... Native Indiana.
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Contrary to many far fetched ideas of where the state's name came from, Indiana is derived from Latin for "place of the Indian". Its capitol city, Indianapolis is derived from Latin and Greek for "city of the Indian". And yet both those names are perverted by the fact that no such peoples fully exist or participate in the current state of Indiana.
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Before the Europeans arrived their were a handful of differing tribes that all spoke similar languages and lived in similar ways. They were called Algonquian-speaking peoples by the Europeans that later arrived. One of these peoples was the great tribe of warriors known as the Miami people (or the Mihtohseeniaki).
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The Miami gave Indiana many of its current place names and river names. The Tippecanoe River, the Wabash River, Anderson, Muncie, and Mississinawa are all Miami names. Either derived from later chiefs or ancient names of the tribal traditions, these all seem common place to modern Hoosiers.
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And yet the Miami are one of the tribes that are more so forgotten than any other in the United States. Their name is applied to a city in nearly every state. A county in nearly every state. And yet their legacy was almost wiped out by the American government and the state of Indiana.
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The tale of their departure from the governing and running of Indiana happened while the state was still a territory. At first it was the Iroquois who began the push against the Miami. Then the Delaware. And finally the British and American governments. Yet for each adversary they faced their is a tale that persist of the Miami's fighting prowess... their warrior spirit.
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Before white people ever came to the Wabash Valley the Miami were busy building and constructing a system of society that would not die till the State of Indiana was formed. It was a society in which the man was the life force for his family, the hunter and supplier of meat. A society in which the woman was a nurturer for her family, the grower of grain and fostered of the young minds. This was a society that only differed in a few select ways from those that would replace it.
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The major difference the Miami had from the white culture that invaded was that it did not take war as lightly as the white Europeans. This was their home and they would defend it with every last drop of blood they had. This was their way of life and they would kill any person who threatened to take it away.
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Iroquois warned British about the "people down stream", a name for the Miami at the time, when they acquired the land from the French. This is how strongly the Miami defended themselves. That their native foes would lend their hand to the fight against them... ally with the very enemy that would later help destroy the Iroquois tribes.
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When the French first came to Kekionga, what would later be called Fort Wayne, they didn't seem to realize what horrific events they were putting in motion. So without forethought they French began to colonize the Indian Territory (a tract of land west of the Appalachian Mountains and east of the Mississippi River) by building wilderness forts. These very forts would be used later on by the English and American forces to destroy the native peoples. But for the French these forts were simply meant to defend their trade routes in the area... trade that was always lopsided in the Frenchman's favor.
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After the French and Indian War the last real French stronghold in America was handed over the British. And history would record that the this new European power was even less favorable to the Miami than the prior. For it was the British who began to employ what would come to be known as the Factory System. A system of starvation meant to deteriorate and decay native culture.
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The Factory System was a simple method of trade that forever indebted the native peoples to the white trade post supported first by the British and then by the American governments. In exchange for fur, meat, and local foods the Europeans would give the Natives firearms, gun powder, and cheaply made household supplies. Over a given time the number of fur pelts and pounds of meat required for one rifle would go up and never come down. This drove up the cost of the European goods while depressing the given currency of the native peoples. Thus creating a economic climate the Miami and their local allied could not understand.
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To take the Factory System to the next level the white traders would introduce alcohol while at the same time of introducing the native peoples to the concept of debt. This allowed the Miami to purchase goods without the exchange of food or fur. In return they would later be called upon to give up land to make up for the debt they did not know they had racked up.
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By the time the American Revolution came about the Miami had already begun to loose land to British traders. This caused a portion of the Miami bands to support the American rebels while the other bands (still "winning" in the trade with the British) to support their old trade partners. The custom of the Miami to support those who help you now divided the tribe.
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This divide would be quickly healed however when the newly created American Government began to look west. Suddenly the Miami found themselves once again at the hands of a white invader. This time however the Factory System would not be the only method of removing the Miami from their lands.
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As the 18Th century came a close and the 19Th century dawned the Miami found themselves ever increasingly desperate. They were loosing patches of land to a system of trade they did not fully understand. Their hunting grounds were now becoming barren and food was increasingly hard to find. Alcohol was causing the fabric of their tribal society to unravel as more and more warriors fell to its temptations. The end of the world was seemingly right around the corner.
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At the end of the American Revolution the Miami had tried to remain neutral in the tug-of-war that continued between the British the American governments. This seemed to cause many in Washington to question just why the Miami, a known warrior tribe, did not join the fight. And thus the American Army began its campaign to destroy the center of Miami culture... Kekionga (Fort Wayne, Indiana).
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For years the American Army made one attack after another against the Miami capitol. Each time the Americans threw more and more soldiers at the Miami at Kekionga. And every time the Americans where thrown back into Ohio. Finally the Americans massed in Ohio and then marched the largest force it could assemble to destroy the struggling Miami forces in Kekionga. This battle would be known as the St. Clair's Defeat. And it would be the largest defeat the Americans would suffer at the hands of a Native American force.
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(Chief Little Turtle)
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Also known as The Battle Of A Thousand Slain (or The Battle of the Wabash 1791), this Miami led force would kill all but 48 of the 1,000 American soldiers who attacked that day (this battle was five times as deadly as Custer's Last Stand and The Battle of Little Big Horn). Chief Little Turtle of the Miami would have his image engraved in Washington as a result of this victory for the Miami. Yet his people would now become the "scourge" of the American politicians back east.
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The Americans would not be outdone however. In retreat and ready to fall back over the Appalachian Mountains, the American forces attempted to regroup in Ohio. This attempt would prove to be an overall success since they could not be pushed out of region. This led Chief Blue Jacket, of the Shawnee, to make a final push against the Americans near modern day Toledo Ohio.
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The Miami in this case offered their support seemingly out of resentment that their capitol had been attacked repeatedly by the American Army. However, unlike The Battle Of A Thousand Slain, the Miami would not make up nearly as large a number of the fighting force that attacked that day.
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This battle would become known as The Battle of Fallen Timbers. The American commander "Mad" Anthony Wayne would be victorious in defending the American position. However the numbers he would go on to report for the battle statistics were skewed at best.
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By the end of the fighting at The Battle of Fallen Timbers (1794) the Native American forces had lost somewhere between 19-44 warriors. The Americans had lost a known 33 soldiers and had suffered a hundred wounded. This victory was only a victory due to the retreat of Blue Jacket's forces. Militarily speaking it was a skirmish more than anything else when of the 1,500 Native Americans the 3,000 Americans had only be able to kill around 19 fleeing warriors.
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It was this defeat however that caused the largest lost of Miami land to date. In 1795 the Treaty of Greenville was signed. And as usual, the American forces present refused to explain to the Miami what it was they were being forced to sign.
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It was at this time that the starvation, the lack of hunting lands, and the ever encroaching American settlements drove the Miami to desperation. Gathering around Prophet's Town Indiana the Miami began to side almost exclusively with the Shawnee warrior known as Tecumseh. The message of the Shawnee "Prophet" was one of redemption... of victory. A message that any oppressed people would rally around.
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Later in the American Genocide the Plains Indians would rally around a similar message. Their "ghosts dance" would be banned and even lead to the massacres that now trademark the American Genocide. For the Miami this message was one that they could not refuse. After all, they were one of the tribes now bordering the American lands. They were one of the tribes now endangered by the expansionist methods of the American government.
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Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison would now go on to use the War of 1812 as an excuse to attack and destroy any Miami villages he could find in the Indiana Territory. The Genocide of the Miami was officially in full swing.
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A common tactic of the militias Harrison employed was to lure warriors of the Miami out of villages only to attack the villages while the women and children were left undefended. This method was used on almost all villages that lay outside the sphere of influence of Kekionga, the still beating heart of Miami society.
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Harrison then made repeated attacks on Kekionga only to find that the Miami would not nor seemingly could not be defeated there. This led the governor to turn back toward the weaker tribes and for a short period of time a brief peace with the Miami.
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It was in this time of peace that many American politicians sought out native tribes in Indiana that happened to be shaky allies of the Miami. Finding a faulty ally in the Delaware, or Lenape, the territorial politicians sought to purchase modern Fort Wayne from a tribe that had no claim to its lands.
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In 1826 the Miami sought to save Kekionga from sell and invasion by signing a treat with the Indiana Territory. This treaty, the Treaty of Mississinawa handed over a vast portion of Miami territory. It also forced the Miami to succeed the idea that they owned the land as a people and forced them to divide the remaining land up to individual Miami men.
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This was a method that the American politicians were just beginning to perfect. It allowed the territorial politicians to attack the Miami as individuals and not as a united force. It also flew in the face of the Miami culture.
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One by one the Miami fell victim to what many Democrats today would call "predatory lending". And one by one the Miami lost their lands to white settlers who then refused to pay an "Indian" for land. Those who fought back were legally hunted down and killed by the Indiana Rangers.
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Starvation and disease now claimed more Miami than ever before. Their strong warrior society was dieing a slow and painful death. The territorial politicians had defeated them through economics where their soldiers could not defeat them in battle. Fort Wayne was lost when the remaining Miami signed the Treaty of the Wabash in 1840.
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The federal government in Washington now began to remove the Miami in mass as a method of disrupting and destroying the Indiana Native American trade. The influence of British forts in the north was now destroyed as well. And the Genocide of the Miami was now entering its final stages.
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Forcing the death marches of Miami to Kansas in 1846, the American government and Indiana government claimed the remaining Miami lands. Those Miami that remained were forced to sign and recite allegiance to the American government. They were also forced to deny any allegiance to the Miami tribe. The land the remaining Miami claimed was allotted to individual male Miami and scattered so as not to form a block of Native American land.
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The traditions of the Miami were lost when they were forced to march to Kansas and then to Oklahoma. Kekionga was renamed and now white owned. Their strong warrior society was now forced to be that of servitude to a white conqueror. The lands to which they were forced did not even remotely resemble the land from which they claimed to have been formed... a land from which they claim to have been born as a people. Corn didn't grow in Kansas just by simply dropping it in a little dirt mound. Fish didn't even look the same in this alien place. Kansas and Oklahoma might as well have been Hell.
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For the Eastern Band of Miami the last stage of Genocide had begun. Denial.
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To this day the Miami that did not leave Indiana are not recognized by the federal government. Despite having been recognized in 1854 by a treaty with the American government, the United States will not recognize the Miami. For if it did they would then have to recognize the atrocious nature of our relationship with the Miami people. We would have to recognize that we did in fact commit genocide against the Miami people. We attempted to destroy in part or in whole the Miami culture, its people, its way of life. And for the most part we did just that.
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Senator Richard Lugar, who will not be in politics much longer, offered a bill that would recognize the Miami back in the late 1990s. It was never accepted. His home state didn't even seem to realize the importance of this bill. His fellow Hoosiers don't remember the Miami despite their capitol city being founded upon a Miami village.
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The war to eradicate the Miami did not end with the removal of the majority of the Miami people. It continues in the history books. It continues with every denial that comes forth through the simple deletion of their history from that of the Indiana State History. It is a war without end as long as the American federal government continues to refuse to recognize the Miami people as a whole and not just focus on those they have subjugated in a foreign land.
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