President George Washington recalled Wayne from civilian life in order to lead an expedition in the Northwest Indian War which had been a disaster for the United States up till that point, particularly with the news of St. Clair's Defeat. Many American Indians in the Northwest Territory had sided with the British in the Revolutionary War, but the British had ceded any sovereignty over the land to the United States in the Treaty of Paris of 1783. The Indians living in the region quickly became embroiled in conflicts with American settlers who were flooding into the region in the aftermath of the war. The Western Confederacy achieved major victories in 1790 and 1791 under the leadership of Blue Jacket of the Shawnees and Little Turtle of the Miami tribe. They were encouraged and supplied by the British, who had refused to evacuate their fortifications in the region despite having agreed to do so in the Treaty of Paris, pointing to American refusal to honor the debt-agreements that they had agreed to pay as signs that the Treaty was not yet applicable.