Little Turtle, also called Chief Michikinikwa or Meshikinoquak, was a leader of the Miami Nation who rallied several tribes and defeated the Federalist troops in the Northwest Indian Wars (1785–1795). This address was delivered on January 4, 1802, and directed to President Thomas Jefferson and the Great Council of the Sixteen Fires—a reference to Congress, representing the sixteen U.S. states that existed at the time. The address inspired the passage of the Indian Nonintercourse Act of 1802, one of several related measures that established Native American territorial boundaries and regulated trade between white and Native Americans.