Miami Nation Archives

The name Miami has been said to come from a Chippewa term Oumamik, meaning "people who live on the peninsula" or “all beaver” depending on which historian you believe. This term "all beavers" was said to derive from the Wallom Olum, which has been proven to be a complete hoax being written by a missionary not the Lenni Lenape. Early English writers in referring to The People corrupted this term into many various spellings, i.e., Maumee, Maumie, Miami, etc.

Others tell us the name the Miami called themselves was Twightwee, yet their own speaking elders proved this as false when Gabriel Godfroy clearly stated in 1909 that the word Twightwee was a term OTHER tribes used in reference to them. The Miami have always known themselves to be the Myaamia or in the plural, Myaamiaki. From their own tribal language they have always referred to themselves as “mihtohseeniaki”, meaning 'the people' just as many tribes of the great lakes area did.

Belonging to the Algonquian linguistic family the Myaamiaki originally claimed their homelands in present day Indiana, western Ohio, eastern Illinois and portions of southern Michigan. When first encountered by the French Missionaries in the early 1600's, they were in the region around Green Bay, Wisconsin, having left their ancient ancestral grounds to avoid the hostilities of the increasingly westward advancement of the Great Iroquois Confederacy who were fleeing the encroachment of the European settlers in their own land. By 1700, they had returned to their old homelands, where they played a prominent part in the Ohio Valley Indian wars.

The Miami Nation was a loose association of six independent tribes: the Atchakangouen a.k.a. Atchatchakangouen or Greater Miami, Kilatika, Mengkonkia a.k.a. Mengakonia, Pepikokia, Piankeshaw a.k.a. Newcalenous, and Wea or Ouiatenon. By 1796 the Pepikokia had been absorbed by Piankeshaw, and the divisions after this time were: Eel River, Miami, Piankeshaw, and Wea. The Wea and Piankeshaw had lived for many years in close proximity with the Peoria and Kaskaskia tribes in Illinois and Kansas so it was a seemingly natural transition when removing to the Indian Territory for them to merge with those two tribes becoming the Confederated Peoria Nation around 1868. All of the Miami tribes and their very close cousins from the various divisions of the Peoria Nations have been determined by anthropologists to be descended from the ancient mound builders of the Mississippi River and are included under the ancient name of Illini Indians.

Unable to stem white encroachment the Myaamiaki eventually relinquished their ancient Indiana homelands through the treaty of 6 November 1838 and accepted a 500,000-acre reservation in Kansas. Their Chiefs were able to stall the removal until October 1846 at which time the United States Army forced the proud and once powerful Myaamiaki onto canal boats to commence their journey to the reservation in Kansas Territory, which was to be theirs forever and ever. Upon their arrival in Kansas, however, disease, epidemics and white encroachment served to help reduce the tribe. By 1848, only 300 tribal members remained in Kansas establishing a village on the east bank of the Marais des Cygnes River in present-day Miami County, Kansas.

In 1854, with the squatters on their reserve and other settlers demanding opening of the rich Miami reservation lands to white settlement, Kansas Territory saw a treaty concluded that provided for land allotments (200 acres each) to the Miami living on the reservation-a tract of 70,000 acres held in common by the tribe-and for the surplus lands to be sold to the United States. The U.S. governments’ “forever” was the usual fifteen to twenty-five years.

By the terms of their last treaty in 1867, those Miami who wished to remain in Kansas were to forfeit all ties with the U.S. government and become citizens of Kansas; the rest were to remove to Indian Territory. Most of the Wea and Piankeshaw confederated with the Peoria, but the Myaamiaki retained their own governmental structure becoming known as the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe of the United States.

If you have any cemetery records, bible records, deeds, applications for citizenship, etc… For the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, please send them to me as an attachment in email to Sammye Darling. Please be sure to identify that it is for the Miami Tribe. It also needs to be a plain text file, no HTML and no images. This ensures that everybody will be able to read it, no matter what kind of web browser. Here is a help file.

The information found below has been submitted to The USGenWeb Archive Project. It is offered free to all who visit. The ownership - copyright stays with the submitter. Please read and respect the copyright on all submittals.

CENSUS	SIZE	DATE	SUBMITTER
1912 Miami Tribe	8K	Dec 2001	S. Darling

OBITUARIES	SIZE	DATE	SUBMITTER
Chief David GEBOE	1K	Jun 2002	S. Darling
Eli GEBOE	8K	Dec 2001	S. Darling
Mary L. (Roubedoux) LEONARD	1K	Aug 2002	S. Darling
Sarah Emma (Gordon) MCBEE	1K	Jun 2002	S. Darling
Chief John ROUBEDOUX	1K	Aug 2002	S. Darling
Mrs. John ROUBEDOUX	1K	Aug 2002	S. Darling
Rosann (Geboe) SHARKEY	1K	Aug 2002	S. Darling