<P> Article III . Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged . The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and, in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress; but laws founded in justice and humanity, shall from time to time be made for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them . </P> <P> Many Native Americans in Ohio, who were not parties, refused to acknowledge treaties signed after the Revolutionary War that ceded lands north of the Ohio River inhabited by them to the United States . In a conflict sometimes known as the Northwest Indian War, Blue Jacket of the Shawnees and Little Turtle of the Miamis formed a confederation to stop white expropriation of the territory . After the Indian confederation had killed more than 800 soldiers in two battles--the worst defeats ever suffered by the U.S. at the hands of the Indians--President Washington assigned General Anthony Wayne command of a new army, which eventually defeated the confederation and thus allowed European - Americans to continue settling the territory . </P> <P> On July 13, 1937, the U.S. Post Office issued a commemorative stamp that commemorated the 150th anniversary of the North West Ordinance of 1787 . The engraving on the stamp depicts a map of the United States at the time with the North West Territory between the figures of Manasseh Cutler (left) and Rufus Putnam . </P>

The northwest ordinance of 1787 set a precedent for other western territories by