When Little Turtle was unable to persuade the leaders of the tribal confederacy to negotiate peace, he stepped down as the intertribal war chief. Little Turtle is said to have ceded command to Blue Jacket, although he retained leadership of his own group of Miami tribesmen. Little Turtle's son-in-law, William Wells, a white man who was born in Kentucky and lived among the Miami for eight years after his capture in 1784, also sensed the defeat of the Indian alliance and switched his alliance to the Americans. Wells served as a scout for General Wayne's troops, and later as an Indian Agent for the U.S government.