native-american

The Indians that have lived in Miami County are the Miamis, the
Confederated tribes, the Pottawatomies and the Shawnees.

The Shawnee reservation embraced a strip of land across the northern
end of the county, about two and one fourth miles in width. Some of
them continued to live here until 1866, when with the remainder of their
tribe they moved to the Indian Territory.

The Pottawatomie reservation, which was partly in Franklin County,
embraced in Miami County, Mound and Osawatomie townships and a
small portion of Stanton and Valley township, in all about eighty square
miles, or 51,000 acres. This tribe was removed to a reservation on the
Kansas river in 1847-48 where a portion of them still remain.

The Confederated Tribes were composed of the Weas, Piakeshaws,
Peorias and Kaskaskias. They inhabited the northern part of the county,
bordering the Shawnee Reservation. Upon their removal here they were
but remnants of previously large and powerful tribes. The Weas were at
one time a portion of the Miami tribe, their language being almost
identical with that of the Miamis. The Confederated Tribes formerly lived
in Southern Illinois. In 1818 they removed to Eastern Missouri and
settled near St. Genevieve. In 1827 the Weas and Piakeshaws moved to
what is now Miami County, the Peorias followed in a year or two, and the
Kaskaskias came in 1832. From this time until 1854, these tribes
continued to live in undisturbed possession o their reservation, when it
became necessary to open the country to settlement, and a treaty was
made between them and the Government by which they sold all their
lands except for 160 acres for each member of the tribe, ten sections for
tribal purposes, and one section for the support of a Mission School. In
the formation of this treaty, Col. Manypenny represented the Government
and Kio-kun-no-zah, Yellow Beaver, and others as chiefs the Indians;
Baptiste Peoria acting as interpreter.

As white settlers came in and filled up the county, the Confederated
tribes made preparations to make one more removal. With the consent
of the Government, a delegation from the tribes purchased a portion of
the lands of the Quapaws and Senecas in the Indian Territory in 1866.
The purchase was ratified by treaty in 1868 and most of the
Confederated tribes removed to their new homes, on Spring River, that
year. Many of those who remained were admitted to citizenship and
were prosperous members of the community, while some have since
gone to the Indian
Territory.

When the treaty of 1854 was made, the Confederated Tribes numbered
260, but they have steadily declined in numbers.

At least two of the members of the Confederated tribes are worthy of
brief mention-Win-ris-cah, or Christmas Dagnette, and Baptiste Peoria.

The former was born near Terre Haute, Ind., about the year 1800. He
was a nephew of a Wea chief, and received a liberal education. Besides
three or four Indian languages, he could speak English, French, and
Spanish, and at the age of sixteen acted as interpreter for the
Government. He removed to Kansas with his tribe, which he served for a
number of years as chief and died in 1848.

Baptiste Peoria was born also about the year 1800, near Kaskaskia, Ill.
He did not receive a school education but by the natural force of his
intellect acquired a number of Indian languages, the Shawnee,
Delaware and Pottawatomie, besides those of the several
Confederated Tribes, and also English and French. He acted for many
years in the capacity of interpreter, and for some time as chief, but
generally preferred to be on the "outside" as there he could be of much
more use to his tribe, which during almost the whole of his long life
continued to look up to him as their best advisor. When the tribes
removed to the Indian Territory, Baptiste went with them and died there
in the year 1874. He was a man of large and enlightened views, and
was distinguished for the virtues which spring from a kindly heart and
generous spirit. His widow, who was at the time of her marriage to him,
the widow of Christmas Dagnette, still resides in Paola, at the ripe age
of eighty-two, loved and respected by all who know her.

The Miamis were the first settlers in Miami County. They, as a a portion
of the Shawnees, were originally from Ohio. They were removed to what
is now Indiana, by Gen. Anthony Wayne, in accordance with the treaty of
August 3, 1795. In 1840, a treaty was made by which they agreed to
remove to new homes in the Indian Territory (now Kansas) and in 1846,
eight hundred Miamis located in the southeast part of the present Miami
County, on Sugar Creek. In 1847 about 300 more arrived; and in 1848
about 500 of them returned to Indiana, which return was afterwards
acquiesced in by act of Congress.

In the same year those Miamis remaining in the county removed their
home from Sugar Creek to the Marias des Cygnes in the central
southern portion of the county, locating at what has since been known
as Miami village. The removal was caused by sickness, superinduced
by change of climate, privation and exposure. In three years from the
time of their arrival on Sugar Creek their number was reduced by death
from 600 to 300, one-half the deaths occurring on Sugar Creek. Their
principal burying ground was then about two miles southeast of the
present village of Rockville.

The original Miami reservation consisted of about 500,000 acres of
land, and was bounded on the east by Missouri, on the south by the
reservation of the New York Indians, on the west by the Pottawatomie
reservation, and on the north by that of the Confederated tribes. In 1854,
as white settlers began to see homes on the Miami reservation, the
Government purchased all but 72,000 acres, Col Manypenny acting for
the Government and Now-a-lun-qua ("Big-Legs") on the part of the
Miamis and Jack Hackley as interpreter.

The Miamis remained on this remnant of their reservation until 1871,
when having been reduced to about 130 in number, the most of them
removed to the Neosho River in the Indian Territory. A few remained and
became citizens of the United States, made considerable progress in
agriculture, and became useful, upright and respected citizens.

The agents for these tribes have been the following: Col. Ely Moore,
Coffey, 1854 to 1855; Col. M. McCaslin, 1855 to 1857; Gen. Seth Clover,
1857 to 1861; Col. G. A. Colton, 1861 to 1869; James Stanley, 1869 to
the time the Agency was abolished. Col. McCaslin was removed by
President Buchanan for having protested against the invasion of
Kansas by Missourians. He was Colonel of the Fifteenth Virginia Infantry
during the rebellion.

The Potawatomi Trail of
Death was the forced removal
by United States forces from
September 4 to November 4,
1838, of 859 members of the
Potawatomi nation from a
place near Plymouth, Indiana,
to the location of present-day
Osawatomie, Kansas, a
distance of 660 miles (1,060
km). Typhoid fever and the
stress of the forced marched
led to the death of over 40
individuals, mostly children.

Pottawatomie

Shawnee

Piankeshaw

Kaskaskia

Miami

Wea

Peoria

IAMI

OUNTY

ANSAS

ISTORY

Miami County Historical Museum

Swan River Museum

Miami County Historical & Genealogy Society