , the youngest son of Samuel Wells , a captain in the Virginia militia during the American Revolutionary War . The family moved to Kentucky when William was a small child , and his mother died soon after . Wells ' father was killed in an Indian raid on Beargrass Creek at what became Louisville , and the young boy was sent to live with a family friend . Three years later in 1782 , he was taken captive by Miami while on a hunting trip . Wells was 12 years old . Wells was adopted by a chief named Gaviahate ( " Porcupine " ) , and raised in the village of Kenapakomoko , on the Eel River in northern Indiana . His Miami name was " Apekonit " ( carrot ) , perhaps in reference to his red hair . He seems to have adapted to Miami life quite well , and accompanied war parties - sometimes as the decoy . Wells was located and visited by his brothers around 1788 or 1789 . He visited Louisville but remained with the Miami , perhaps because he had married a Wea woman and had a child . His wife and daughter were later captured in a raid by General James Wilkinson in 1791 , and presumed dead . Enraged , Wells organized a 300 - man " suicide squad " that fought with distinction against the U . S . Army at St . Clair ' s Defeat in northern Ohio , having been responsible for directly attacking and destroying the artillery squadron . Wells attracted the attention of war chief Little Turtle . He eventually married Little Turtle ' s daughter " Wanagapeth " ( " Sweet Breeze " ) , with whom he had four children . He served the tribe as a scout during his new father - in - law ' s wars with the United States . At Vincennes in 1793 , Wells met with his eldest brother , Samuel , a survivor of St . Clair ' s Defeat two year before . The two travelled to Fort Nelson , where they met with General Rufus Putnam . William Wells warned Putnam that the British had been inciting Native American tribes to violence against the United States and negotiated a release of prisoners as a goodwill gesture . General Putnam wanted to organize a grand council of tribal chiefs to discuss peace terms , but the Native Americans - still undefeated by the Americans - rejected his offer . Later , with Little Turtle ' s permission , Wells became a captain in the Legion of the United States , acting as a scout and interpreter for General " Mad Anthony " Wayne . Captain Wells led the First Sub - Legion to the battleground of St . Clair ' s Defeat ( which he had fought in ) , and located abandoned U . S . cannons , which the American Indians had buried . General Wayne ordered the Legion to bury the bones found , and then build Fort Recovery on the battlesite . When Native American forces under Blue Jacket attacked the fort on 30 June 1794 , Wells led a scouting mission that discovered British officers who had brought cannonballs and powder , not knowing that the United States had already recovered the buried cannons . Wells was wounded in the Battle of Fallen Timbers . He went on to act as an interpreter in treaty negotiations and state visits by Indian chiefs . William Wells , U . S . Indian Agent . Following the Treaty of Greenville , Chief Little Turtle asked that Wells be appointed as a US Indian Agent to the Miami . The U . S . built an agent ' s house in the newly renamed Fort Wayne , and William and Sweet Breeze , with their children , moved from Kentucky to resettle with the Miami . At the suggestion of General Wayne , Little Turtle and Wells traveled to Philadelphia to visit President George Washington . They were warmly received . Washington presented Little Turtle with a ceremonial sword , and Wells was given a pension of $ 20 a month , in compensation for his wounds at Fallen Timbers . The two traveled east again in 1797 to visit the new president , John Adams . When Thomas Jefferson became the United States ' third president , Wells requested that he establish a trading post at Fort Wayne to encourage friendly relations with the area natives . Jefferson did establish the post , but appointed John Johnston as manager . Johnston and Wells did not work well together , and each quickly came to resent the other . Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison at first favored Wells , and appointed him a Justice of the Peace . Wells was also charged with establishing a mail route between Fort Wayne and Fort Dearborn . Well ' s good standing with Harrison would soon sour , however , when he sided with his father - in - law , Little Turtle , in opposition to the Treaty of Vincennes , which gave large amounts of land to the Americans for settlement . Harrison responded by accusing Wells of opposing the Quaker Agriculture missions to the Miami . Wells appealed to General James Wilkinson , but Wilkinson sided with Harrison and Johnston . In 1805 , Governor Harrison sent General John Gibson and Colonel Francis Vigo to investigate Wells and Little Turtle on suspicion of fiscal corruption and instigation of the Miami against the United States . Their report concluded that Wells " seems more attentive to the Indians than the people of the United States . " After Sweet Breeze died in 1805 , William sent his daughters to live with his brother , Samuel Wells , in Kentucky . He and Little Turtle traveled to Vincennes , where they gave a " friendly disposition . . . toward the government , " Harrison wrote . " With Captain Wells , I have had an explanation , and have agreed to a general amnesty and act of oblivion for the past . " William and Little Turtle signed Harrison ' s Treaty of Grouseland . In 1808 , however , Wells led a group of Indian chiefs from different tribes , including Miami Chiefs Little Turtle and Richardville , to Washington , D . C . to meet directly with President Jefferson . This infuriated Secretary of War Henry Dearborn , who fired Wells and replaced him with his rival , John Johnston . In 1809 , William married his third wife , Mary Geiger , daughter of Colonel Frederick Geiger . They and Wells ' four children returned to Fort Wayne , where he received a discharge from the new U . S . Indian agent John Johnston . Wells had the support of the Miami chiefs and of Kentucky Senator John Pope and went to Washington , D . C . to challenge Johnston ' s decision . Ultimately , Well ' s position was left in the hands of territorial Governor William Henry Harrison who , though distrustful of Wells , sided with the Miami out of fear that they could join Tecumseh if provoked . William Wells continued to act as United States Indian Agent in Fort Wayne , and was able to keep the Miami out of Tecumseh ' s confederacy . He was the first to warn Secretary Dearborn in 1807 , of the growing movement led by Tecumseh and his brother . William ' s eldest brother , Colonel Samuel Wells , and his father - in - law , Frederick Geiger , were both at the Battle of Tippecanoe ; Geiger was wounded in the initial attack . Wells also established and managed a farm in Fort Wayne , which he jointly owned with his friend Jean François Hamtramck . He petitioned Congress for a tract of land at the confluence of the St . Joseph and St . Mary rivers in 1807 , which was granted and signed by President Jefferson . Little Turtle died in his home in 1812 , and was buried nearby . During the War of 1812 , Wells led a group of Miami Indians from Fort Wayne , Indiana , to aid the evacuation of Fort Dearborn , the tiny beleaguered settlement that eventually became Chicago . Among the Americans under siege at Fort Dearborn was his niece Rebekah Wells , wife of Nathan Heald . Wells ' intent was to offer protection to the garrison and their families as they abandoned the post and walked east to Fort Wayne . Negotiating with the Pottawattomi , who surrounded the fort along the Chicago River , they were allowed to leave the fort , but the destruction of whiskey and guns enraged the Pottawattomi , who then attacked once they had marched south from the fort , a massacre known as the Battle of Fort Dearborn . Nathan and Rebekah Heald were both wounded , but were taken into captivity by the Pottawattomi and eventually ransomed to the British . Wells , who was acting as a scout in advance of the party , knew the Indians would attack and had painted his face black : a sign of bravery , a sign to the Pottawattomi that he knew their intentions , and as a sign that he knew he was going to die . As the evacuated garrison walked down the beach , Wells rode in advance to keep an eye on the Pottawattomi , and he was one of the first to go down when they attacked . The " battle " took place in the dunes along Lake Michigan about a mile south of the Chicago River , in what is now downtown Chicago . Wells was shot and killed by the Potowatami s , who decapitated him and ate his heart . His opponents , although considering him a traitor to their cause , nonetheless sought to gain some of his courage by consuming his heart . Legacy . The following are named for William Wells :