As blog readers may recall, a group of artists, educators, and scholars have been discussing Myaamia and Peewaalia ‘Miami and Peoria’ painted hides held in a museum in Paris, France, and thinking about revitalizing the meaning and practice of this artistic form. In early August of 2022, a group got together in Miami, Oklahoma. The…
Category: 1701-1780
cecaahkwa kiilhswa ‘Sandhill Crane Moon’
Cecaahkwa Kiilhswa is the third lunar month of the Myaamia lunar calendar. Like the other months named for birds, Cecaahkwa Kiilhswa is associated with the process of transition from pipoonwi (winter) into niipinwi (summer). The month is named for cecaahkwa ‘Sandhill Crane – grus canadensis.’ Around this time of year, Sandhill Cranes return from their winter nesting…
atayali-nko ayaapia? ‘Was Ayaapia a Slave?’
Histories of Indigenous Slavery: A Roundtable Hosted by the Myaamia Center at Miami University by Cameron Shriver Myaamia people and their younger siblings, the Peewaalia ‘Peoria,’ have featured in historians’ research about Indian slavery in the colonial period, ca. 1500-1800. However, our tribal community and researchers have not been deeply involved, until recently, in discussions…
The Many Branches of Tahkamwa’s Family Tree
by John Bickers and George Ironstrack This post is the first in a new series of articles touching on Myaamia kinship and genealogy. It is the hope of the authors that Myaamia community members will be interested to learn more about how our Myaamia families are interrelated. Additionally, we hope that community members will request future…
The Good Path: Part II
aapooši peehkihkanaweeyankwi Again We Travel a Good Path – Part II (1752-1780) In our last post we examined the history of the Myaamia village of Pinkwaawilenionki, also known as Pickawillany, and the brief period of instability that centered on the creation and destruction of this Myaamia village on the Great Miami River (1747-1752).[1] Following the…
The Crooked Trail to Pickawillany (1747-1752)
waakihsenki miiwi pinkwaawilenionkiši The Crooked Trail to Pickawillany (1747-1752) In our last post we looked at the beginning of the longest period of stability in the recorded history of Myaamia people (1700-1780). In the first part of that period (1700-1740), Myaamia people resumed the “normal” patterns of their lives in villages along the Waapaahšiki Siipiiwi…
FAQ: Origins of the name Twigh Twee?
In many historical works readers encounter the term Twigh Twee as one name for Myaamia (Miami) People. So where did this unique name come from? The short answer is that we don’t know for sure, but the name probably came from the Cherokee or the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). The longer and more complicated answer is a…
The Good Path: Part I
aapooši peehkihkanaweeyankwi Again We Travel a Good Path – Part I (1700-1747) In our last post, we took a look at the tumultuous years that followed the arrival of various groups of Europeans in North America. Disruptions from disease and war eventually escalated into a series of conflicts called the Beaver Wars (1640-1701). These conflicts…
Aacimotaatiiyankwi 