Allen County, Indiana Genealogy

Summary Under the Criteria and Evidence for Proposed Findinq Aqainst Federal Acknowledgment of the Miami Nation of Indians of the State of Indiana, Inc. Prepared in response to a petition submitted to the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs for Federal acknowledgment that this group exists as an Indian Tribe. Approved July 12, 1990 United States Department of the Interior, Office of Federal Acknowledgement MNI-V001-D004 324 pages.

July 5, 2023 post by the Myaamia Center on Facebook:

Each summer, Myaamia Center staff travel to both Noošonke Siipionki ‘Miami, Oklahoma’ and Kiihkayonki ‘Fort Wayne, Indiana’ to participate in the Miami Tribe’s Eemamwicki educational programs. This year’s program theme is kiikinaana ‘Our Homes.’ Over the course of a week, participants are led through a series of activities to learn about the places at the center of Myaamia life today and throughout history. To learn more about Myaamia homes, click here: niikinaana – Our Homes (FAQ)

April 21, 2023 post by the Myaamia Center on Facebook:

As many celebrate ašiihkiwi ‘Earth’ and its ecology tomorrow for Earth Day, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the importance of Earth’s changing ecology to Myaamiaki ‘Myaamia people.’ The Myaamia Kiilhswaakani ‘Myaamia Lunar Calendar’ reflects the ecological changes of the Myaamia traditional homelands. Each month is determined by the phases of the moon and focuses on a specific change in the ecology taking place during that time period. Myaamiaki ‘Myaamia people’ often rely on these specific changes to keep track of time and seasons.

You can learn more about the Lunar Calendar and its connections to ecology here: https://aacimotaatiiyankwi.org/ecology/

May 10, 2023 post by the Myaamia Center on Facebook:

Senior Spotlight:

Gretchen Spenn, a senior from Fort Wayne, Indiana, spent her senior year conducting research for her project, “Wiihsinitaawi, ‘Let’s Eat!’ While studying nutrition and dietetics at Miami University, Gretchen wanted to explore the sovereignty and peoplehood of the Miami Tribe through Myaamia food and recipes. Gretchen compiled her research into a cookbook that she hopes to someday share with the Myaamia community with the goals of encouraging community members to use Myaamia foods and recipes in their everyday lives, as well as create and contribute their own culturally significant recipes to the book.

[Each year, seniors in the Myaamia Heritage Program spend the year working on an independent research project, encouraging them to use the knowledge they’ve gained from the Myaamia Heritage Program and their coursework at Miami University to give back to the Myaamia community.]

May 11, 2023 post by the Myaamia Center on Facebook:

Senior Spotlight: Peepinšihšia ‘Abby Strack’, a senior from Fort Wayne, Indiana, spent her senior year conducting research for her senior project, “Who are the Miami?” While studying primary education at Miami University, Abby was interested in exploring how to share her Myaamia identity with students in the classroom. She developed this project into an in-class activity, where students learn about her Myaamia identity, and then they highlight one of their identities to share with classmates. Abby hopes to use this curriculum in her future classrooms after graduation.

[Each year, seniors in the Myaamia Heritage Program spend the year working on an independent research project, encouraging them to use the knowledge they’ve gained from the Myaamia Heritage Program and their coursework at Miami University to give back to the Myaamia community.] 

Miami Presents: History of the Miami Tribe by Miami University Alumni Association Streamed live on Apr 13, 2022 on YouTube.
Just one video in the Myaamia Center Webinar Series
Miami University and the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma first connected in 1972 when Chief Forest Olds, having heard about a university in Ohio that shared a name with his Tribal nation, showed up on campus unexpectedly during a visit to Cincinnati. What came of that surprise encounter is a now 50-year-long partnership between the two Miamis - one they plan to commemorate throughout 2022 including with this series of webinars. Join us to learn more about the Miami Tribe, the relationship between the Miami Tribe and Miami University, as well as the relationship outcomes, including the work of the Myaamia Center and the Myaamia Heritage Program.

The sovereign Miami Tribe of Oklahoma is centered in what is today northeast Oklahoma but maintains many ongoing connections to their historic homelands that include what is today western Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, southern Michigan, and southern Wisconsin. This presentation will follow the path of the Miami Tribe from the era before contact with Europeans, through the maelstrom of colonization, and conclude by providing an overview of how this history affects the educational needs of Miami Tribe citizens today.

George Ironstrack is a citizen of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and the Assistant Director of the Myaamia Center at Miami University. He has participated in Myaamia language renewal projects as both a student and a teacher since the mid-1990s. Examples of his writing and editing can be found on the Myaamia Community Blog: aacimotaatiiyankwi.org.

October 6, 2021 post by the Myaamia Center on Facebook:

On this date in 1846, 175 years ago, the forced removal of the Miami Tribe began in Peru, IN. Follow and read the Myaamia Community Blog to learn more about this forced removal and its ongoing impact on Myaamia people.

Removal – Day 1 October 6, 1846 Peru, Indiana

In October 1846, the Miami Nation, the last tribal nation in Indiana, was forcibly removed by the United States military to a new reservation west of the Mississippi River, in present-day eastern Kansas. However, not all Myaamia (Miami Indian) people were removed to the Miami Reservation.

As the Miami Nation prepared for their forced removal, Myaamia leaders had secured the exemption of four Myaamia bands (the Richardville, Godfroy, Meshingomesia, and Slocum/Bundy bands), numbering approximately 150 people. The Richardville Band was exempted in the Treaty of 1838 and the Godfroy and Meshingomesia bands were exempted in the subsequent Treaty of 1840, which authorized Myaamia removal. The Slocum/Bundy Band was exempt five years later, in 1845, through an Act of Congress.

In the four years after removal roughly 109 additional Myaamia people, most of whom had walked back from the Miami Reservation, received further exemptions from Congress. These 259 Myaamia people and their descendants became known as Indiana Myaamiaki or Indiana Miamies.

Copied from Survivance and Continued Existence of Native Peoples in Indiana on the IHS Blog of the Indiana Historical Society.

Telling Our Story: A Living History of the Myaamia has lots of Miami Indian history. The Home page states: Telling our Story: The Living History of the Myaamia provides teachers and home schooling families with a curriculum for teaching Myaamia (Miami Tribe) history to grades 3-12. The curriculum includes primary sources, images, videos, and lesson plans, which are all linked to the relevant content standards for Ohio, Indiana, and Oklahoma. As a whole, the six sections of this curriculum address Myaamia history beginning with the pre-contact period (pre-1600s) and concluding with contemporary issues. This curriculum is a living document and more lessons will be added over time. Be sure to check back regularly! Please email or call, with questions or comments, George Ironstrack at the Myaamia Center at Miami University – ironstgm@miamioh.edu, 513-529-5648.

Myaamia Removal posted March 22, 2021 by Friends of the Rivers on YouTube.
See also Myaamia Removal at Telling Our Story: A Living History of the Myaamia.

Myaamia Center Facebook removal dates map
and October 6, 1846 Peru, Indiana blog

October 6, 1846 is the forced removal date of the Miami Tribe which began in Peru, Indiana. Read Removal – Day 1 October 6, 1846 Peru, Indiana posted by Diane Hunter on October 6, 2021 on Aacimotaatiiyankwi the Myaamia Community Blog to learn more about this forced removal and its ongoing impact on Myaamia people. Removal map on right is on the blog and linked from their October 6, 2021 post by Myaamia Center on Facebook.

The 1750 map below is linked from meehkweelintamankwi aanchsahaaciki ‘Remembering Our Forced Removal’ co-authored by Diane Hunter and Kristina Fox on their October 6, 2022 Aacimotaatiiyankwi blog which also has the 1846 removal map.

Myaamia villages throughout Myaamionki circa 1750 - Aacimotaatiiyankwi blog
Map showing Myaamia villages throughout Myaamionki circa 1750. Map by Joshua Sutterfield and annotations by George Ironstrack.

The Aacimotaatiiyankwi website has many interesting pages, one in particular with links to more articles is titled: Removal Commemoration Meehkweelintamankwi Aanchsahaaciki ‘Remembering Our Forced Removal’ the page states: October 2021 will mark 175 years since this momentous and tragic event began on October 6, 1846. The 1846 removal took nearly a month to complete, but the impacts of removal continue to be felt by all Myaamiaki no matter where we live today. Meehkweelintamankwi Aanchsahaaciki ‘Remembering Our Forced Removal’, a year of remembrance and commemoration, will begin during our Winter Gathering at Home event (February 12-13, 2021) and will continue with monthly activities through February 2022.

Picking Up the Threads of Our Knowledge: Revitalization of Myaamia "Miami Indian" Language & Culture posted Mar 21, 2022 by IU Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology on YouTube
After 100 years of forced removals, population fragmentation, land loss, and boarding schools the language of the Myaamia people fell into a state of dormancy. In the 1990s, the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma initiated a national effort to revitalize Myaamiaataweenki and created programs to help breathe new life into the language. The story of reclamation and revitalization of Myaamiaataweenki demonstrates the restorative healing effects that language and cultural revitalization continues to have for Myaamia people. Speaker: George Ironstrack, citizen of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and Assistant Director of the Myaamia Center at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Originally presented September 2021. Event co-sponsored by Themester 2021: Resilience, an initiative of the IU College of Arts and Sciences.

History Center celebrates Miami Indian Heritage Days posted September 2, 2017 by WANE 15 News on YouTube

Miami Indian Heritage Days programs are held from 1-4 pm on the first Saturday of the month, May through November at the Chief Richardville House, 5705 Bluffton Road, Fort Wayne from History, Culture Intersect at Miami Indian Heritage Days on Fort Wayne Insider blog April 30, 2012 by Lauren.

1. Over 50 Miami Indians items in the History Center Digital Collection on the mDON mastodon Digital Object Network.
2. The Miami Indians of Indiana: A Persistent People, 1654–1994 by Stewart Rafert. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1996. Biblio has copies for sale in various condition.
3. An American Indian tribe that was forced to relocate from Indiana in the mid-19th century has announced plans to open an extension office in Fort Wayne to provide historic preservation consulting and cultural programming in the tribe’s ancestral homeland. Chief Douglas Lankford and other leaders of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma are scheduled to visit Fort Wayne on Friday to welcome community members to the tribe’s first cultural resources extension office, The News-Sentinel reported. Copied from Miami Indians opening extension office in Fort Wayne published January 19, 2015 on NativeTimes.
4. CREO Cultural Resources Extension Office has two staff members and more information on the Fort Wayne office and 10 acres of land purchased in November 2015. Their website states: The (CREO) promotes the knowledge of myaamia history, language, culture, and traditions. The office forwards community development in the myaamia ancestral homelands through serving local Miami Tribal citizens in Indiana, working with local governments and organizations to maintain and protect our Tribal sovereignty and our cultural identity. The CREO forwards the goals of the Miami Nation in Indiana.
5. The De Rome family by Wilkins, Cleo Goff Publication date 1972 on Archive.org has information on the Indiana-Purdue Regional Campus at Fort Wayne occuping a part of the DeRome Reserve, land granted by the government to Princess Maria Christina, a half breed Miami Indian, by the Miami Treaty of October 23, 1826. See our De Rome Family section.
6. Miami Nation of Indiana home of the CREO above has other links such as Miami Culture and History
7. Miami Nation of Indiana and Miami people on Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
8. Re-evaluating "The Fort-Wayne Manuscript": William Wells and the Manners and Customs of the Miami Nation a 31 page article by William Heath in Volume 106, Issue 2, June 2010 of the Indiana Magazine of History journal in the archives at Indiana University Scholarworks

9. Borrowable book The last of the Miamis by Winger, Otho, 1877-1946, Publication date 1935, on Archive.org.

10. "Miami Indians" Search gives 46 results, and another with just Miami Indian no "quotes" gives 615 results on Archive.org
11. Google Miami Indian Search results

12. April 7, 2023 post by Newspapers.com

    on Facebook:

    New Indian Territory and Oklahoma papers! Learn more on our blog! 

    New Indian Territory and Oklahoma Papers! March 28, 2023, Jenny Ashcraft on Fishwrap The official blog of Newspapers.com.

    If you have ancestors from Indian Territory or Oklahoma or are interested in Oklahoma history, you are in for a treat. We’ve partnered with the Oklahoma Historical to digitize nearly 15 million new pages of Indian Territory and Oklahoma newspapers, bringing in more than 20 million pages! These papers date back to 1844 when Oklahoma was still Indian Territory.

    In 1828, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which forcibly relocated thousands of Native Americans to reservation lands in Indian Territory (which later became Oklahoma). By 1880, more than 60 Tribal Nations inhabited the area.

Miami Indians of Indiana : March 27, 1866 ... by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Indian Affairs; Windom, William, 1827-1891; Speed, James, 1812-1887; Miami Tribe. Treaties, etc. United States, 1854 June 5, Publication date 1866, on Archive.org

Early history of the Maumee Valley by Hosmer, Hezekiah Lord, 1814-1893, Publication date 1858, on Archive.org,
Topics Miami Indians, Indians of North America

Journal of Captain William Trent from Logstown to Pickawillany, A.D. 1752 : now published for the first time from a copy in the archives of the Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio, together with letters of Governor Robert Dinwiddie ; an historical notice of the Miami confederacy of Indians ; a sketch of the English poet at Pickawillany, with a short biography of Captain Trent, and other papers never before printed by Trent, William, 1715-1787?; Goodman, Alfred Thomas, 1845-1871; Dinwiddie, Robert, 1693-1770, Publication date 1871, on Archive.org.

Pl. CXXVI, Map 19 (Foldout, Map) shows Indian lands and names in Indiana on this map at the back of the book Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution by Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology, Publication date 1895, on Archive.org. This same image P. CXXVI, map 19 (Foldout, Map) is at BHL Biodiversity Heritage Library and an upright zoomable image for purchase as Historical Map of Indiana - Indian Lands - 1896 at WorldMapsOnline.

Zoomed image of Pl. CXXVI, Map 19 (Foldout, Map) shows Indian lands and names in Indiana on this map at the back of the book Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution by Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology, Publication date 1895, on Archive.org.

The early settlement of the Miami country by Ferris, Ezra, Publication date 1897, on Archive.org.
PREFACE. The following letters were not originally written for the Indiana Historical Society, or printed by it, but it is deemed proper to publish them in connection with the earlier work of the Society because the author, Dr. Ezra Ferris, was a charter member of the Society, and the editor, Oliver B. Torbet, who induced him to write them, was also a member. The Independent Press , of Lawrenceburg, Ind., was started in the fall of 1850, the first number appearing on October 18, of that year. The proprietors, Henry L. Brown and James E. Goble, attended to the mechanical and business departments, and employed Mr. Torbet to conduct the editorial department. Mr. Torbet was ambitious to make the paper popular, and wisely undertook to secure a series of historical articles from Dr. Ferris, who was acknowledged on all sides to know more of the early history of that region than any other person. As the Press was a Whig paper, and Dr. Ferris was a very earnest Whig, the arrangement was speedily made, and the first article was ready for the Press on December 12, 1850. The paper was sold to Rev. W. W. Hibben on August 22, 1851, but the letters were continued for some time afterwards, as appears by their dates.

The national decline of the Miami Indians by Dillon, John B. (John Brown), 1808?-1879, Publication date 1897, on Archive.org.

The land of the Miamis by Barce, Elmore, 1872-1945, Publication date 1922, on Archive.org

The lost sister among the Miamis by Winger, Otho, 1877-1946, Publication date 1936, on Archive.org.
He also wrote The Potawatomi Indians by Winger, Otho, 1877-1946, Publication date 1939 and more.

The Miami Indians on page 156 in Pamphlets 7th Series by Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, Publication date 1954, on Archive.org.
FOREWORD The Miami Indians occupied the land lying about the confluence of the St. Joseph and the St. Mary's rivers near the present site of Fort Wayne. Their contact with the early settlers, both pacific and otherwise, was intinnate and constant until their final removal shortly after 1840. This pamphlet is a reproduction of the article "Miami" in the HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIANS NORTH OF MEXICO, edited by Frederick Webb Hodge, Bulletin 30, pp. 852-54. Abbreviations have been spelled in full, and minor textual changes have been made to facilitate reading. There is also a Part 2.

Page 852, Miami in Handbook of American Indians north of Mexico by Hodge, Frederick Webb, 1864-1956; Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology, Publication date 1912, on Archive.org.

Miami Indian stories, told by Clarence Godfroy. Compiled and edited by Martha Una McClurg by Godfroy, Clarence, 1880-, Publication date 1961, on Archive.org,

Back to top