One of the small group of tribes comprising the Illinois division of the Algonquian linguistic family, the Miamis emerged as a pivotal tribe only during the French and British imperial wars, the Miami Confederacy wars of the 18th century and the treaty-making period of the 19th century.

Writers will save hours of valuable research time and bring a richness and historical accuracy to their work as they reference the slice-of-life facts depicted for each of these major time periods. Each book contains descriptions of the period's food and clothes; customs and slang; occupations; common religious and political practices; and other historical details.

Now scattered in small communities in northern Indiana, the Eastern Miami Indians, once a well-known tribe, have lived in undeserved obscurity since the 1840s. In recent years they have become more visible as they have sought restoration of treaty rights and have revitalized their culture. The post-removal history of the Indiana Miami tribe is a rich texture of social, legal, and economic history, much enhanced by folklore and a rich series of photographic images. In The Miami Indians of Indiana: A Persistent People, 1654–1994, Rafert explores the history and culture of the Miami Indians.

In the second volume of the IHS Press’s Peopling Indiana Series, anthropologist Elizabeth Glenn and ethnohistorian Stewart Rafert put readers in touch with the first people to inhabit the Hoosier state, exploring what it meant historically to be an Indian in this land and discussing the resurgence of native life in the state today. Many natives either assimilated into white culture or hid their Indian identity. World War II dramatically changed this scenario when Native Americans served in the U.S. military and on the home front. Afterward, Indians from many tribal lineages flocked to Indiana to find work. Along with Indiana's Miami and Potawatomi, they are creating a diverse Indian culture that enriches the lives of all Hoosiers.

Native Americans lived, hunted and farmed in east-central Indiana for two thousand years before the area became a part of the Hoosier State.
 

Mounds and enclosures built by Adena and Hopewell peoples still stand near the White River and reflect their vibrant and mysterious cultures. The Lenape tribes moved to east-central Indiana many years later after the Northwest Indian War. Led by the great chiefs Buckhongehelas and Kikthawenund, the White River Lenape attempted to forge an identity after being forced from their homeland on the Atlantic coast. Place names like Delaware County, Muncie, Yorktown and Anderson demonstrate the importance of the tribe in local history. Author Chris Flook explores the unique yet often untold history of the Native experience in east-central Indiana.

Written by Roberta Estes, the foremost expert on how to utilize DNA testing to identify Native American ancestors, this book is the first to offer detailed information and advice specifically aimed at family historians interested in fleshing out their Native American family tree through DNA testing.

Figuring out how to incorporate DNA testing into your Native American genealogy research can be difficult and daunting. What types of DNA tests are available, and which vendors offer them? What other tools are available? How is Native American DNA determined or recognized in your DNA? What information about your Native American ancestors can DNA testing uncover? This book addresses these questions and much more.

Included are step-by-step instructions, with illustrations, on how to use DNA testing at the four major DNA testing companies to further your genealogy and confirm or identify your Native American ancestors. Among the many other topics covered are: tribes in the United States and First Nations in Canada; ethnicity; chromosome painting; population genetics and how ethnicity is assigned; genetic groups and communities; Y DNA paternal direct line male testing; mitochondrial DNA maternal direct line testing; autosomal DNA matching and ethnicity comparisons; creating a DNA pedigree chart; native American haplogroups by region and tribe; ancient and contemporary Native American DNA.

Special features include numerous charts and maps; a roadmap and checklist giving you clear instructions on how to proceed; and a glossary to help you decipher the technical language associated with DNA testing.

A linguistic history of Native American place-names in Indiana

In tracing the roots of Indiana place names, Michael McCafferty focuses on those created and used by local Native Americans. Drawing from exciting new sources that include three Illinois dictionaries from the eighteenth century, the author documents the language used to describe landmarks essential to fur traders in Les Pays d’en Haut and settlers of the Old Northwest territory. Impeccably researched, this study details who created each name, as well as when, where, how and why they were used. The result is a detailed linguistic history of lakes, streams, cities, counties, and other Indiana names. Each entry includes native language forms, translations, and pronunciation guides, offering fresh historical insight into the state of Indiana.

Forty-one individuals, from seventeen different tribes, representing eleven nations, tell their stories in Always a People. As descendants of people who shaped the history of the North American continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, the narrators herein continue to feel closely bound to the land from which most of them have been forcibly removed. The eleven nations represented in this volume are the Miami, Potawatomi, Delaware, Shawnee, Peoria, Oneida, Ottawa, Winnebago, Sac and Fox, Chippewa, and Kickapoo. All of the people interviewed here have a very deep and abiding commitment to their families and speak of great-great grandparents as intimately as they do of their parents. All see themselves as real people who do not fit the stereotypes often associated with ""native Americans."" All speak of the urgency for making room for multiple voices drawn from many traditions.

Due primarily to a lack of accurate data, little has been written regarding the life histories of individual American Indians.

Biographical Indian sketches that have been published are about a few outstanding individuals, mainly leaders in warfare, such as Tecumseh, Weyapiersenwah or Blue Jacket, and Meshekinnoquah or Little Turtle.

The authors of this volume have compiled a broad range of biographical data and have woven them into rewarding personal stories about Indian leaders of the lower Midwest (1700-1850) that will engage the reader's attention.

In this book, the reader will discover what life was like for thirty-one notable American Indians of the Miami, Potawatomi Shawnee and Delaware tribes.

Many of these notables include renowned warriors and patriots of the Indian cause during the 18th and 19th centuries however, several individuals are peace chiefs and religious leaders, women and white captives. For many of these subjects, their lives were interwoven with each other.

In the gathering of this book, the authors have pored over letters, diaries, reports, books and internet and have traveled around the Midwest researching historical society archives, libraries and historic sites.

Accompanying the biographies are individual pen and ink drawings that add visual interest to the pages.

The authors write with a concerned passion about the historic Indian subjects they selected from the history pages of an earlier time.

The reader of American Indian history will profoundly benefit from this biographical compilation that is highly readable and informative.

Still Here is a pictorial of several participating individuals in Indiana's Native American Culture, Activities and events throughout the State. Contains a listing of Powwows, Groups, Businesses, Dictonary, places, names and more. Full color pictures from several State Wide Powwows and events