“Eyes on the Wabash”: A history of Indiana's Indian people from pre -contact through removal

Arthur J Leighton, Purdue University

Abstract

Beginning with the Paleo-Indians and moving forward allows an examination of the incredibly long duration of Native American habitation in Indiana. A long view of changes over time illustrates the ability of Indian cultures to adjust to changing conditions in what became Indiana. Also of great importance is the tendency of Indiana Indians to incorporate gradual cultural change within the parameters of their preexisting understanding of the world. Certain basic ideas such as kinship and reciprocal relationships remained constant throughout the duration of this study. Indians in Indiana had figured out how to live in their environment and to prosper both physically and spiritually long before the coming of the Europeans. These ideas worked out over the centuries had a strong impact on how the pre-contact groups understood and interacted with Europeans from the very beginning. This study of Indians in Indiana from pre-contact through removal shows how the original inhabitants' battle to retain their land and autonomy remained a constant theme in the region. The tribesmen of the Indiana strongly defended their independence as politically autonomous entities that successfully played off first the French and the British, and later the Americans and the British. Negotiations and the constant maneuvering of the tribes in their interactions with the Europeans and their colonists remained the key to an often-strained relationship. With the loss of the French, and the later withdrawal of the British to Canada, Indiana Indians were severely restricted in the number of options they had in maintaining this hard fought independence. As the Americans established real political boundaries via territories and states in the Great Lakes region, tribal autonomy disintegrated. By the removal period, Americans chose to ignore the fact that Indians had exercised political and military power for millennia, instead treating them as dependent people no longer capable of taking care of themselves.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Parman, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Native American studies

COinS