The United States government lacked the funds to equip an army to deal with the American Indian threat.
American Indians hoped that St. Clair would agree to establish a American Indian reservation but St. Clair refused and demanded that the chiefs agree to the reservation boundary established in the Treaty of Fort McIntosh in 1785.
Then St. Clair threatened the American Indians with attack if they refused and then proceeded to bribe them with three thousand dollars in presents.