|
|
 |
 |
In
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, other Native groups arrived
in this region. These included the Miamis, who came from Wisconsin
and Illinois; the Delaware nations from the east; the Shawnee nation
from the southern United States; and the Potawatomis (who call themselves
the Bodewadmi, or "Keepers of the Fire") from the
northern states. They had all been significantly affected by the arrival
of Europeans in the United States, and especially by wars among British
and French settlers and later between British forces and the American
colonists.
The Treaty of Greenville, signed August 3, 1795, established a boundary between Native and non-Native settlements. Although it was designed in part to protect "Indian territory" against incursions by white settlers, the treaty opened up nearly two-thirds of the Ohio region and a sliver of southeastern Indiana to white settlement, confining the Native Americans to live in northern and western Indiana. Through conflict and successive treaties, ownership of almost all Native American lands in Indiana was transferred to the federal government by the mid-nineteenth century. The Treaty of Fort Wayne (1803), arranged by Indiana Governor William Henry Harrison and President Thomas Jefferson, established new settlement guidelines for the region, and prepared for a complete cession of Indian lands. By this agreement, the Potawatomies and other nations transferred title to the lands in question to the federal government. The Treaty of Vincennes (1804) with the Delawares and Piankeshaws ceded their homelands in the extreme southern portion of the Indiana region along the Ohio River. By 1846, most of the Miami peoples had left Indiana for Kansas Territory because of the loss of their homelands. Of course, Native American history in Indiana does not end in the 19th century. The original peoples have a rich and continuing heritage in this state. For more information about their history and about the contemporary Miami Nation in Indiana, click here.
|
