BULL. SO] 



MIAMI 



853 



in Wisconsin, when the whites first heard 

 of them, formed but a part of the tril)e, 

 and that other bodies were already in 

 N. E. IlUnois and n. Indiana. As the 

 Miami and their allies were found later 

 on the Wabash in Indiana and in n. w. 

 Ohio, in which latter territory they gave 

 their name to three rivers, it would seem 

 that they had moved s. e. fmm the local- 

 ities where first known within historic 

 times. Little Turtle, their famous chief, 

 said: "My fathers kindled the first fire at 

 Detroit; thence they extended their lines 

 to the headwaters of the Scioto; thence 

 to its mouth; thence down the Ohio to 

 the mouth of the Wabash, and thence to 

 Chicago over L. Michigan." When Vin- 

 cennes was sent by Oov. Vaudreville in 

 1705 on a mission to the Miami they were 

 found occupying principally the territory 

 N. w. of the upper Wabash. There was a 

 Miami village at Detroit in 1703, but their 

 chief settlement was still on St Joseph r. 

 In 1711 the INIiami and the Wea had three 

 villages on the St Joseph, Maumee, and 

 Wal)ash. Kekionga, at the liead of the 

 Maumee, became tlie chief seat of the 

 Miami proper, while Ouiatenon, on the 

 Wabash, was the headquarters of the Wea 

 branch. By the encroachments of the 

 Potawatomi, Kickapoo, and other north- 

 ern tribes the Miami were driven from St 

 Joseph r. and the country n. w. of the 

 Wabash. They sentout colonies to the e. 

 and formed settlements on Miami r. in 

 Ohio, and perhaps as far e. as the Scioto. 

 This country they held until the peace of 

 1763, when they retired to Indiana, and 

 the abandoned country was occuiiied by 

 the Shawnee. They took a prominent 

 part in all the Indian wars in Ohio valley 

 until the close of the war of 1812. Soon 

 afterward they began to sell their lands, 

 and by 1827 had disposed of most of their 

 holdings in Indiana and had agreed to re- 

 move to Kansas, whence they went later 

 to Indian Ter., where the remnant still 

 resides. In all treaty negotiations they 

 were considered as original owners of the 

 AVa>)ash country and all of w. Ohio, 

 while the other tribes in that region were 

 regarded as tenants or intruders on their 

 lands. A considerable part of the tribe, 

 connnonly known as Meshingomesia's 

 band, continued to reside on a reserva- 

 tion in Wabash co., Ind., until 1872, when 

 the land was divided among the surviv- 

 ors, then numbering about 300. 



The Miami men were described in 1718 

 as "of medium height, well built, heads 

 rather round than oblong, countenances 

 agreeable rather than sedate or morose, 

 swift on foot, and excessively fond of 

 racing." The women were generally 

 well clad in deerskins, while the men 

 used scarcely any covering and were tat- 

 tooed all over the body. They were hard- 



working, and raised a species of maize 

 unlike that of tlie Indians of Detroit, 

 described as "white, of the same size 

 as the other, the skin nuich finer, and 

 the meal much whiter." According to 

 the early French explorers the Miami 

 were distinguished for polite manners, 

 mild, affable, and sedate cliaracter, and 

 their respect for and jierfect obedience to 

 their chiefs, who had greater authority 

 than those of other Algoncjuian and 

 N. w. tribes. They usually spoke slowly. 

 They were land travelers rather than 

 canoemen. According to Hennepin, 

 when they saw a herd of buffalo they 

 gathered in great numbers and set fire to 

 the grass about the animals, leaving open 

 a passage where they posted themselves 

 with their bows and arrows; the buffalo, 

 seeking to escape the fire, were compelled 

 to pass the Indians, who killed large num- 

 bers of them. The women spun thread 

 of buffalo hair, with which they made 

 bags to carry the meat, toasted or some- 

 times dried in the sun. Their cabins 

 were covered with rush mats. Accord- 

 ing to Perrot, the village which he vis- 

 ited was situated on a hill and sur- 

 rounded l)y a palisade. On the other 

 hand, Zenobius says that La Salle, who 

 visited the villages on St Joseph r., 

 taught them how to defend themselves 

 with palisades, and even made them 

 erect a kind of fort with intrenchments. 

 Infidelity of the wife, as among many 

 other Indians, was punished l)y clipping 

 the nose. According to early explorers, 

 they worshiped the sun and thunder, 

 but did not honor a host of minor 

 deities, like the Huron and the Ottawa. 

 Three forms of burial appear t(i have 

 been practised by the division of the 

 tribe living about Ft Wayne: (1) The 

 ordinarj^ ground burial in a shallow grave 

 prepared to receive the body in a recum- 

 bent position. (2) Surface burial in a 

 hollow log; these have been found in 

 heavy forests; sometimes a tree was split 

 and the halves hollowed out to receive 

 the liody, when it was either closed with 

 withes or fastened to the ground with 

 crossed stakes; sometimes a hollow tree 

 was used, the ends being closed. ( 3) Sur- 

 face burial wherein the body was cover- 

 ed with a small pen of logs, laid as in a 

 log cabin, the courses meeting at the top 

 in a single log. 



The French authors commonly divided 

 the Miami into six bands: Piankashaw, 

 Wea, Atchatchakangouen, Kilatika, Men- 

 gakonkia, and Pepicokia. Of these the 

 first two have come to be recognized as 

 distinct tribes; the other names are no 

 longer known. The Pepicokia, men- 

 tioned in 1796 with the Wea and Pianka- 

 shaw, may have been absorljed by the 

 latter. Several treaties were made with 



