Simon Girty

Simon Girty (14 November 1741 – 18 February 1818) was an interpreter with the British Indian Department during the American Revolutionary War and Northwest Indian War. As a child he and his brothers James and George were captured and adopted by Native Americans. Freed after living with the Seneca for seven years, Girty worked as a trader and interpreter. During the American Revolution he became disillusioned with the Patriot cause, and in 1778, fled to Fort Detroit where he was hired as an interpreter for the British Indian Department. Girty accompanied Britain's Indigenous allies during the 1780 expedition against Kentucky's frontier settlements and was present at Lochry's Defeat in 1781. Girty was held complicit when the Lenape tortured Colonel William Crawford to death following the Battle of Sandusky. He continued to serve with the British Indian Department for many years after the 1783 Peace of Paris. Girty witnessed the defeat of the Northwestern Confederacy at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. After the British withdrew from Fort Detroit following the Jay Treaty, he settled across the Detroit River near Amherstburg where he died in 1818.