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Finding our way hoThe Great Lakes Woodland People

The Indiana Historian A Magazine Exploring Indiana History

2 The Indiana Historian © 2001 Indiana Historical Bureau

FocusThis publication is dedicated to LoraMarks Siders, Miami Elder and Teacher.

We gratefully acknowledge all the Eldersand Teachers who guide us, especially theNarrators, whose oral histories are thebasis for the play, People of the Turtle.

The Indiana HistorianSeptember 2001ISSN 1071-3301

Order Number 7052

EditorPamela J. Bennett

Lead ResearcherPaula A. Bongen

DesignerDani B. Pfaff

Contributing EditorsCarole M. Allen, Janine Beckley,

Paula Bongen, Alan Conant, Dani B. Pfaff,James Williams

The Indiana Historian provides resources and modelsfor the study of local history to encourage Indiana’scitizens of all ages to become engaged with the historyof their communities and the state of Indiana.

The Indiana Historian (formerly The Indiana Jun-ior Historian) is issued occasionally. Back issues areavailable at individual and bulk pricing.

Some back issues of this magazine are available tovisually impaired patrons in audio format, courtesy ofthe Indiana History Project of the Indiana HistoricalSociety. Tapes are available through the Talking BooksProgram of the Indiana State Library; contact the Talk-ing Books Program, 317-232-3702.

The Indiana Historian is copyrighted. Educatorsmay reproduce items for class use, but no part of thepublication may be reproduced in any way for profitwithout written permission of the Indiana HistoricalBureau. 140 North Senate Avenue, Indianapolis, IN46204; 317-232-2535.E-MAIL [email protected] www.IN.gov/history

The portraits of the SpeakersColored photographs in Always a

People are from the original 20" x 24" oilon canvas portraits by Evelyn J. Ritter,which are a portion of the Dr. Mike andLinda Shinkle Collection of WoodlandLeaders—The People of the Turtle. Foradditional information about the uniquestory of the people in this collection,please address questions to The Dr. Mikeand Linda Shinkle Collection, PO Box3442, Peoria, IL 61612 or call 309-693-7128.

For information regarding portraitavailabilities in The People of the Turtleexhibit, please contact the President,Minnetrista Cultural Center, 1200 N.Minnetrista Parkway, Muncie, IN 47303-2925 or call 765-282-4848.

The portraits are presented in thispublication with deep appreciation to Dr.Michael Shinkle and Mrs. Linda Shinkle,who own the copyrights. The portraitimages have been cropped for design andspace purposes on pp. 4-11. Dr. and Mrs.Shinkle have most graciously allowed the

“Finding our way home” has beensupported by the Department of History,Ball State University and by a grantfrom the Indiana Humanities Council/National Endowment for the Humanities.

Indiana—the Land of the Indians—recognizes its earliest residents throughits name. Most Hoosiers today, however,know little about the history of theAmerican Indians who occupied thisland before and after statehood in 1816.Most Hoosiers are also unaware of thegrowing numbers of American Indiansliving and working in Indiana today.

This issue of The Indiana Historian—acollaboration with the Indiana AmericanIndian Theatre Company (IAITCo.)—ispart of an effort to heighten the knowl-edge of Hoosiers about Indiana’s Ameri-can Indian connections—past, present,and future. It is a guide to accompanythe 2001 original play, People of theTurtle. It can also stand alone as astarting place for readers interested inlearning about, and from, the AmericanIndian Speakers whose stories arepresented here.

On page 3, Rita Kohn, the playwright,describes the source of the play andprovides context for its content, casting,and staging.

On pages 4 through 11, the Speakersin the play are introduced using excerptsfrom their narratives. Portraits of someof the Speakers are also included.

On pages 12 and 13, there is a briefintroduction to the Woodland People—the People of the Turtle, whose storiesare the subject and content of the play.

Some background on the IAITCo. andkey people involved is presented on page14.

Extensive selected resources areprovided on page 15.

For more information about theIndiana American Indian TheatreCompany, call 317-580-0882 or visitwww.bearcreekgallery.com.

On the front cover: The Elder spokethat there are fewer than a handful ofthese “Trail Trees” left in Indiana today.These special gifts were made for ourPeople as they journeyed to find theirway back home to the loved ones in thecircle. Intentionally bent, this magnifi-cent tree still stands. As I stood there, Icould see and feel the others, ancestors,from times past in the shadows. . . and hear the whispers they spoke,“go now, and find YOUR way home.”With great humility I thank the Eldersand Ancestors for this gift to share withyou. May we all find our way homesafely. Aho. STands.

Editorial note: STands has shown theshadows of the Ancestors in the fore-ground. The “Trail Trees” originallyfunctioned to guide people to thevillages.

The Indiana Historical Bureau thanksRita Kohn and Stands Tall Woman forsharing their knowledge and talents inthe production of this issue.

Sponsors of the play production:Union Federal Bank, Bear Creek at RiverCrossing, Interim Solutions LLC, andFriends of IAITCo.

The symbols and art pieces scatteredthroughout the text are reminders of ourtruths. Native Art, as well as other art,is a visual language of what we hold inour hearts. I invite you to discover whatthese symbols mean by asking an Elderof Native descent and continue some ofthe oral traditions; you may also go the

the Web site of the Indiana HistoricalBureau (www.IN.gov/history). As theturtle walks throughout the pages, noticehow sometimes it may be with speed oreven a slow pace; in the end, his journeycomplete, his home is within andsurrounds himself.Walk in Beauty. STands.

About the symbols

Thank you

Thanks to those who helped makeAlways a People possible: Rita Kohn, W.Lynwood Montell, R. David Edmunds,and Michelle Mannering.

Indiana Historical Bureau to place thecolor portraits on its Web site atwww.IN.gov/history.

© 2001 Indiana Historical Bureau 3

History transmitted through theatre isone of the oldest activities of human-kind. People of the Turtle is a dramaintended to expose commonly-heldstereotypes about American Indians, todemonstrate their diversity, rich heri-tage, present lives, and hopes for thefuture, and to help members of eachaudience move toward more accurateunderstandings of the contributions ofIndiana’s longest continuous residents.

What is now Indiana was oncewoodland, heavily forested land withwaterways sustaining wild animals,birds, and fish. The land and water alsosustained the Woodland People and theirsophisticated system of agriculture andwide-ranging trade. The United Statesgovernment in the mid-nineteenthcentury forcibly removed the majority ofthe Woodland People from this land. Thegovernment took away not only their wayof supporting themselves economically,but also their spiritual and cultural base.

Rooted, not entrenched in a past thatalways is present, Woodland People havealways been prepared to weather thenext season, to grow into it, to moveforward as determinedly as the seeds ofthe trees that mark both their unique-ness and universality. Their business oflife is multi-dimensional, multi-faceted,multi-plied.

People of the Turtle is a dramatizationof life, spoken individually in collectivevoices. The speeches in the play areculled from longer narratives printed inAlways a People, a benchmark work thatpresents the unedited words of contem-porary people of Great Lakes Woodlanddescent. The editors made no attempt tointerpret or edit the interviews to fitthem into “mainstream” scholarship.Instead, readers are invited to learndirectly from the Elders and leaders ofseventeen different tribes. It is theirstory from their point of view.

People of the Turtle allows the spokenwords to stand unencumbered by outsideinterference. While the book presentsthe individuals one by one, the dramati-zation becomes a give and take, aninterweaving of comments, ideas,stories, beliefs, hopes. There is nostalgia,anger, joy, frustration. The interchangefollows a natural pattern of conversation.

People of the Turtle—in their own voicesThis is not theatre with its “fourth

wall” through which the audience issupposed to see and hear but notparticipate. This production asks eachperson in the audience to cross theboundaries between stage and seats, notin a voyeuristic sense, which implieseavesdropping, but in a welcoming waythat opens each person to the unfoldingof a story. It is a story in which eachperson plays a part, makes a difference,and has a future voice linked with thepast—good, bad, or indifferent.

The Woodland People worldview isthe inheritance of all people. It comeswith the place they had to vacate so anew wave of residents could alter thatplace to suit their own, old-world view.When Europeans came to settle theNorthwest Territory they set aboutcutting down trees to bend the place tothe old way of life from which they hadfled, supposedly to make a new life.When the Woodland People were drivenfrom Indiana to Missouri, to Kansas, toOklahoma, they adapted to the geogra-phy, flora, and fauna of each newlocation, achieving an at-one-ness thatincorporated their core beliefs andvalues. They had to find new ways tofeed, clothe, and shelter themselves. Inthe process, some of the material andhistorical culture was taken away, lost.Yet the qualities of endurance, reclama-tion, and optimism are ever present.

This play demonstrates why and howthis is true.

The world of the play is a Tableau ofthirty-one different people from seven-teen different tribes. It is presented asPerformance Theatre with dance, music,and spoken words. Scripts are onstands to emphasize that these are thewords of real people. They are notspeeches made up by a playwright.

The people speaking the words maybe American Indians whose ancestry isnot Woodland, but southeast or south-west or northeast or northwest orPlains. That is because the currentAmerican Indian population in Indianais diverse. They come here for theircareers or their families, just likeanyone else. The company will not besolely Woodland or only AmericanIndian.

The two-act play is divided into eightscenes. Act I is constantly moving. Itcovers memories of childhood, schooland prejudice, what happens when use ofthe native language is forbidden, howspirituality continues despite hard times.

Act II is more a coming together withstories, dancing and singing, a return tospeaking the language and doing thetraditional crafts and works of art—thevibrancy of today.

The play ends with hope for thefuture, with the words of Tecumseh. Thisgreat Shawnee leader tried to unite allthe Woodland People in the earlynineteenth century to demand that theU.S. government keep its word accordingto Article III of the Northwest Ordi-nance of 1787: “The utmost good faithshall always be observed towards theIndians.” [See, Robert M. Taylor, Jr., ed.The Northwest Ordinance, 1787: ABicentennial Handbook (Indianapolis,1987), 21-22, 61-65.]


CHARLES DAWES served as principal chief of theOttawa [Odawa] Tribe of Oklahoma following an illustriouscareer in the Army Air Corps and as an executive with aFortune 500 company. Until his death in 2001 most of thetribes in northeastern Oklahoma looked to him as theirspiritual leader.

My people’s history started very early on the AtlanticCoast; then we moved west as far as [present day] MackinawCity. Then we split off, with one group going to ManitoulinIsland and another to Walpole Island in Canada. Our groupwent down to where the Maumee Riverruns into Lake Erie. We were closelyrelated to the Ojibwas and thePotawatomis. These three tribeswere and still are identified as theThree Fires Council of the GreatLakes. We got in the way of coloniza-tion early and got moved to Kansas,then to Indian Territory (Oklahoma).

These people [in 1860s] gave 27,000acres to [establish and build]Ottawa University in Kansas,today a thriving, small fine artsschool.

Odawa heritage connectswith the Gitche-Manitou andNanabush. Pontiac is theirfamous eighteenth centuryleader.

VICTORIA DAUGHERTY, Shawnee/Delaware Elder fromWhite Oak, in eastern Oklahoma, represents one of the lastlinks with people who were on the trek fromKansas to Indian Territory, in 1907. Herfamily passed on tribal history orally, as ithad been done for centuries. Their languagewas spoken at home and traditional wayswere followed according to the seasons.

My role as Head Lady is in theceremonials. I would be considered as spiritualleader of the women of my tribe, but I have tolet all the people know the correct things thatwe do. Head Lady is handed down fromgeneration to generation.

Shawnee culture is distinguished for thesignificant place given women in leadership.The Grandmother (Kokomthena) is the su-preme deity and many of the subordinatedeities are female: Earth Mother, CornWoman, Pumpkin Woman, who support theharvest. The spring (May) and fall (October)Bread Dances recall the old Shawnee economyfor bountiful harvests and hunts.

Like all other Woodland People, the Shawnees werescattered from their ancestral home in the Ohio Valley. Mrs.Daugherty’s group earned the name “Loyal Shawnee” fortheir allegiance to the Union during the Civil War. Theywere stripped of their homes in Kansas nevertheless.

HENRYETTA ELLIS is a teacher in the tribal schoolin Shawnee, Oklahoma.

I am Shawnee. The term Absentee Shawnee was given tous by the government. I don’t see any difference in us andthe other two groups of Shawnee in Oklahoma. We areShawnee. It’s not our fault somebody else named us theEastern or Loyal or Absentee. Originally, we were all justShawnee.

I’d especially like for my children and their descendants toremember me as a Shawnee woman who met her obligations.I’ve led our Bread Dance four times. The ceremonialsassociated with the Bread Dance are what keep the worldgoing.

When I began participating in our ceremonials, at agetwelve, is when I felt proudest to be an Indian.

The Shawnee, which means ‘southerners,’ also werecalled Shawano, Savannuca, and Savannah. They once livedin what is now South Carolina, Tennessee, Pennsylvania,and Ohio. After the Treaty of Greenville (1795) and the lossof homeland, the pattern of spring and summer plantingand fall and winter hunting was threatened, and the way oflife changed. By 1831, most were moved westward; a grouprenamed Eastern went to Oklahoma; the group renamedLoyal migrated to Kansas; those renamed Absentee leftMissouri and scattered to Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Words are sacred. They are shared intrust, to be treasured, learned from andthrough. Respected. Revered. No lessthan those who speak them.

In the pages that follow you are introduced to theSpeakers, in the order in which they first appear inPeople of the Turtle. Their words here (in italic type)have been excerpted from Always a People: OralHistories of Contemporary Woodland Indians. This isnot the order in which the People appear in the book,Always a People. That order is alphabetical, fromAlexis to Zunigha. There is not a portrait for everyspeaker.

When it came to the dramatization, I allowed theretelling to guide itself. Only after I completed thefollowing pages did I comprehend that the arc of theplay and the order of the Speakers mirror the stead-fastness of the People. The vignettes here tell theirown enduring story.

—Rita Kohn

The Speakers

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KELLER GEORGE, Oneida tribal leader and President ofthe United South and Eastern Indians, makes nationalheadlines advocating economic equity for American Indians.

My Grandmother taught me a lot, like in the ceremoniesyou go clockwise. There’re reasons for that. You have the fourdirections, and you pray to the East because that’s where thesun comes up.

The Oneida, On’yote’, ‘People of the Standing Stone,’ arepart of the Six Nations of the Iroquois, the Ho’da’sho’ne,‘People of the Long House,’ a confederacy formed inthe 1500s by Hiawatha.

On e i d a s allied with thec o l o n i s t s . GeorgeWash ing t on’s Army at ValleyForge was kept alive in the winterof 1776-1777 with dry corn providedby the Oneidas and Tuscaroraseven though they themselves werestarving. An Oneida woman

taught the colonists howto cook dried corn. In

appreciation, land in NewYork was given [to the

Indians,] but settlers laidclaim.

Today, Wisconsin is hometo most Oneidas, with some

still in Oneida, N.Y. and othersin Southwold, Ontario, Canada.

SHARON BURKEYBILE serves in economic developmentand as liaison between Miami University in Oxford,Ohio and the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma.

I understand why we were called Indiansin the very beginning. Indian is what I grewup with, even though it’s something thatColumbus hung on us. Native American isjust something that the government isdoing—changing things around, labelingpeople all over again. I know who Iam, and I’m proud of who I am.

Originally, the Miamis, alsoknown as Twightwee or twaatwaaafter the call of the SandhillCrane, lived near the southernend of Lake Michigan. WhenFrench explorers came in the1650s the Miamis had moved towhat is now Green Bay, Wiscon- sin, to fend offattacks by the Iroquois. With the end of the “Beaver Wars”in 1701, the Miamis returned to present day Indiana andOhio, where they raised a special kind of white corn fortrading with other tribes.

By 1846, the Miamis had been pressured by the U.S.government into giving up whatever land was left. Whilehalf of the Miamis were allowed to remain in Indiana, theother half was removed to Kansas and Oklahoma, andrenamed Western or Oklahoma Miamis with tribal officesin Miami, Oklahoma.

FLOYD E. LEONARD, Chief of the Miami Tribe ofOklahoma, had a thirty-five year career as an educator inMissouri prior to returning to serve his People full-time.

The Miami living in Oklahoma are proud people. Myfather, even though he had never been there, referred to FortWayne, Indiana, as Ke-ki-ogo-gay all his life. That to himwas the name of that town.

If you go back far enough, Ray White, late chief of theMiami of Indiana, and I are cousins. My ancestry goes backto Tecumwah, who was the sister ofLittle Turtle. Tecumwah was marriedtwice. First to Jean BaptisteRichardville, Pee-jee-wa-or, who was achief, then to a French trader namedBibianne. My ancestry comes throughthe second marriage; Ray White’sthrough the first.

Little Turtle, Mishikinakwa,(1747-1812) is deemed thegreatest Algonquian war leaderof his time. A brilliant tactician,in 1790 and 1791 he stopped U.S.Army attacks launched to wipe outthe Miami Confederacy. But by 1794Little Turtle recognized that GeneralAnthony Wayne’s forces could not be overcome.He negotiated the 1795 Treaty of Greenville forthe best possible terms.

RICHARD SNAKE (1938-1999) served as DeputyGrand Chief of the DelawareNation Grand Council ofNorth America and Chief ofthe Moraviantown Delawareof Ontario, Canada, andseveral economic develop-ment opportunities for allFirst Nations People inCanada.

You have to continue on andlive. We were the ones with theBible. That’s the reason weseparated from other Delawares.We didn’t keep our traditions. Wehave to go out and find them again—from the Delawares of EasternOklahoma and the Smithsonian[National Museum of American Indian].

In 1782, American soldiers massacred over ninetymembers of Gnadenhutten, a peaceful village of ChristianDelawares in Ohio. The few survivors fled to Canada,settled on the Thames River and established Moraviantown,which was attacked by American forces during the 1813invasion of Canada during the War of 1812.

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BEULAH TIMOTHY is an Elder ofthe Delaware Nation Council of theMoraviantown of the ThamesBand. Richard Snake, her brother,was born when she was twenty-one. My brother Richard [did] notspeak the Delaware language aswell as I do. He grew up in adifferent time. In my time, people who weregrownups, and children, spoke

the Delaware language. The onlytime I ever heard my mother’s mother

speak English was when she wentshopping. She had a basket with some eggs

that she traded for groceries. In their traditional home between the

Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware River Valley, there weretwo groups of Delaware, whose real name is Lenape,respected by all as The Grandfather People. While theoverall language group is Algonkian, those in the southernarea spoke the Unami dialect. These Lenapes now live inOklahoma. The northern, “hilly country” Lenape spoke theMunsi dialect. While some of the Munsi-speakers live inKansas and Wisconsin, most are in Ontario, Canada. Adictionary of the Munsi dialect is being compiled. Mrs.Timothy has been a major contributor to this work.

JOANNA NICHOL is an Elder of the Delaware Tribe ofIndians of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. She is as well-connectedwith Potawatomi culture and history as with Delawarebecause she lived in the home of her father’s father duringpart of the Depression.

My father and mother met at Chilocco Indian School.That’s where a lot of our mixed [tribal families] met. Butmost of my interests are in Bartlesville because Delawares arematrilineal. In the Delawares, women always ran the tribe;

they ran from behind their husbands. Attimes the men would ask the womentogether to give their opinion, whichthey would do. Grandma ran herhouse, and Momma ran our house.But she didn’t do it obviously. It was

done with quiet efficiency. My hopes for the future are that my

people have their sovereignty andcontinue to do as they have alwaysdone; take care of each otherand themselves and be helpfulto other people. Delawaresdon’t have a name for cousin.Children of all siblings arebrothers and sisters. At a

powwow you don’t have to worryabout your children; some Elder is

going to tell them right and wrong.

HELEN RAMERIZ is an Elder of the Absentee ShawneeTribe with headquarters in Shawnee, Oklahoma. HenryettaEllis is her daughter.

The grandfather is the authority figure in the family. Forthe tribe, the chief is the authority figure. My brother wasspeaker for ceremonial purposes. He spoke for the tribe whenwe had a traditional ceremony. My grandfather used to dothat when we were children. It would be to speak within thetribe. He gets up and talks and prays. They are medicinemen.

We don’t say “Grandfather” like some other tribes do. Wesay “Creator.” We have a story that was told to us that aturtle is holding up the world. That’s where “People of theTurtle” comes from. Traditional ways were practiced when Iwas a child. Traditionally, Stomp Dance belonged to theShawnee. Now other tribes have taken on the Stomp Dance.

Originally, the Shawnees were a confederacy of five patri-lineal divisions—Mekoche, Pekowi, Chillicothe, Kispoko,and Hathawekela. They functioned independently with theirown war and civil chiefs but, like the Iroquois Confederacy,each group had an overall responsibility to everyone. Thissystem ended with European contact, and each group wentits own way to try to survive.

In 1787, the Pekowi and Kispoko, tired of resistingFrench, British, and American incursion of the Ohio RiverValley, fled to Spanish territory (now Missouri). In 1814,Hathawekelas, who had gone to Alabama, also came toMissouri, and together they became the Absentee ShawneeTribe.

DON GILES is Chief of the Peoria Indian Tribe of Oklahoma.When I was elected chief, in 1991, is when I was proudest

to be a Peoria. Today the leadership positions are elected.When they first came to Okla-homa, it was not an electedposition but one that you workedyour way up to. You earned thetrust of the other tribal members,and they confirmed you to thatposition.

The Peorias, one of theIlliniwek, or Illinois tribes of theCentral Illinois River Valley,were one of the first to recog-nize the United States and toserve as scouts and hunters forthe American military, whichpromised to protect Peoria villages; butsettlers wanted Illinois land and attacked.From 1818 onward, treaties deprived theIllinois tribes of their land. The once populousPeorias had only 163 people left to move toOklahoma at the end of the Civil War. Somehowpersevering, by 1994, the tribal roll numbered2,490; they regained some Oklahoma tribal landand began reconnecting with their ancestral basein the Illinois city bearing their name. Return toPimeteoui is an annual event.

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WAP SHING (John Mohringer) has served as SpiritualLeader of the Miami Nation of Indians of Indiana. Bornin Haarlem, The Netherlands, he emigrated to the U.S.and found it “natural” to be drawn to the Indian People.He was adopted by Indiana Miami Chief Mon-gon-zah.

Miami ceremonial is a way of life, it’s who you are andyour relationship with everything. We have never hadany kind of organized things like aclass. That’s not the way we do. It’s ahighly individual, highly spiritualthing, and the teaching is done in amuch more subtle way, but also away that much better sticks in thepeople’s memories because itbecomes a part of their life.

We never had a meal unlesswe had a prayer. We thank theGrandfather, and we thank theanimals and the plants. Wethank the people who fixed thefood. My mother used to takeme to the land and to the dikes,and we would be gatheringplants. She always said a prayerwhen she harvested something.We always put an offering onMother Earth—Sama or tobacco.

BILLIE SMITH is an Elder of the Loyal Shawnee Tribewith formal headquarters in Talequah and social headquar-ters in White Oak, Oklahoma, where many people live andwhere the burial place is located.

When I became a teenager and got married and hadchildren, I moved away with my husband,where he had to work. During thoseyears I was away from this area. Wewould come back, but we lived inCalifornia. Then, when the kids got

all grown, we came back. That’s whenI started with the tribe again. You don’tforget, especially when you have a motherand father who spoke Shawnee. Theywere full-bloods. I still have my dad’s

allotment, which is my grandmother’sallotment. Land that has never exchanged

hands. My mother’s father, Samuel Perry, was one

of the children the government came and grabbedup and took off to government school. He had long

hair. They cut his hair off. They told him he couldn’t talkShawnee any more, and they taught him Christianity. Whenmy mother was born, he taught her the Christian ways. Theycouldn’t teach the traditional ways. The government wouldn’tallow it. So that’s why I was brought up in a Christian-taught way.

The other Elders would come to the house. They would goover the stories that taught us different things. We have ourtraditional beliefs.

GRACE THORPE has served theSauk and Fox Nation in Stroud,Oklahoma, as Tribal District CourtJudge and as an activist for tribalsovereignty and against dumpingnuclear waste on tribal lands. She isthe daughter of Jim Thorpe.

My dad’s Indian name wasWathohuck, or Bright Path. He was fromfour different Indian tribes but enrolled inthe Sauk and Fox Tribe. He was alsoPotawatomi, Kickapoo, Menominee.

Dad’s grandfather on one side was Irish,and his great-great-great grandfather was aFrench fur trader, whose name was JacquesVieux. He opened up the first trading post in[present day] Green Bay and Racine, Wiscon-sin. His son, Louie Vieux, was the head man orchief of the Potawatomi after removal from theWisconsin and Michigan area to Iowa, thenKansas. He had a drawbridge built across theVermillion River, and the people on the OregonTrail paid him a dollar to go across his bridge. In somehistory books, it shows he made as much as $350 a day.

The Sauk and Fox were neighbors, uniting when settlerstook their land in Wisconsin. Black Hawk led a group backto Saukenak (near Rock Island, Illinois) where he made afinal stand for Indian sovereignty east of the Mississippi.

FRANK BUSH is the late Spiritual Leader and HeadVeteran Dancer, Potawatomi Indian Nation, Inc., also calledthe Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians of Michiganand Northern Indiana. He lived in Shelbyville, Michigan. Leopold Pokagon managed to hold on to some land

when other Potawatomis had to cede theirs andremove westward into Missouri, Iowa, andKansas. His youngest son, Simon (1830-1899),gained notoriety among whites and scornamong the Potawatomis by writing novels that

fed into Indian stereotypes. He was“featured” at the 1893 ChicagoWorld’s Columbian Exposition.Chicago’s Jackson Park has statuesof both Pokagons. Modern times means changing,but spiritually [our traditionalpractice] was handed down to usso we continued it on. We haveour gatherings for the fourseasons. Some of my uncles werepastors of the Methodist Churchhere. But about the middle ofthe week they would gather indifferent houses, and we wouldgo along with our Nativereligion. My grandpa was aMide, a pipe carrier.

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LORA MARKS SIDERS (1919-2000), Elder of theMiami Nation of Indians of Indiana, worked all her lifeto preserve and teach the traditions, culture, anddignity of the Miami People.

Mom and grandmother and her mother took anybodyin and kept them, took care of them. Grandpa was amedical doctor, but he also was a herb doctor. ThingsMom told me had come from her parents. Some of thisis in history books now, but a lot is not written downany place.

When the native language is not spoken, a lot offamily closeness is lost. I want us to be educated in bothways. I want the Indian education and a white educa-tion so [our people now] can be ableto live and not know poverty the wayof some of our Elders, who died aspaupers.

After the Mississinewa Reserva-tion was terminated, Miamismoved to find work, but familiescontinued to gather at traditionaltimes in the Peru area. Today, theIndiana Miamis have a drum, arelearning to speak Miami, and areconnecting traditional ways withmodern technology. A CD and tape,Siipionci: From The River, is a 2001release from The Twigh Twee Singers;it’s dedicated to Lora Siders.

CURTIS ZUNIGHA is a former Chief of theDelaware Tribe of Indians of Bartlesville, Okla-homa. He continues to serve his People in economicdevelopment. With degrees in business and broad-casting, he has worked in both the private andpublic sectors along with pan-tribal affairs.

In my journey in discovering my ownheritage, I knew that the center of ourculture has to be around our lan-guage, our religion, our spiritualbeliefs. This is what establishes ouridentity, our uniqueness as Lenape.The only religious icons left for meto learn from were in the vaults atthe Philbrook Museum in Tulsa,Oklahoma. I made specialarrangments to look at them. Theywere more than inanimate objects. Ifelt a deep spiritual presence insidethem.

Some of this relates to the 1990Native American Graves Protectionand Repatriation Act passed byCongress. We’ve got no place tokeep these sacred objects. ThePhilbrook can present them foreveryone to learn that theDelaware are more than historic;they’re an alive and vibrant triberight now.

LEONARD THOMPSON is Ceremonial Chief of theDelaware Tribe of Indians of Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

Old Man Charlie Elkhair was the last ceremonial chief.He was the one that came with The People from the East[Kansas]. I heard him talk many times at funerals. He surecould talk English, but when he talked Delaware, he went inorder. He’d talk about going back to the beginning, and he’dbring everything right up—cultural beliefs [the story, to the

present]. I try to follow in hisfootsteps as much as I can.It’s my decision as to whowill replace me. And I’mtraining him now, as best I

can, to take my place whenI’m gone from this world. His

name is Dee Ketchum, andhe will be the ceremonialchief. [Mr. Ketchum isnow the elected civilchief.] We had threeclans—Turkey, Wolf, andTurtle— they sat indifferent parts of ourchurch [the Big House].When our people ceasedto speak our language, welost our religion. Whenthey quit, that oldbuilding fell down.

MICHAEL PACE, an Assistant Chief of the DelawareTribe of Indians of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, is a retiredbusinessman. He is an Elder who has particularknowledge about the dances and songs of the Delaware.

He is a direct descendant of Chief Anderson, whoseoriginal village in Indiana still bears his name. Whenthe Delawares were pushed out of Pennsylvania andOhio, the Miamis invited them to make their homealong the White River. Fourteen villages have Delawareroots, including Muncie. William Conner, a whitetrader, married Mekinges, Chief Anderson’s daughter.When the Delawares were forced out of Indiana,Mekinges and her children by Conner, ranging in agefrom young men to toddlers, also had to leave. TheConner name still shows up in positions of leadershipamong the Delaware.

The Delawares are proud of their legacy and history,which helped form the frontier in the early 1800s thattoday is the state of Indiana. There has been a renewalof the friendship and shared history between the Dela-ware and the people of Indiana in recent years, and theDelaware tribe hopes that bond will grow.

Since 1992, Mr. Pace and others from Bartlesvillehave been coming to Conner Prairie to give school andpublic programs. Conner Prairie’s Trading Post andLenape Village is a result of that collaboration.

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LAWRENCE FRANK SNAKE serves as President of theDelaware Tribe of Western Oklahoma, as did his father.

Some Delaware tribes use the term president and othersuse chief. I guess we [in Anadarko] modeled our constitutionafter the U.S. Constitution, which is kind of ironic becausethe United States took the Indians’ way back in the 1700s.The Algonquin tribes and the Iroquois Confederacy, all up inthe eastern part of the U.S., all have the same type ofgovernment, which was a three-tier government in which theyhad checks and balances. And Thomas Jefferson and Ben-jamin Franklin thought it was quite unique. They spent a lotof time with the Indians learning it. This is one of the thingsthat kind of struck me as odd in American history class. Theway the books taught us, it was like one weekend these guysdecided to sit down and write a constitution.

What also strikes me as interesting, is that they take ourform of government, and we’re supposed to be savages,heathens, primitives who don’t know anything.

For our tribe’s future goals, we would like to set up awhole lot of social programs—our own hospital, retirement/community center, dental clinic. We’re trying to buy landand establish [our own] reservation.

The Western Delawares moved from Missouri intoTexas while the Eastern Delawares moved from Missouri toKansas. In 1859, the Texas Delawares were forced toAnadarko where they have shared allotted land with theCaddos and Wichitas, but have their own governments.

NICKY GLENN SMITH, Loyal Shawnee, is Billie Smith’s son.The biggest change that the Loyal Shawnee have gone

through in my lifetime is, I think, overexposure to the generalpublic. The resurgence of interest in Native Americans hasbrought us far too much exposure to our religious ceremonies,which should have been kept private, kept within the tribe.Now we have people come down here who we don’t evenknow; what tribal affiliation, what race, orwhat their interest is. Just to observe; justtourists.

Our rituals shouldn’t be made public.It’s not like a game or a pageant for thegeneral viewing public. This is heldsacred to us. We don’t want people tocome in there and video it, or takesnapshots.

I’d like to see that our dance is stillgoing on in a hundred years from now.It’s our religion. It’s the way we believe. It’ssupposed to be what governs everyday life—to help one another. And to give thanks forour very existence. Each dance has adifferent name, but each one is part of ourreligious ceremonies. It’s the way we givethanks to the Creator. There are fourceremonial dances each year—Spring BreadDance, Summer Green Corn Dance, FallBread Dance, and a family dance.

GEORGE J. “BUCK” CAPTAIN (1922-1997) served asChief of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. Theirreservation is in Seneca, Missouri.

Our Shawnee tribes haven’t been together as a Nation forclose to two hundred years, so about 1990 I decided it wasabout time. I contacted the Absentee Shawnees and I talkedto the Loyal Shawnees and then I threw a dinner here, inour new tribal building. We like to eat, so we got together,and we’ve been working together ever since. My idea is tobuild a museum to let people see what we have from ourpast. We’re the remnant of the tribes, the downfallen, thegroup they’ve made beggars out of, and they don’t know thetalent Indians had because they confiscated everything they

ever had. All went to Europe or in museums. Iwant to make a super stop on the high-way—bring the kids in. The people whocame here knew our history, but theypassed on. When the big move came fromOhio to Kansas, they did leave somepeople in Ohio. Chief Blue Jacket stayed.So there are people now in Ohio withpast Shawnee ancestry. Well, they can’tever be on the Shawnee roll, but theycan certainly be my friends. Blue Jacket and his group could stay

because he became a secret ally of GeneralAnthony Wayne, favoring the devastating Fort

Harmar Treaty of 1789, which Little Turtle opposed.

DAVID LEE SMITH is Tribal Historian and CulturalPreservation Officer of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.He holds degrees from Morningside College and UCLA.Director of Indian Studies at Little Priest Tribal Collegein Winnebago, he is a nationally known storyteller andauthor of books documenting the oral tradition of theWinnebago from creation myths to Trickster stories andcontemporary tales to the history of the tribe, whosereal name is Ho-Chunk, “People of the Parent Speech-The First Voice.” Their origins trace back to Kentucky.

I was proud when the American Indian Movement startedits organization. I was proud to be an Indian because atleast someone was defending our identity. Before that, no one

wanted to be an Indian; now every-body wants to be an Indian.

When the tribe movedfrom Wisconsin to theWinnebago Reservation in1863, we were ruled by whatwe call a clan system. The AirDivision was Thunder, Eagle,Hawk, Pigeon. The EarthDivision was Buffalo, Bear, Wolf,Deer, Elk, Water Spirit, Fish,Snake. Each one participated in[particular] tribal affairs. Theclan system broke up afterthe move.

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RAYMOND O. WHITE, Jr. (1937-1994), Principal Chief,Miami Nation of Indians of the State of Indiana, advocatedknowing the full story of Indiana. Ethnohistory is a circularrather than a linear way of thinking that presents not one,but multiple points of view and makes succeeding genera-tions active participants in past, present, and future events.Why things happen is central to when and who is involved.

If people were made aware of all the history of Indians inthe state of Indiana, that could help eliminatea lot of stereotypes.

Thinking of American Indians as savages,uncivilized, deprives us of knowing aboutsophisticated systems of trade, land use,agriculture, economics, religion, governance,arts that existed centuries before Columbus.

The truth, said Ray White, is found in theseventeenth century writings of the Jesuitpriests who spoke of the Miamis as one ofthe best educated people. From the seven-teenth century onward Miamis dealt withFrance, Spain, Britain, Colonists, and theU.S. They spoke these three new tonguesalong with dialects and languages of multipletribes with whom they had commerce. RayWhite fought for Indiana Miamis to regainthe federal recognition taken away by aclerical error in 1897. That fight continuesunder Chief Paul C. Strack.

LUCY SADIE PARKS BLALOCK, Elder of the DelawareTribe of Indians of Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

I knew all my life that I was an Indian. All my life.Because the Delaware language was spoken in my home Igrew up with the language. Right now I’m the EasternDelaware language teacher. I’m teaching adults. We’re doingthis because they lost their language; they did not speak thelanguage when they were growing up. Most of the Delawarekids, when they got teased, it killed their spirit. They gotashamed. And that’s why they didn’t want to learn theirlanguage; they wanted to be white. But for me, as much asthey teased me, I wasn’t about to quit my language. I stuckto my guns.

Once I’m no longer able to teach thelanguage class that now has thirty-onestudents, there’s nobody else to take my place.A long, long time ago when I was a child,there were elderly women who knew how tomake baskets. But that is lost, too. Nobody inthe tribe has any idea how to make a [Dela-ware] basket. There was an elderly woman, LucyD. Lewis, who was the official storyteller. You’dgo to her on wintry evenings, and she might spendhalf a night telling stories like fairy tales, legends.I especially liked the stories about the DelawareBig House, xking we kowan.

PATRICIA A. HRABIK has been a Tribal Judge andHistoric Preservation Officer and Heritage Tourism Coordi-nator of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chip-pewa Indians in Wisconsin. The Ojibwas, their real name,have been at home within the far reaches of the upperGreat Lakes region with most living in Canada. Never asingle governmental body, the Ojibwas are connected byhundreds of patriarchal clans. Early on, they defended theirlands against other tribes who wanted their rich hunting,fishing, and planting territory. Later, separateOjibwa clans formed trading partnershipswith Europeans. The Midewiwin waysremain strong: maintaining balance inpersonal life, respecting all forms of life-plant and animal, bringing harmony intothe social order, gaining economicsecurity.

The Indian Self-Determination andEducation Assistance Act (Public Law 93-638) was passed in 1975. It provided formaximum Indian participation in thegovernment and education of Indianpeople. The Lac du Flambeau bandhas taken full advantage of this lawand now conducts its own programswith the help of highly educatedtribal membership. Public Law 280[1953] restores our jurisdiction overtribal criminal and civil matters.

TOM TOPASH served as Vice Chairman of the PokagonPotawatomi Nation of Michigan. He is an educator in theMichigan schools, a playwright of Potawatomi history,and a public speaker.

Born post World War II, when many returning AmericanIndian veterans found public prejudice had not changed, hisfather, like most others, turned away fromhis heritage.

There wasn’t, at the time of myupbringing, an obvious NativeAmerican component to our lives.[However], what I have discov-ered, and am continuing toexplore over and again, is thatthe important components, theimportant beliefs, behaviors thatwere Native were subtly taughtto us by my dad. He had easyhumor, was amiable, alwayspolite, willing to give and toshare, and that meant of hisworldly goods and his personal-ity. He was building the ground-work for his children to be able todo what they do. I say that as aperson from “the comeback generation”.

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DON GREENFEATHER, servedthe Loyal Shawnee Tribe of Okla-homa as Tribal Chairman. The Loyal Shawnee Tribe is the

largest, with the Absentee andEastern next, in that order. Our tribeis the poorest of the three. We werethe last to leave Ohio, around 1832, toKansas. In 1869 we were forced to move

to Oklahoma. [The government] settledour band, along with the [Eastern] Delaware, within theCherokee Nation boundaries. We’ve had to do a lot of ourdealings with the federal government through the Cherokee.In all honesty, that makes us feel secondary to the Cherokee.In Indian Country we’re struggling, but our people arestrong. We’ve stood up. The Loyal Shawnees have stood up,and we won’t lay down again. We’re proud of who we are.We are not ashamed. I don’t use the word proud in anarrogant sense. The main hurdle we have had with ourpeople is getting them to believe in who we are and in ourabilities. After the fall of Tecumseh, after we left Ohio andmoved to Kansas, we got settled in Kansas, but again thegovernment stepped in and forcibly removed the people. Ihave heard Aunt Lois Greenfeather tell stories she heardabout the removal that have been passed down. Thatwas a bad day for our people. The government camein and told our people, “you’re leaving.” People’sspirits are broken.

RAE DAUGHERTY is an Elder of the Potawatomi IndianNation, living in Dowagiac, Michigan.

My father was Michael D. Williams; my mother wasCecilia Topash Williams. My father originally had the nameof Cowtuchma, but the priest gave him the name of Williamsin order to make it easier for him, for the white man torelate to him. He wasn’t singled out; it was something thatwas done with the various names. My mother was from theTom Topash family; she was very busy, very active, in Indianaffairs. My parents moved us to SouthBend so we could enter a parochialschool; I went until junior high. Then Iwent to the public high school andgraduated.

I married Mike Daugherty. We hadfour children, three girls and a boy. Myfather and my husband became verygood friends, and because my fatherwas active in Indian affairs, myhusband was. He did manythings; he was given thetitle of historian. My soncontinues our familyinvolvement. I served on theElders Council, the IndianAdvisory Board, and theBoard of the Michigan LegalService.

DAN RAPP is a former Chairman of thePokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, whowere granted federal recognition on Sep-tember 21, 1994 after years and years oflitigation to gain this status. The Pota-watomi are the only recognized tribe livingin Indiana. Six northwestern Indiana coun-ties are included in the service area of thetribe, headquartered in Dowagiac, Michigan.

Michael was my father’s name; Agnes is mymother’s. My mother is an Ottawa, but she gotinvolved in the [Potawatomi] culture and thetraditions. She teaches basketry. She was always athome, and all of a sudden she is traveling around thecountry, giving demonstrations. It was her and Julia Wesaw.

The guys did all that—the men. They made the handlesand the ribbings on top of the baskets. The women did allthe weaving. The women split and smoothed the strips for

weaving. [After about 1955 basket weavingwent into decline] but it got started againaround 1975 when I asked the members [ofthe tribe] if they could remember how tomake baskets. Julia Wesaw said, “Well, wecan still make the baskets but we can’tfind the wood.” And I said, “Well, if Ifind the wood, will you make me abasket?” I left the hall and was gonetwenty minutes and came back with a

black ash tree, and they’ve been makingbaskets ever since. This became known as

the Potawatomi Basketmakers Exchange. Westarted a co-op made up of Elders. My dad [Mark Alexis],Mike Daugherty, Dan Rapp and myself were the ones whogot the wood. We were the only ones who knew how toidentify the tree. [I’ve taught] my sons. The basketmakers inthe Pokagon Band became real famous. They were writtenabout in numerous journals. Julia Wesaw and Agnes Rappand Barbara Paxson, a non-Indian, went to the Smithsonianand participated in Michigan on the Mall part of theSmithsonian Folklife Festival. They got all kinds of citations.

My background is business. I worked for the WhirlpoolCorporation and then Modern Plastics. I know what meetingsare like and what deadlines are like. I show up on time. Imake hard decisions.

PHILIP ALEXIS, Executive Director of the ConfederatedHistoric Tribes, Inc., and past Chairman and tribal opera-tions manager of the Pokagon Potawatomi, among otherintertribal economic development work, picks up the story.

During those years when I was real young, my grand-mother was kind of my favorite friend. She was my dad’smother. She did a lot things with me, and I think that’swhere a lot of the Indian awareness came back. My grand-mother was known as one of the medicine women of thetribe. She taught me about medicine and how to makebaskets, even though I was really young. I could identify thetree that she used to make baskets. I pounded the bark andmade the strips.

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Grants and Treatiesin Indiana, 1783-1840

Sources: Charles J. Kappler, ed.,Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties

(Washington, D.C., 1903), Vol. II; andFrancis Paul Prucha, Atlas of American

Indian Affairs (Lincoln, Neb., 1990).

The Woodland PeopleWhen Europeans first arrived along the northeast-ern shore of North America, they encountered In-dian residents of various Woodland tribes. The mapat right gives general locations of the early home-lands of the Woodland People.

As the European population grew along the East-ern coast, some Indian tribes were forced to moveaway from their traditional homelands. Competitionamong the French, British, and Indians for the furtrade resulted in conflict and warfare among theWoodland tribes causing many tribes to move northand west to escape the bloodshed.

By the early 1700s, the area that is now Indianaand Ohio became a refuge for numerous Woodlandtribes. Some, like the Delaware, Mohican, Nanticoke,Munsee, and Shawnee originally lived along the east-ern coast but were gradually pushed west by thegrowing white population. Others, such as the Mi-ami, Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Piankashaw, Wea, andHuron returned to their homelands in the southernGreat Lakes as the conflicts over fur trade subsided.

The end of the American Revolution forced theWoodland People farther west. The maps below showthe impact of white settlement on the Woodlandtribes in Indiana. The Indians had an impact as well;for example, many of their original villages grewinto Indiana cities and towns.

Homelands of the Woodland People,circa seventeenth century

1

23

4

5

6 7

8

9

10

11

12

1314 15

16 17

Ojibway

ChippewaMenomineeW

inn

ebag

o

Sauk

Mesquakie

PeoriaKickapoo

Kaskaskia

Illinois

Ottawa

Potawatomi

Miami

WeaPiankasha

Shawnee

Shawnee

Wyandotte

Delaware

MohawkOneida

OnondagaCayugaSeneca

ErieNeutral

Tobacco

Huron

AmericanIndian

and whitesettlementsin IndianaTerritory

circa 1810

Potawatomi

Miami

Shawnee

Kickapoo

Wea

Delaware

Munsee

Nanticoke

Whitesettlement

Fort andwhite settlement

Fort

Adapted from: Helen Hornbeck Tanner, ed.,Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History

(Norman, Okla., 1987), 98-99.


1 Clark’s Grant, 1783 given by Virginia to the sol-diers who fought in the Illinois campaign with GeorgeRogers Clark2 Treaty with the Wyandot, Delaware, Shawnee,Ottawa, Chippewa, Potawatomi, Miami, Eel River,Wea, Kickapoo, Piankashaw, and Kaskaskia Indianssigned August 3, 1795 at Greenville, Ohio3 Treaty with the Delaware, Shawnee, Potawatomi,Miami, Eel River, Wea, Kickapoo, Piankashaw, andKaskaskia Indians signed June 7, 1803 at Fort Wayne4 Treaties with the Delaware and the PiankashawIndians signed August 18 and 27, 1804 at Vincennes5 Treaty with the Delaware, Potawatomi, Miami, EelRiver, and Wea Indians signed August 21, 1805 atVincennes6 Treaty with the Delaware, Potawatomi, Miami,and Eel River Indians signed September 30, 1809 atFort Wayne7 Supplementary treaty with the Miami, Eel River,Delaware, and Potawatomi Indians signed Septem-ber 30, 1809 at Fort Wayne8 Treaty with the Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware,Shawnee, Potawatomi, Ottawa, and Chippewa Indi-ans signed September 29, 1817 at the Rapids of theMaumee River in Ohio9 Treaties with the Potawatomi, Wea, Delaware,and Miami Indians signed October 2-6, 1818 at St.Mary’s, Ohio10 Treaty with the Ottawa, Chippewa,andPotawatomi Indians signed August 29, 1821 at Chi-cago11 Treaties with the Potawatomi and Miami Indianssigned October 16 and 23,1826 on the Wabash Rivernear the Mouth of the Mississinewa River12 Treaty with the Potawatomi Indians signed Octo-ber 16, 1826 on the Wabash River near the Mouth ofthe Mississinewa River13 Treaty with the Potawatomi Indians signed Sep-tember 20, 1828 at Carey’s Mission, Michigan14 Treaty with the Potawatomi Indians signed Octo-ber 26, 1832 on the Tippecanoe River15 Treaty with the Potawatomi Indians signed Octo-ber 27, 1832 on the Tippecanoe River16 Treaty with the Miami Indians signed October 23,1834 at the Forks of the Wabash17 Treaty with the Miami Indians signed November28, 1840 at the Forks of the Wabash

Today, the United States government recognizes 556tribal entities. The darker states on the map at leftindicate locations of reservations and headquarters ofapproximately sixty federally recognized Woodlandtribes.

There are no federally recognized Woodland tribesheadquartered in Indiana today. However, non-recog-nized tribal governments representing the Miami Na-tion of Indians of the State of Indiana and the WeaIndian Tribe are located in Indiana.

The American Indian population in Indiana (andthe rest of the United States) has been counted sincethe early nineteenth century. In 1825, according to areport from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 4,973American Indians were living in Indiana. By 1860, thefirst time Indians were counted separately in the cen-sus, only 290 Indians remained in Indiana. The lowestpopulation count was in 1920 when 125 Indians wererecorded living in Indiana. In 1950, the census takerdecided the race of the person being counted; 438 In-dians were recorded in Indiana. In 1980, for the firsttime, the person being counted selected his or herrace; 7,682 people selected American Indian. By 1990, the population of American Indians inIndiana had almost doubled to 12,453. On the map at

the left, the top numberindicates the 1990 Indianpopulation in each Indi-ana county. For the 2000Census, signif icantchanges were made to thequestion concerning race.For the first time, respon-dents were allowed toidentify one or moreraces to indicate theirracial identity. On the map at the left,the bottom, underlinednumbers indicate thenumber of people who se-lected “American Indianor Alaska Native” as theironly race. In Indiana, in2000, the total number ofpeople who selected thiscategory was 15,815. In addition, 23,448 in-dividuals selected the cat-egory “American Indianor Alaska Native and an-other race”. Therefore, atotal of 39,263 persons in-dicated their race as“American Indian orAlaska Native” or “Ameri-can Indian or Alaska Na-tive and another race”.

Reservations andHeadquarters of Federally

Recognized Woodland People,circa 2000

Adams

Allen

Bartholomew

Benton

Blackford

Boone

Brown

Carroll

Cass

Clark

Clay

Clinton

Crawford

Daviess

DearbornDecatur

Dekalb

Delaware

Dubois

Elkhart

Fayette

Floyd

Fountain

Franklin

Fulton

Gibson

Grant

Greene

Hamilton

Hancock

Harrison

Hendricks Henry

Howard

Huntington

Jackson

Jasper

Jay

Jefferson

Jennings

Johnson

Knox

Kosciusko

Lagrange

Lake

La Porte

Lawrence

Madison

Marion

Marshall

Martin

Miami

Monroe

Montgomery

Morgan

Newton

Noble

Ohio

Orange

Owen

Parke

Perry

Pike

Porter

Posey

Pulaski

Putnam

Randolph

Ripley

Rush

St. Joseph

Scott

Shelby

Spencer

Starke

Steuben

Sullivan

Switzerland

Tippecanoe

Tipton

Union

Vanderburgh

Verm

illion

Vigo

Wabash

Warren

Warrick

Washington

Wayne

Wells

White

Whitley

845

237

252840 440 57 64

39

60

86 71

110

79 91

88072

258

47

21

16

50135

567 15440 42

3244

29522322

31116

25

67

88160

284 26849

51 20

149

78

581640

15077

4232

28936

46

137

13864

15

36

15

3418

9547

212

4739

6926

14

88 62

31

44 47

8

1655

23

2838

3016

38

38279 82

3725

2557

92

183

1475

247

15197

41

3345

7830572

61

16 40

60 36

36

58

92

7

73

101129

12

69

82

67 104

317

33105

2635

20

22

2984207

149

81

65290

41 43119

2612181

95

75

139

50275310

307118

73

36

12 41748 37

3645

32230233

64

13

127

389

229157

53 57

1187110

187

77

3054

45

1343

326

342

57 134

938 495

115 87

10951


Behind the scenesThe mission of the Indiana AmericanIndian Theatre Company is to developand present multigenerational, multilin-gual scripts in order to dispel stereo-types and distorted images aboutAmerican Indians and to show them as

people who are notstuck in the past, butwho have transformedthemselves to live andwork in the twenty-first century. The distinctivequality of IAITCo.includes simple stagesettings, creative usesof American Indianoral traditions andmovement, emphasison story over spec-tacle, and a programof mentoring to builda corps of AmericanIndian actors, design-

ers, technical crew members, play-wrights, dramaturges, and directors. IAITCo. premiered its first productionat Conner Prairie during the November2000 Spirit & Place Festival. ShadowSpeakers of Night Sky Stories, by RitaKohn and Joseph Bruchac III (Abenaki),since has been performed at the ScienceMuseum of Virginia in Richmond and isbeing considered by other theatresnationwide.

The original company included HaileyBryant (Navajo Nation, N.M.), NieweasahAllison Codynah (Eastern Cherokee /

Comanche from the Cherokee IndianReservation, N.C. ), Rebecca Martin(Pueblo of Acoma, N.M.), StephanieJohnson, Brian Klemesrud, Stands TallWoman (Cherokee/Sioux-Blackfoot), andTavi Stutz. Headed by Alberta Printupas technical director and FelicaAhasteen-Bryant as stage manager, allmembers of the technical crew wereAmerican Indians.

Founding Artistic Director DebraKnapp has since been named Director ofthe Dance Program at New Mexico StateUniversity at Las Cruces.

Thomas D. Kohn, resident dramaturg,is an Assistant Professor in the ClassicsDepartment at Millsaps College inJackson, Mississippi. He is a graduate ofCarleton College in Northfield, Minne-sota and a Ph.D. candidate at theUniversity of Minnesota. An actor anddirector, he also served as a dramaturgi-cal intern with the Guthrie Theatre, St.Paul, Minnesota. He was a member ofthe summer stock theatre, The UninvitedCompany of Northfield, Minnesota, forthree seasons, serving as managingartistic director during his last year.

IAITCo. was invited to make its homeat the Harrison Centre for the Arts inIndianapolis. Jeremy Efroymson and thePappas Brothers Construction Companyhave restored the historic PresbyterianChurch in the Old Northside Neighbor-hood to create the Centre, including atheatre, an art gallery, studios for visualartists, and offices for the NatureConservancy and VSA arts of Indiana.

The Indiana American IndianTheatre Company (IAITCo.)

Indiana Indiansgain visibility

Rita Kohn, IAITCo. resident playwright,is the author of fourteen published booksand twenty produced plays. With per-mission from Elders and the NativeAmerican Council, advisory to the Stateof Indiana, she is a co-founder of IAITCo.with Rebecca Martin, and a co-founderwith James W. Brown of the Indiana Uni-versity School of Journalism at IUPUIVoices of the Turtle Project and Schol-arship, funded in part by five of herbooks: Always a People, Spring Planting,Celebrating Summer, Fall Gathering, Win-ter Storytime. She is the author of A

Makers of “Finding our way home”

Guide for Teachers, Parents and Studentsfor Shadow Speakers of Night Sky Sto-ries.

Stands Tall Woman, IAITCo. residentartist, also is an art teacher for CarmelClay Schools, Hamilton County, Indiana.She is a fine arts graduate of AndersonUniversity and is in graduate studies atBall State University. Her work is heldby private and museum collections.STands illustrated A Guide for Teachers,Parents and Students for Shadow Speak-ers of Night Sky Stories.


Selected titles for further learning• Baydo, Jerry R., ed., Readings in AmericanHistory. Wheaton, Ill., 1992.

Includes many eighteenth and nineteenthcentury speeches by Woodland Indians notaccessible elsewhere, but like all translations, beaware of “Christian teachings coming fromNative’s tongues” (Review by Buffalo HeartWoman, Indiana).• —— . A History of the American Indian.Wheaton, Ill., 1992.

A straightforward, though sympathetic, accountup to 1934, organized according to events fromthe white man’s point of view.• Black Hawk. Life of Black Hawk. Reprint of1916 edition. New York, 1994.

This first-hand account was originally publishedin 1834. The notes by scholars reflect theprevailing attitude toward American Indians.Overall, this is a rare opportunity to hear directlyfrom an American Indian why he waged waragainst the United States.• Dye, Kitty. Maconaquah’s Story: The Saga ofFrances Slocum. Port Clinton, Ohio, 1996.

Readable, well-researched retelling.• Fatout, Paul. Indiana Canals. West Lafayette,1972.

Rivers were the interstates. Canals connectedthem, in many cases following the routes of theWoodland Indians of the Great Lakes region.• Fixico, Donald L., ed. Rethinking AmericanIndian History. Albuquerque, 1997.

Essays reflect an expanded view of scholarshipon how to teach and learn about the complexity ofAmerican Indian life.• Francis, Lee. Native Time: A Historical TimeLine of Native America. New York, 1996.

Timeline from an American Indian perspective.• Godfroy, Chief Clarence. Miami Indian Stories.Winona Lake, Ind., 1961.

Stories relating the traditions and customs ofthe Indiana Miamis passed on by the great-greatgrandson of Frances Slocum.• Henderson, A. Gwynn. Kentuckians beforeBoone. Lexington, Ky., 1992.

A fictionalized account of an American Indianfamily in central Kentucky in 1585, based onarchaeological and fifteenth and sixteenth centuryaccounts from Euroamerican traders.• Hirschfelder, Arlene, ed. Native Heritage. NewYork, 1995.

Personal accounts by American Indians, 1790-present, under topics such as family, language,traditions, discrimination.• Hìtakonanu’laxk (Tree Beard). The GrandfathersSpeak: Native American Folk Tales of the LenapéPeople. Brooklyn, N.Y. 1994.

Includes tales handed down by Elders, printedin early books or recorded by missionaries.• Hoxie, Frederick E. Encyclopedia of NorthAmerican Indians. Boston & New York, 1996.

Includes comprehensive data on Great Lakestribes, key personalities, and topics.• —, Frederick E., and Peter Iverson. eds. Indiansin American History: An Introduction. Wheeling,Ill., 1998.

Essays from various American Indian perspec-tives. See especially Chapter 7 to understanddifferences in perceptions between Indians and

non-Indians. For example, Tecumseh has become amythic hero, yet “The Prophet” had moreinfluence for Indians.• Indians and a Changing Frontier: The Art ofGeorge Winter. Indianapolis, 1993.

Catalog of the George Winter collection at theTippecanoe County Historical Association,Lafayette, Ind. Essays by Christian F. Feest and R.David Edmunds.• Iverson, Peter, “We Are Still Here”: AmericanIndians in the Twentieth Century. Wheeling, Ill.,1998.

Analysis of complex issues from the AmericanIndian point of view in readable form.• Jahoda, Gloria. The Trail of Tears: The Story ofthe American Indian Removal, 1813-1855. NewYork, 1975.

Incorporates Indian point of view.• Johnson, Howard. A Home in the Woods:Pioneer Life in Indiana. Bloomington, Ind., 1991.

Oliver Johnson’s family moved to Marion Countyjust as the Delawares were removed in 1821.• Kohn, Rita, and W. Lynwood Montell, eds.Always a People: Oral Histories of ContemporaryWoodland Indians. Bloomington, Ind., 1997.

Forty-one first person oral histories represent-ing seventeen different tribes. Introduction by R.David Edmunds.• McPherson, Alan. Indian Names in Indiana.[Monticello,] Ind., 1993.

Alphabetical listing with subject index and maps.• Marks, LaMoine. Kim-qu-tah. Lagro, Ind., 1994.

Family oral tradition of the white captiveHannah Thorpe, written by her Miami great-grandson. Pamphlet, n.d.• Minnetrista Cultural Center & Ball StateUniversity. Native American Cultures in Indiana.Muncie, 1992.• —. 1991-1992 Proceedings Woodland NationalConference. Muncie, 1992.• Rafert, Stewart. The Miami Indians of Indiana:A Persistent People, 1654-1994. Indianapolis, 1996.

Carefully researched from Miami point of view.• Remini, Robert V. Andrew Jackson and HisIndian Wars. New York, 2001.

Reviewer Andrew R. L. Cayton takes exceptionto the author’s analysis that Jackson is the “saviorof American Indians” through his program offorced removals.• Shorto, Russell. Tecumseh and the Dream of anAmerican Indian Nation. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.,1989.

Alvin Josephy’s Biography Series of AmericanIndians. While the chronology is accurate, thelanguage is stereotypical in describing AmericanIndians.• Ritzenthaler, Robert E., and Pat Ritzenthaler.The Woodland Indians of the Western Great Lakes.Milwaukee, 1983.

Generally good background data, but be awareof stereotypical language and information, such asreferring to ceremonial dress as “costumes” andthe use of “squaw.”• Simons, Richard S. The Rivers of Indiana.Bloomington, Ind., 1985.

Woodland Indian history is best understoodthrough the rivers along which they lived andtraded.

• Smith, David Lee. Folklore of the WinnebagoTribe. Norman, Okla., 1997.

Creation and trickster stories, myths andlegends retold in the voices of the Elders whopassed them on to the author, a Winnebago.• Thom, Dark Rain. Kohkumthena’s grandchildren:the Shawnee. Indianapolis, 1994.

Fictionalized account based in part on researchby anthropologist Erminie Wheeler Voegelin.• Sugden, John. Tecumseh: A Life. New York,1998.

Comprehensive biography.• Thompson, Charles N. Sons of the Wilderness:John and William Conner. Noblesville, Ind., 1988.

History from the white man’s point of view.William married Mekinges, daughter of DelawareChief Anderson.• Twigh Twee Singers. From the River.Pennsauken, N.J., 2001.

Audio Tape and CD of eleven songs in theIndiana Miami Indian Tribe tradition.• Valley, Dorris, and Mary M. Lembecke, eds. ThePeorias: A History of the Peoria Indian Tribe ofOklahoma. Miami, Okla., 1991.

A researched documentation of Peoria Indiansites and life, as part of the Illinois Nation, in theOld Northwest Territory to removal westward intoOklahoma.• Weeks, Philip. Farewell, My Nation: TheAmerican Indian and the United States, 1820-1890.Arlington Heights, Ill., 1990.

Some honest answers, some conclusions forhealing deep wounds about why the U.S. turned toa policy of separation, removing American Indiansunder brutal conditions.• Wilson, George R. Early Indiana Trails andSurveys. Reprint. Indianapolis, 1986.

The American Indian footprint is foundeverywhere. Good maps, including one of Treatieswith American Indians (p. 54).

Other resources• Indian Arts & Crafts Association & Council forIndigenous Arts and Culture & The BookPublishing Co., Summertown, Tenn. Call 1-800-695-2241.

Titles include Native American Crafts andMusic Directories.• Indiana Historical Bureau.

Relevant issues of The Indiana Historian areavailable for purchase or on-line at www.IN.gov/history. Background data and selected resources.• Indiana Historical Society.

Original documents in the William HenrySmith Memorial Library and articles in Traces andThe Hoosier Genealogist; www.indianahistory.org.• Indiana Magazine of History.

www.indiana.edu/~imaghist.• Indiana State Library.

Original documents in Indiana Division;www.IN.gov/library.• Smithsonian Institution. National Museum ofthe American Indian.

Quarterly publication, museum, and researchlibrary; www.si.edu/nmai or call 1-800-242-6624.• Wabash River Heritage Corridor Commission,Indiana River Heritage Corridor Commission.

Monthly meetings and publications coverhistory and current events. Call 317-232-4070.

trees feast on us, thus completing the cycle.

— life cycle —STands

our brother andsister trees give fruit.

the crawling onesenjoy the fruit.

the larger relativesconsume the smaller.

two-leggeds hunt and feast on the animals.

when two-leggeds cross, our brother and sister

Documents

The Great Lakes Woodland People - IN.gov › history › files › findourwayhome.pdf · 2020-03-24 · Finding our way ho The Great Lakes Woodland People ... The symbols and art