The Miami Indians

Miami Chief Pacanne

1778

The Miami are a Native American nation originally found in what is now Indiana, southwest Michigan, and western Ohio. The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma is the only federally recognized tribe of Miami Indians in the United States. Early Miami people are considered to belong to the Fischer Tradition of Mississippian culture. Mississippian societies were characterized by maize-based agriculture,chiefdom-level social organization, extensive regional trade networks, hierarchical settlement patterns, and other factors. The historical Miami engaged in hunting, as did other Mississippian peoples. During historic times, the Miami were known to have migrated south from Wisconsin from the mid 17th century to the mid 18th century, by which time they had settled on the Wabash River. The migration was likely a results of their being invaded by the more powerful Iroquois, who traveled far from their territory of New York for better hunting during the beaver fur trade. When French missionaries first encountered the Miami in the mid-17th century, the indigenous people were living around the shores of Lake Michigan. The Miami had reportedly moved there because of pressure from the Iroquois further east.

Chief "Little Turtle"

They generally sided with the French in the French and Indian and Pontiac's wars, and with the English against the Americans in the later wars. Their great chief, Mishikinakwa, or Little Turtle (1752-1812), led the allied Indian forces which defeated Harmar in 1790 and St. Clair in 1791, but was himself defeated by Wayne in 1794, resulting in the famous Treaty of Greenville in the next year, by which the Indians surrendered the greater part of Ohio.

The Northwest Indian War ended with the Battle of Fallen Timbers and Treaty of Greenville. Those Miami who still resented the United States gathered around Ouiatenon and Prophetstown, where Shawnee Chief Tecumseh led a coalition of Native American nations. Territorial governor William Henry Harrison and his forces destroyed Prophetstown in 1811, having used the War of 1812 as pretext for attacks on Miami villages throughout the Indiana Territory.

After the close of the War of 1812, in which again they fought on the English side, the Miami began a series of treaty sales culminating in 1840, by which they sold all their territory excepting a small tract of about ten square miles, agreeing to remove west of the Mississippi. The final removal to Kansas was made by the main Miami band under military pressure in 1846, the Wea and Piankishaw having preceded them by a new of years. The main emigration in 1846 numbered about 650. The small reserved tract in Indiana was allotted in severalty to its owners in 1872 and their tribal relations were dissolved. In 1854 the united Wea and Piankishaw were officially consolidated with the Peoria andKaskaskia, the remnant of the ancient Illinois, and in 1867 they removed altogether to their present lands under the Quapaw agency in north-east Oklahoma (Indian Ter.). In 1873 the remnant of the emigrant Miami, having sold their lands in Kansas, followed their kindred to the same agency.

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