The Weekly Special - The Miami Nation

production support for the weekly special is provided by Smithville a local young business serving central and southern Indiana since 1922 with residential and business internet voice and security services Smithville local pride global technology information at smithville.net and by wtiu members thank you tonight we have a very special show for you about the incredible Native American heritage in Indiana we'll travel to the All Nations gathering in Rockville Indiana learn about Miami Nation culture and spirituality through dance and drum visit some of the most important Miami Nation heritage sites in Indiana and explore the issues facing the Miami nation in Indiana today all this and more right now on the weekly special hello I'm Joe rat and I'm Pam thrash we're here at beautiful Ricki Lake in Bloomington Indiana that's right Pam and this area was once home to the original residents of Indiana the Miami nation but not many of today's current Indiana residents realize that the Miami people are still very much a part of the Hoosier Heartland yes they are and the weekly special set out to learn more about the history of the Miami nation in Indiana in the state of the nation today first we traveled to Peru Indiana the headquarters of the Miami nation to learn more about the history of the tribe and the historical sites that still exist today the Miami Indians are the only tribe here in Indiana that's got an origin story that says that we originally came from Indiana our origin story says that we came out of the water near the mouth of the st. Joe River not far from South Bend Indiana the first contact the Europeans ever had with the Miami Indians was when the Fox River and Green Bay and that was in the 1650s since that time the maíam has claimed the homelands is the whole state of Indiana two-thirds of Ohio and a quarter of the state of Illinois we take that claim through what little turtle claimed as the lands of the Treaty of Greenville which was the first treaty signed with the Miami Indians in the United States government after the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 the land in Ohio was lost to the Miami's and other Indians and at that time the Miami is moved more in the center core of Indiana around this area here and in Fort Wayne at the same time a lot of the other tribes that's homes in a Ohio like the Shawnee the Delaware also moved into Indiana after the various treaties that the maíam has got pushed more and more into this area until the 1830 and 1840 treaty signed to the forks of the Wabash in Huntington Indiana the forks of the Wabash Treaty of 1844 the removal of the my name is from the state of Indiana at the time of the removal they was five family groups that was allowed to stay here and the reason they were allowed to stay here they had individual family reserves the ones that never had reserves I had to leave the families that was allowed to stay here was descendants of Francis Slocombe which he was a white captive kidnapped in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania and was brought here and lived just right up the river deaf man's village for 60 years or so before her white family ended up finding her so at the time of the removal her brothers petitioned the government to keep her from being removed so through what the joint resolution allowed her and 23 members her family to stay here the richardville and Godfrey families was the two richest families in the state of Indiana they had over 2,000 acres a piece of land to live on so they were allowed to stay here then the machinimator reserve was allotted a ten-mile reserve for the descendants of nishang Amasia after the removal in 1854 the United States of government called for another treaty to be held in Washington DC it was the only treaty signed in Washington DC by the the miami's hearing at that time the Miami Indians of Indiana have become a separate tribe from the Miami nation and then in that treaty we were called the Indiana my Amma's and the western tribe in Kansas was called the Western Miami's we were a federal recognized tribe here in the state until 1897 in 1897 our recognition was took by a opinion from an Under Secretary of Interior and since that time we've had efforts to regain recognition by during the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 was the first attempt we had and when we lost that attempt we incorporated as a non-for-profit organization in 1937 that was a way we could maintain our tribal roles that's how we've maintained our tribal identity to today and keep our tribe together coming up next we had an opportunity to explore some of the most important sites in that history on our visit and we started with the incredible seven pillars that's right this natural formation has been a meeting place of the Native American communities for hundreds of years the caves were once so large that later generations built a trading posts at the location and it's been named one of Miami County's seven wonders check it out we're here the Seven Pillars luminous Lenoir River the seven pillars are one of the historic spots of the Miami's and has been for many generations one of the largest settlement villages besides ki Kyung in Fort Wayne was just ride down the river a little ways it was a spot where travelers down the river could rendezvous or say hey we're gonna meet at this area there was a village on one side of the river here and it snowed all through Indian country all over I mean there's been joins of the southern pillars found in caves in the new york state by various tribes from hundreds of years ago that gives you an idea of how much different indian travel that's been through the area the caves were a lot larger they had Trading Post in the caves and council meetings with different tribes and different bands of the miami's but today the seven pillars are suffering a lot from erosion it's a rota lot since the early 1960s when the reservoir when it water comes up and down so much its eroded the caves out if you notice across the river here they you know there's not much room to stand in them anymore we haven't council meetings and things like out of them so we're standing here on the south side of the river Islan tanaka non-reserved the tanaka no reserve the property was lost from the miami store several years until around 1990 the tribe was able to purchase it back and today we own 39 acres here and this is where we do all of our longhouse ceremonies mother moon ceremonies other spiritual skills we have different audience picnicking language camps and other things we've held here we've had our first homecoming on the language camps we do it a lot of nature things we've got Miami garden we have here where we do native plants and things right now we've got a river cane just started first time it's been in the area in a lot of years this is one of the most sacred spots of Miami Indians here in this area and it has been for generations here and Hanging Rock which is on the Wabash River of the river they've all got different stories that you know most all Miami's has heard different stories for generations about different things here at Seven Pillars you know with our longhouse ceremonies we have people from all other tribes here and they all feel the same anybody that really comes and spends much time in the area will probably know I mean it's the feeling you get here the sound the filling and the way the trees sound the wind blows and it's for some reason I mean it's anybody that spent much time here can tell the spiritual feeling I guess it's all cultural preservation is one of the Miami nation of Indiana's top priorities and the tribe spiritual connection to their community and to the land is considered the heart of that culture that's right and the weekly special spoke with the acting spiritual leader Steve Buchanan to learn more about the Miami way of life every year the Miami nation of Indiana holds their annual all nations gathering in Rockville Indiana the gathering not only provides a chance for the Miami to educate the public on the tribes Indiana history it also allows the tribe to commune reconnect and pay honor to the sacred traditions of the Miami nation the spiritual traditions may have changed a little bit but in general they're they're fairly close to the same because of the the way technology and the way things are you have to adapt to different things you can't always do everything that was done back you know 100 years ago or 200 years ago but custom wise most of it is just passed down from the elders down to the younger ones and then hopefully they take hold of it and eventually will pass it on down and so far you know after hundreds and hundreds of years it just keeps going there's always somebody that's willing to take hold and that most of our traditions are passed down orally nothing is written down the purpose is to perform the ceremonies that needs to be performed at weddings funerals dedications Namie's and to just kind of help keep a balance among the tribal members and to keep them on the right track as they go through life because it's not really a religion it's a culture it's a way of life it's a way of thinking one of the things that I have noticed is the general public has a real misconception the Native American belief our Bible our church is right where Brad that's outside this was our church that was provided for us from the grandfather and it's the trees and the grass the wind just the being of the things around us that's that's our church and we can pray and give thanks wherever we are and people don't understand the thing that we very much to believe in God in the Creator and our whole lives are really surrounded by that and that's how we kind of live our life is trying to be as good as we possibly can and and that's really I think the most important thing is respect of each other respect of our elders and remember balance you can't take unless you give and as long as you have that take and give situation just like breathing you'll live a long and happy life and so will our culture as long as our culture can give and express and share which is important that we share it then we can also receive and as long as we can get that role going in a balanced situation I think we'll be around for a long long time to come the weekly special also visited a unique location the only place in Indiana that has never been part of a u.s. territory Wow can you believe that but that is true the land has always been in Native American ownership and today it's home to a very important school built in 1860 on the machine go messia reservation the school was rebuilt to its original appearance check it out in 1840 the United States government seated a plot of land along the Missis in awha river to the miami nation machine mesa was the the principal chief of the ten mile reservation here preached in the church here and this is almost the center of the reservation right here so that's how the property ended up staying here during the allotment of 1873 the different properties were allotted out individual of family groups and this was part of the Machine make this family recognizing the growing need for European integration chief machine go Michou built the Miami Indian village school on the reservation in 1860 I was still an early part of the state here and I mean you know there was a lot of farmers the Miami is in the area was still hunters and some of them did do some farming and things like that but they were supposed to do a lot of trading and different things with the white pioneers around the area so the only way they could live in prosper like everybody else is to live the same as the other people around the area he built the school for the purpose that teaching the Miami children around the area the English in the European Way of life he knew that's the only way the they were gonna have to succeed and live in the country been this was the last area of a community owned land for the tribe after its closure in 1898 the school was moved by a nearby farmer off the Miami land to be used as a corn crib in 1998 however the school was donated back to the tribe piece by piece the Miami Indian village school was relocated and restored to its original condition today the school is a center of Miami cultural preservation teaching the Miami language and lifestyle that was almost lost a century ago well I mean it brings a lot of notoriety still back to the tribe and let people know that the tribe still here so you know we have a lot of the kids that come here they had no idea Latos was even here but the Mayas were and you know they're just amazed by the one-room schoolhouse it is the only one wood frame Indian schoolhouse left in the state it's a more of an education thing it brings awareness that we're still here it's kind of a meaningful for the tribe knowing that you know it was once taught there you know used to teach the European Way of life now we're using it back to teach the miami language and things like that this property right here is the only property that's never been out of the hands of the miami indians it was never willed to the United States government so it's always been in the mining hands it's the only land left in Indiana that is it's pretty spiritual for that reason in addition to the school the land is also home to the largest Indian cemetery in the state mashenka nation amongst his band are buried in the cemetery behind the schoolhouse now there's a lot of people buried that's not mark you know never had tombstones to start with a lot of the Indians never marked their graves at a time so a lot of people felt there needed to be a need for a stone to be set up to show who is buried here in all the unmarked graves that's why led to I deal with the battlefield society and with partnership with them I am is to put a monument up here and we've listed all the members of we know people that is buried in the cemetery a lot of the bigger stones here was of the more prominent Miami is in the area at the time before the tuberculosis outbreak hit about two-thirds of the members here on the reservation perish through the tuberculosis and that's what most of the main big Tim stones were from that era machine Ganesha was one of the elder Chiefs of the tribe he lived to be 98 years old by 1900 most of the property was gone out of the Indians hands and mushiya Mason his sons was two the last ones that was able to hold on to individual property on a reserve that's how this property ended up still in the Miami's hands while the Miami Indian village school is no longer active the Miami nation of Indiana has developed an incredible school of their own that's right Joe every year the tribe invites Miami children to participate in a special language school through lessons music and games the Miami Nation is rebuilding its native language for generations to come Wow can't wait to see let's take a look there are a number of challenges that the tribe is faced when looking at and not necessarily even revitalization I think and a lot of elements there's it there's not a revitalization that's needed but but just a continuation of what we have been doing for generations upon generations the way our tribe is structured we have individual family clans that do a lot of informal cultural sharing and development and and things along the way but then these clans come together at tribal functions on numerous occasions so we have annual events that we do you know the Mayan Indian reunion it's been well over 100 years this region's occurred the same weekend at the same nearly the same location more recent it was focused around language revitalization because our last fluent speakers had died in the 60s so although there were elders who knew words and phrases and a significant amount of documentation there were no fluent speakers left at that point so that's kind of where it I'll jump started again in bringing the language back into our to our Miami homes we have now have an annual children's language program that we do this will be the fifth year for it it's become absolutely phenomenal it's just a lot of fun we sing and we dance and they learn not only you kind of the tangible elements of the language and the vocabulary and the manners and using it but the intangible nature of camp and the things that come from it are the relationships that are built and teaching them how to integrate and develop their Miami identities and develop that and integrate it into their daily life so then they take that back to their families and they're encouraging it there I would say what drove me to learn the language is the amount of culture and history that's that's embedded in language and the loss of that also leads to the loss of those unique cultural components of of our tribal identity and I think that just seeing how important it was to everyone else as well and how it was something that really brought our community together we all have this common like kind of in our hearts I guess this common connection of respect and where we where we feel our responsibilities are and so now that I'm seeing that in this new group of youth that are coming through it's really exciting to me and somewhere along the line my grandmother hadn't had been interviewed and I remember the video of her saying no we're here we've always been here and we'll always be here we're not going anywhere you have somewhere along those lines and and I think seeing that in those children just reinforces to me that that's absolutely the case that we're not going anywhere that our culture will continue it's only going to strengthen and as a community we're only going to grow ayuh Waynesboro nay Aaron Dunnigan Oliver meeow meeow meeow for the Miami celebrating their spirituality is a vital piece of their community and giving honor has a very active approach that's right Joe through the rich traditions of music and dance the Miami community continues to pay respect to their heritage we spoke with the Miami Nation head dancers Sean Dunnigan to learn more grass dancin it started years ago native people would go to a different location to set up their homes you know and they would send all the young boys and the young mainly young men and stuff out to go stomp the grass down and to you know to make it nice and flat so when they put up their wigwams or their teepees and the grass would be all cut down real low so they weren't you know walking through high grass as a grass stands are danced most of the time they're on their tiptoes and on the side of their feet and knocking the grass down kind of mowing the grass more and less in the mid 1800 they started making grass dance regalia which like I'm wearing myself and it just represents the grass stuff to a young man you have a traditional dancing there like traditional melon traditional female dancing that they mainly just take like a two-step dance that's just kind of toe heel toe heel and around the arena and that's just kind of representing how it was done more or less than the older times you know and then they have fancy shawl dancers and some people call them butterfly dancers the fancy shells I'll usually have a really decorative and stuff and they do a little bit of twists and twirls and stuff like that and kind of represent like butterflies flying and birds flying and things like that learning the dance and stuff and it's a not an easy process really but that's kind of what my job is to do today you know teach the youth and the young what I've learned from my elders and stuff like that but be a ahead dancer is a pretty important role because everybody looks up to you okay what do I need to do you know or when we come in on this type of dance you know what do I do and by watching me you're gonna learn you're out there you're dancing with the beat of the drum and they say that the beat of the drums the beat of the heartbeat of your nation you know and the guys is sitting on the drum playing the drums are honoring honoring women honoring the birth-givers you know the women of their tribe and and even people that has passed away and stuff that it's all big honorable thing being that the guys out there dancing like say myself have bells and stuff like that and bright colors that splashy and stuff so that's telling the grandfather up above saying look you know I'm doing this for you 90% of everything we do is all honoring grandfather or the creator of how we do things the significance of a drum is usually the Mel hide on one side a female on the other because it takes a male and a female to be able to to make new life and the guys all set around the drum and they're doing that to honor the women and honor grandfather grandmother so every song we have is more or less done honor people and a half line as you can see the Miami nation continues to thrive building a strong cultural community for generations to come that's right Pam but as shocking as it seems the Miami nation of Indiana is not an officially recognized nation either at the state or federal level this oversight is one that the tribe has spot for years to change we join chief Brian Buchanan to learn more we filed fir petition back in the 80s and we were denied and at that point we'd been to the courts judiciary we'd been through the petition process and the only way we could get our federal recognition reinstated or Ric knowledge just an act of Congress and with that we got to have our congressional support for our Senators and Representatives on a federal level on a state side of things since the recognition was stripped back in 1897 this state has never had a state recognition process and for us to to be the indigenous here and not be able to go through an avenue to have a recognition process that we could actually accomplish that we decided in this last ten years that we would go after that state recognition the tribe then decided would seek support we do have support for our local senator Randy head and he did actually introduce a bill now I believe this is going on this next year three years for Miami state recognition in the process of doing that we've gained enough support through the communities and the counties to go after proclamations and proclamation really legally isn't binding for anything but it is a strong sign of support through the community when you've got mayors and City Council's and County Council's given your proclamation for recognition and as a sovereign nation and government government to relationship with them it's pretty strong right now we've got not quite two thirds of the state but we've got some of the biggest capitals and county seats of the state and we have our state legislators and our state senators looking at this bill sitting in it like for this year for example sitting on a Judiciary Committee it's just sitting there that's something that we're going to be using on our behalf I hope that it shows a shot was strong sign to those guys to open her eyes and listen to her story and let's correct this problem so the Miami does have an opportunity to be state recognized and give us a respect and say hey yeah you still do exist and yes we do respect you and we would love to learn more about your culture and promote it because that's what the state is it is us I mean Indiana is because of the Miami's being here I mean that's that's what we are I mean we are part of that it's just more of a I guess it's a loyalty to our ancestors or where they've been and where we've got to go to make it right it's an injustice that was put to us that we've had to live with and it needs to be corrected and I think that's probably the same feeling all of us share and it kind of hurts me to see even though I grew up in Speedway Indiana in home of the Indianapolis 500 well it's the home of the Miami and it's a big that's what it is we've got a lot of proof through archaeological digs and a lot of the studies that's gone on through the state I mean it's everywhere our histories everywhere our culture's everywhere the state needs to at least respect that in the knowledge that we do exist well Jill that does it for tonight I learned a lot I had no idea we had such an active Native American community here in Indiana it seems like it's such an important part of Indiana history I'm so glad that we were able to go there tonight and thank you so much for joining us we'll see you next time goodbye production support for the weekly special is provided by Smithville a local young business serving central and southern Indiana since 1922 with residential and business internet voice and security services Smithfield local pride global technology information at smithville.net and by wtiu members thank you

Channel: WTIU

Views: 23,036

Rating: 4.7197452 out of 5

Keywords: Indiana, Miami, Nation, Seven, Pillars, Chief, Buchanan, Peru, Rockville, Pow-wow, dance, spirituality, education, language

Id: Lzmtd94482I

Length: 26min 47sec (1607 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 19 2012