The Indians that have lived in Miami County are the Miamis, the Confederated tribes, the
Pottawatomies and the Shawnees.
The Shawnee reservation embraced a strip of land across the northern end of the
county, about two and one fourth miles in width. Some of them continued to live here
until 1866, when with the remainder of their tribe they moved to the Indian Territory.
The Pottawatomie reservation, which was partly in Franklin County, embraced in Miami
County, Mound and Osawatomie townships and a small portion of Stanton and Valley
township, in all about eighty square miles, or 51,000 acres. This tribe was removed to a
reservation on the Kansas river in 1847-48 where a portion of them still remain.
The Confederated Tribes were composed of the Weas, Piakeshaws, Peorias and
Kaskaskias. They inhabited the northern part of the county, bordering the Shawnee
Reservation. Upon their removal here they were but remnants of previously large and
powerful tribes. The Weas were at one time a portion of the Miami tribe, their language
being almost identical with that of the Miamis. The Confederated Tribes formerly lived in
Southern Illinois. In 1818 they removed to Eastern Missouri and settled near St.
Genevieve. In 1827 the Weas and Piakeshaws moved to what is now Miami County, the
Peorias followed in a year or two, and the Kaskaskias came in 1832. From this time until
1854, these tribes continued to live in undisturbed possession o their reservation, when
it became necessary to open the country to settlement, and a treaty was made between
them and the Government by which they sold all their lands except for 160 acres for each
member of the tribe, ten sections for tribal purposes, and one section for the support of a
Mission School. In the formation of this treaty, Col. Manypenny represented the
Government and Kio-kun-no-zah, Yellow Beaver, and others as chiefs the Indians;
Baptiste Peoria acting as interpreter. As white settlers came in and filled up the county,
the Confederated tribes made preparations to make one more removal. With the consent
of the Government, a delegation from the tribes purchased a portion of the lands of the
Quapaws and Senecas in the Indian Territory in 1866. The purchase was ratified by
treaty in 1868 and most of the Confederated tribes removed to their new homes, on
Spring River, that year. Many of those who remained were admitted to citizenship and
were prosperous members of the community, while some have since gone to the Indian
Territory.
When the treaty of 1854 was made, the Confederated Tribes numbered 260, but they
have steadily declined in numbers.
At least two of the members of the Confederated tribes are worthy of brief
mention-Win-ris-cah, or Christmas Dagnette, and Baptiste Peoria.
The former was born near Terre Haute, Ind., about the year 1800. He was a nephew of a
Wea chief, and received a liberal education. Besides three or four Indian languages, he
could speak English, French, and Spanish, and at the age of sixteen acted as interpreter
for the Government. He removed to Kansas with his tribe, which he served for a number
of years as chief and died in 1848.
Baptiste Peoria was born also about the year 1800, near Kaskaskia, Ill. He did not
receive a school education but by the natural force of his intellect acquired a number of
Indian languages, the Shawnee, Delaware and Pottawatomie, besides those of the
several Confederated Tribes, and also English and French. He acted for many years in the
capacity of interpreter, and for some time as chief, but generally preferred to be on the
"outside" as there he could be of much more use to his tribe, which during almost the
whole of his long life continued to look up to him as their best advisor. When the tribes
removed to the Indian Territory, Baptiste went with them and died there in the year
1874. He was a man of large and enlightened views, and was distinguished for the
virtues which spring from a kindly heart and generous spirit. His widow, who was at the
time of her marriage to him, the widow of Christmas Dagnette, still resides in Paola, at
the ripe age of eighty-two, loved and respected by all who know her.
The Miamis were the first settlers in Miami County. They, as a a portion of the Shawnees,
were originally from Ohio. They were removed to what is now Indiana, by Gen. Anthony
Wayne, in accordance with the treaty of August 3, 1795. In 1840, a treaty was made by
which they agreed to remove to new homes in the Indian Territory (now Kansas) and in
1846, eight hundred Miamis located in the southeast part of the present Miami County,
on Sugar Creek. In 1847 about 300 more arrived; and in 1848 about 500 of them
returned to Indiana, which return was afterwards acquiesced in by act of Congress.
In the same year those Miamis remaining in the county removed their home from Sugar
Creek to the Marias des Cygnes in the central southern portion of the county, locating at
what has since been known as Miami village. The removal was caused by sickness,
superinduced by change of climate, privation and exposure. In three years from the time
of their arrival on Sugar Creek their number was reduced by death from 600 to 300,
one-half the deaths occurring on Sugar Creek. Their principal burying ground was then
about two miles southeast of the present village of Rockville.
The original Miami reservation consisted of about 500,000 acres of land, and was
bounded on the east by Missouri, on the south by the reservation of the New York
Indians, on the west by the Pottawatomie reservation, and on the north by that of the
Confederated tribes. In 1854, as white settlers began to see homes on the Miami
reservation, the Government purchased all but 72,000 acres, Col Manypenny acting for
the Government and Now-a-lun-qua ("Big-Legs") on the part of the Miamis and Jack
Hackley as interpreter.
The Miamis remained on this remnant of their reservation until 1871, when having been
reduced to about 130 in number, the most of them removed to the Neosho River in the
Indian Territory. A few remained and became citizens of the United States, made
considerable progress in agriculture, and became useful, upright and respected citizens.
The agents for these tribes have been the following: Col. Ely Moore, until 1854; Col. A. M.
Coffey, 1854 to 1855; Col. M. McCaslin, 1855 to 1857; Gen. Seth Clover, 1857 to 1861;
Col. G. A. Colton, 1861 to 1869; James Stanley, 1869 to the time the Agency was
abolished. Col. McCaslin was removed by President Buchanan for having protested
against the invasion of Kansas by Missourians. He was Colonel of the Fifteenth Virginia
Infantry during the rebellion.