High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Fort Ouiatenon was the first fortified European settlement in what is now called Indiana. It was a French trading post at the joining of the Tippecanoe River and the Wabash River located approximately three miles southwest of modern-day West Lafayette. The name `Ouiatenon` is a French rendering of the name in the Wea language, waayaahtanonki, meaning `place of the whirlpool`.