Indiana, Land of the Indians
by Ruth Thunderhorse, August 1999

The name “Indiana” means “The Land of the Indians” (as our first-ever Native American special Indiana state license plate began declaring in the year 2000). Of course, there is still too large a section of the population who thinks that nobody lived here before their European-American ancestors arrived. In an effort to present a less distorted view, I researched some of the history of our state and of one small area of southwestern Indiana in particular in order to present facts at the 1999 Patoka Lake Heritage Celebration. For the first time in the twelve years of this event, the 12,000 years of Patoka heritage was represented alongside the customary displays of European-Americans who have only lived here since the 1800s.

The research began by reading about Tecumseh and Little Turtle, two of our great heroes who fought for freedom in Indiana. As I read, it became obvious that there were numerous towns in the state long before the first tree was felled for Louisville, Cincinnati, or Vincennes.

Kekionga, the Miami capital, the central clearing house for the Miami Confederacy, had thrived at the junction of the Maumee, St. Joseph, and St. Mary's Rivers since probably the early 1600s. Many overland thoroughfares were destined for Kekionga --- for example, the Chicago--Kekionga Trail (now U.S. Highway 33), the Yellow River Trail (to winter hunting grounds), the Miami Trail to Piqua (Ohio), and the Kekionga--Ouiatenon Trail. Kekionga controlled the portage to Little Wabash, where goods from Detroit were brought up the Maumee from Lake Erie on their way to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and to the Gulf. The Miami collected toll for the use of this portage. Kekionga was an old town when the U.S. Army finally broke through Native defenses in 1790 to pillage and burn the well-constructed log houses and more traditional homes, gardens, storehouses of food, historic records, and the hundreds of acres of corn and other crops. The map of Kekionga (Figure 1) shows the gardens near the homes, but only a fraction of the massive corn plantation which extended from Kekionga to Lake Erie. In 1792, as Major General Anthony Wayne laid waste to thousands of acres of Native cornfields east of Kekionga, he remarked that he had never seen such “immense fields of corn, in any part of America, [from] Canada to Florida.” [Carter, pp. 136--137] He called it “The Great Emporium of the hostile Indians of the West.” [Carter, p. 133]

Figure 1. Map of Kekionga (now Fort Wayne) in October 1790.
Drawn by an officer in General Harmar’s Army.

At the signing of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, Little Turtle referred to Kekionga as “the glorious gate which your younger brothers had the happiness to own, and through which all the good words of our chiefs had to pass.” [Carter, p. 48]

The Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History (Tanner), The Tragic Saga of the Indiana Indians (Allison), and the 1932 map by E. Y. Guernsey detail the location of many towns, villages, and settlements scattered across the state. Even though most of what is known today about Native towns comes from the U. S. Army’s reports of burning and pillaging, there are also a few records in local histories which would indicate that Native peoples probably lived in every county. Most of the towns whose names we know were located along the banks of the Wabash, Tippecanoe, Eel, Mississinewa, St. Joseph, and Maumee Rivers (I found about 60 of these).

Of the 221 towns or settlements discovered so far, some of the most interesting, in addition to Kekionga, were Ouiatenon, Miamitown, Kenapecomaqua, Five Medals Town, LeGris, Osage, and Prophetstown. Here are a few tidbits.

Ouiatenon, in Tippecanoe County, had an estimated population of 5,000 in five contiguous towns along the Wabash River, surrounded by several miles of fields of pumpkins, corn, and melons.

Miamitown, in Huntington County, was described by those who destroyed it. “The troops rode into … Miami Town and were amazed at its well-constructed buildings. In fact, they were better homes than many of the Kentucky troops lived in…. Extensive corn fields radiated out from the village in all directions and well-tended garden plots were everywhere… Harrison was … impressed with Miami Town, but he had also been impressed with the Prophets Town the year before … when it was burned and crops destroyed.” [Allison, p. 213]

Kenapecomaqua, in Cass County, also known as The Porcupine’s Town, was strung along the north bank of the Eel River for three miles. The town was called “The Great Village” of the Eel River Miami.

Five Medals Town, in Noble County, was on the Elkhart River. When it was torched by U. S. troops, vast stores of corn, beans, potatoes, and squashes were destroyed as well as the seventy acres of cornfields surrounding the town.

LeGris, in Allen County, was a twin city with Kekionga, but the estimated 1,500 population contained many European/American traders, whereas Kekionga, across the river, was almost exclusively Native --- mostly Miami with a few of their allies.

With an estimated population of 1,000, Osage, in Miami County, was the principal Miami town on the Mississinewa River. Containing about 200 log homes, the town extended over a mile along the banks. A couple of miles upstream was a blockhouse with port holes for a cannon, said to have been constructed by Tecumseh, the great Shawnee leader, in his fight for freedom. Although the Miami sagamore, Little Turtle, had, in 1791, led the Native coalition to deliver what was probably the most crushing defeat ever suffered by the U. S. Army, the Miami leader was now determined to fight no more, thinking that he could save his people and land by cooperation. Tecumseh, however, having already lost his nation’s homeland in Ohio, knew the score and traveled from Minnesota to Florida and westward to the Dakotas striving to unite Native peoples. Never before “had any other Indian traveled so far among so many different peoples nor become so widely known and respected and influential.” [Eckert, pp. 534-535] His charisma and extraordinary leadership were recognized and so feared by leaders in Washington that reporters were dispatched to follow him and write down his speeches in order that Congress might know his plans. His plea to the Osage peoples of Missouri and Arkansas was recorded by the title, “We Must Smoke the Same Pipe,” and delivered somewhere west of New Madrid. Soon the last two sentences of the following exerpt began to come true with uncanny precision and before the year was over, Tecumseh’s words were fulfilled in their entirety.

The white men are not friends to the Indians. My people wish for peace. The red men all wish for peace. But where the white people are, there is no peace…. Brothers, the Great Spirit is angry with our enemies. He speaks in thunder and the earth swallows up the Mississippi. The great waters will cover their lowlands, and their corn cannot grow. [Stewart, p. 74]

Few people have ever accurately predicted earthquakes. Tecumseh did, however, in this and other speeches, just as he had earlier predicted the comet and would later predict his own death with accuracy.

Then there was Prophetstown, in Tippecanoe County, along the Wabash near the Tippecanoe River junction (see Figure 2). From 1808--1811 this town, founded by Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa, The Prophet, was a center for many Native people of many different tribes/nations, who wanted to return to traditional ways and fight against the loss of the land and culture. The Museums at Prophetstown Dispatch (January/February 1999) describes the town, saying the

Central Village was laid out European-style with a central dirt road and log cabins on either side. Among the log structures … are the council house, four or five chief’s cabins, the House of Strangers (a sort of early hotel), at least two fur trader’s houses, a gunsmith/blacksmith shop, and granaries.

Surrounding these structures were a variety of wigwams and tepees providing everyday living space for the elite warrior guard and their families, who protected the village and tribal leaders domiciled there.

Most living at Prophetstown were not in the central town, but in tribal villages located along the Wabash River in either direction from the Central Village. The total number living at Prophetstown during its highest population is believed to have been 1,500 to 2,000. The Winnebago [Ho-chunk] were the most numerous with 400 to 600. The Kickapoo brought 300 to 400 and the Potawatomi numbered perhaps 200 to 300 persons. The Wea and Piankeshaw, divisions of the Miami, were likely the fourth in size. The remaining population was made up of smaller delegations from as many as 12 to 15 tribes.

The Winnebago [Ho-chunk] and Kickapoo, whose homelands were in the great grasslands of Illinois, brought buffalo-hide tepees. Other tribes lived mostly in bark or grass mat lodges or wigwams.

Figure 2. The Gulley Model represents what Prophetstown might have looked like in 1810. Photo by Joann Darling. Published in “The Prophetstown Dispatch” January/February 1999 by The Museums at Prophetstown, Lafayette, Indiana.

Besides the tribes/nations mentioned as living in Prophetstown and the Miami and Shawnee previously mentioned, the others known to have lived in the state during historic times (after 1600) include the Lenape/Delaware, Mascouten, Sioux, Ottawa, and Wyandot (Huron). The Mohegan, Nanticoke, and Mahican lived with the Lenape, who were all refugees whom the Miami permitted to live here after their homelands in the east had been taken over by the invaders. The Munsee were a branch of the Lenape after whom the present-day town of Muncie was named. The Quinnipiac refugees from Connecticut mostly lived along the White River with the Munsee, their close relatives from New York who also spoke the r-dialect of the Wampano language. The Quinnipiac exiles also found refuge with the Lenape/Delaware, Stockbridge, and Quapaw people. Locations of the Lenape/Delaware people (historically closely connected with the Quinnipiac) were recorded as far south as Washington, Clark and Harrison counties. Killbuck’s Village in Clark County, Ox’s Village in Washington County, and an unnamed village along Indian Creek in Harrison County are all listed as Lenape/Delaware and could have served as refuge to the Quinnipiac. Many Algonquian-speaking Native nations from the east took refuge here and many individuals from many other areas came here as representatives of their nations in order to join Tecumseh in the fight for freedom -- the struggle to save our homes and families. During the European historic era, this was truly the land of the Indians.

But this was also our land for at least 12,000 years prior to European contact. Our histories have been written on the rocks; in caves; on parfleches, wood, and bark; and into our stories long before Columbus got lost. So the word “prehistoric” refers only to pre-European history when used in the following paragraphs.

Before the Patoka Lake area was inundated, archaeologists performed salvage excavations at ten of the “prehistoric” sites to be affected. Although there were 192 known, identified sites and an estimated 485 total, which would be affected, there was barely time to study these ten. According to Noel Justice of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology at Bloomington, there are currently 40,000 identified “prehistoric” sites in the state of Indiana. If they could be found, estimates are that there would be 1,000 sites per township statewide. When told that the library listed over a thousand townships, meaning that there are over 1,000,000 “prehistoric” sites, he said, “That’s about right.” He also remarked that this abundance of archaeological sites is not limited to Indiana, but is nationwide. “There isn’t a field anywhere that doesn’t have some evidence,” he explained.

The Patoka Lake archaeological report by Black Laboratory, published in 1980, is the most comprehensive study done in the state, according to Mr. Justice. The ten locations studied showed evidence of some occupation at different times during every archaeological period from 10,000 B.C. into the historic (after 1600 A.D.). There were 39 different cultures represented, among which were the Mississippian and the Fort Ancient (both 1000 A.D. into the historic), the Merom, and the Riverton (an Archaic era group famous for massive shell middens along the Ohio and Wabash River valleys).

From the days when our big game hunters followed the mastodons, mammoths, giant ground sloths, and giant elk, as the river valleys flooded with torrents of cold glacial melt, we were here. Through the climatic changes as the Wisconsin Glacier moved farther north and through the drought of the Hypsithermal Climatic period of 5,600 to 2,500 B.C, we were here. Throughout all the millenia, we were here. We adapted. We learned to build homes, to dig pits for indirect heating and storage, and to plant crops. We developed new and better technologies. We made lovely pottery and jewelry. We built impressive mounds for ceremonies, for astronomical observatories, for determining equinoxes, for burials, and for other purposes no longer remembered or understood. We built geometric earthworks with great precision. We developed a vibrant religion, high ethical and moral standards, and a strong sense of family. We learned to value life in all forms. We traded with other Native people from Canada to the Gulf and from the Appalachians to the Rockies. We traveled the waterways, but we also created a network of efficient trails criss-crossing this state which later became the basis of many U.S. roads and highways. We tended carefully planted copses of nut and fruit trees interspersed with berries. We kept the earth clean, the air fresh, and the water pure. We never forgot to thank the animals who gave up their lives that we might eat. We danced and sang in gratitude for the crops. We were here!

From the beginning, we were here. We lived; we loved; we danced; we sang; we prayed; we listened to the spirits; we heard the animals, trees, rocks, and wind speak; and we walked in harmony with our Earth Mother. When the Europeans came, they found the forests and meadows lush with nuts, fruits, and berries, because we were here. They found an abundance of buffalo, bear, deer, elk, passenger pigeons, and other relatives, because we were here. They found clean, pure water teeming with fish and waterfowl, because we were here. They found the sky clear and bright, the air unpolluted, because we were here. When the Europeans began to discover the wealth and abundance which lay under the careful supervision of our wise, industrious, healthy, happy, courageous, and deeply religious ancestors, they made war to take it all away, not realizing that the pristine condition of the environment and the rich abundance of the resources were no accident, but rather the result of intelligent management learned over thousands of years. For 12,000 years we were here and the country bustled with activity.

In spite of acidic soil conditions which destroyed much of the plant, bone, and ceramic evidence in the Patoka Lake area, the archaeologists discovered that the following industries were among those conducted here during the 12,000 years of our occupation: quarrying, chert tool manufacturing, ground stone tool manufacturing, ocher grinding, lumbering, wood item manufacturing, hunting/butchering, preserved meat preparation, hide and leather preparation, hide and leather working, bone and antler working, nut and seed preparation, nut and seed processing, fibrous vegetable preparation. [Munson, p. 518]

These ten sites at Patoka Lake provided the first reported study of excavated Archaic (8,000 -- 500 B.C.) and Woodland ( 500 B.C. -- 1600 A.D.) sites in southern Indiana and resulted in the most extensive set of fully described and illustrated stone tool types for southern Indiana. Archaeologists classified the tools they found at Patoka according to the tasks performed, as follows: [Munson, p. 229]

We have worked hard. We have stayed long. We have accomplished much as a people. Yes, we have been here for at least 12,000 years. But, most amazing of all, in spite of horrible diseases introduced by Europeans; in spite of unthinkable atrocities comitted against us, such as germ warfare; genocide/ethnic cleansing; concentration camps; death marches; expulsion from our homelands; all out warfare against our religion, our language, and our culture; and an unrelenting oppression such as few other peoples on earth have ever endured for so long --- in spite of it all, WE ARE STILL HERE! We still treasure our traditions. We still try to protect Earth Mother. Not only in this one state, but from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, this is still the Land of the Indians.

Bibliography

published in Country Road Chronicles, August 1999

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