WEA Indians
One of the original six Tribes of the Miami Nation of the Northwest Territory.
The Miami Nation of Indians (Wea, Miami proper, Piankashaw (Deer Clan of the Wea), and Eel River) was at one time one of the largest and one of the most powerful Indian tribes of North America. They formed one of the leading families of the great Algonquin race. When the white man first heard of them they were living in the vicinity of the great lakes. Father Marquette paid them a high tribute. LaSalle described them in this way: “The Miamis are the most civilized of all nations of Indians - - neat of dress, splendid of bearing, haughty of manner, holding all other tribes as inferiors.”
The Wea name for themselves (autonym) in their own language is waayaahtanwa, derived from waayaahtanonki, 'place of the whirlpool', their name where they were first recorded being seen and is where they were living at that time.
The Wea increased considerably in numbers at their village of Ouiatenon, near present-day Lafayette, Indiana. Piankeshaw offered to move and take part of the people with him further downriver to start a new village, which he established near the mouth of the Vermilion River. He had tribal markings of holes or slits in his ears, and he was called Piankeshaw ("the Torn-Ears People"). The Piankeshaw were the Deer Clan of the Wea.During the 19th century the Miami, Wea, Eel River and Piankashaw all occupied areas of Indiana. These tribes all signed treaties separately with the United States government and were considered to be distinct polities.
The Wea also had villages in present-day Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ohio. Their main homeland in the 18th century was in Indiana, as well as a few villages in Illinois and Ohio. The three largest villages of the Wea were Fort Ouiatenon, west of what is now Lafayette; a location now occupied by Terre Haute, and Chipicokia, at present-day Vincennes (founded by French Canadian colonists.), Indiana. Lesser settlements included five villages on the South side of the Wabash across from Fort Ouiatenon, occupied by the Wea, Piankeshaw, Pepicokia, and Gros clans.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE WEAS 1600s - 1800s
Complied from Various Sources
******
1600s
One of the earliest record of the Wea Tribe was In 1672 were Jesuit Claude
Allouez, a part of a missionary group, found the Wea living along the Upper
Fox River were there were 3 cabins of Ouaouiatanoukak (Wea) Indians. La
Salle reported that in the summer of 1679 that the WEA, Miami and
Mascouten went to New York to join in alliance with the Iroquois. We do not
know exactly what came out of this alliance. In December of that year he
again visited with the Wea and Miami and found them in several villages at
the Kankakee portage. By 1680 both the WEA and Miami were living on the
ST. Joseph River and also on the Kankakee and Chicago Rivers. La Salle
mentions in his memoir that Allouez already left the Illinois country and was
among the WEA and Miami Indians, who the following spring moved south
and was the first Indian's to enter the Indiana area. A 1682 letter from La
Salle describes the newly-moved Miamis near Ft. St. Louis, located four
leagues from a party of the Emissaries, the Penguichias, Kolatica
Mengancockia making together a village of from two to three hundred fires
and have made their fields four leagues from the Fort. The Ouiatenon, to the
number of a hundred and twenty huts and are there now having come away
from their village with me. Several of these tribes have given me children to
be brought up in the French manner. Already there are some who speak
French who belong to the more distant tribes. They will be well suited for
serving as interpreters, and for making peace. Around the 1683 time period
the WEA and Miami continued their migration into the northern part of
Indiana and some were settled Northeast of Starved Rock and visited Ft. St.
Louis. About 1685 the French recognized six bands, or sub tribes, in the
tribe, but politically each of the six individually named groups constituted an
antonomous unit, as far back as we know their history and did not, as we
have seen, weld the six groups into a single political unit, or "Miami tribe."
They consolidated at a later period into three, namely: Atchatchakangouen,
"crane people", or Miami proper; Ouiatanon, "whirlpool people", or Wea; and
Pianguichia, "separators" (?), or Piankishaw. The United States
Government recognized these as three distinct tribes. In 1688 the WEA
separated into three groups. One party went to the ST. Joseph River, one to
the mouth of the Wisconsin River and one to the Mississippi River. Sometime
after 1691 the WEA left those places and moved to Grand Calumet River
(Gary Indiana) and to the forks of the Kankakee River (Chicago, Ill). About
1695 some of the tribe returned to the Wabash River and established a
village near the area of present day Lafayette, Indiana where they remained
1806.
1700s
By 1711 all the WEA from Chicago and the ST. Joseph area moved to
Wabash River area. The WEA would go out on war parties as far as
Kentucky, but no other tribes or British and French sent expeditions against
them. In 1716 they were told that the governor of France was going to make
them, the WEA, his most favored Nation and they would receive a
missionary, trading post, a garrison and a blacksmith by a Frenchman named
Maunoir. The WEA sent a message to governor Vaudreuil in Montreal,
requesting again their mission. He made that decision to establish a post
among the WEA Indians and built Fort (Post) Ouiatanon. By 1718 there
were a total of five villages there, four that are known are the Ouiatanon,
Piankeshaw, Peticotia’s and the Gros. In 1723 some started leaving Fort
Quiatanon and went to an old village site on the Maumee River called "La
Babiche". They were loyal to the French at that time and in 1731 Sieur de
Vincennes brought a group of Piankeshaw from the Vermilion River to his fort
at Vincennes where the Piankeshaw established a village called
Chippekawkay. August 1732 Simon Reaume, commander at Ouiatenon,
made an attempt to remove other groups from the Vermilion to his own fort. In
May 1736 Sieur de Vincennes was killed while fighting with these southern
tribes, and the Piankeshaw abandoned Chippekawkay, which was also
called “Little Ouiatenon.” By 1737 there were only 15-25 Piankeshaw
braves living at Vincennes Indiana, the remainder of the tribe had journeyed
up the Wabash and joined the Vermilion Piankeshaw. In 1761 the British
assumed control of Ft Ouiatanon. The Wea lived on the opposite side of Fort
Ouiatanon. It was also found that there were 400 braves plus women and
children with the French at Ft. Chartres in Illinois in 1764. June of 1778 the
tribes of the WEA, Kickapoo and Mascouten traveled to Detroit to talk with
the British. Five war Chiefs and three village chiefs attended. They were
Mau-wee-shinga, Au-qua-sa-ca, Nee-mee-ca, Packing-qoi-shinga, Cha-ha,
Oui-qua-po-quiois, Me-lou-e-son-ata, and Ta-pa-tia. George Roger Clark
was also holding peace treaties with many of the Wabash Chiefs at
Cahokia. In January of 1782 the Wea were peaceful and numbered around
600 braves along the Wabash. In 1791 General Charles Scott was appointed
to proceed against the Wea on the Wabash, he defeated the villages and
destroyed the villages and crops at Ft. Quiatanon. On November 4, 1791
Little Turtle, with a force of 3000 from 12 different Tribes encountered
American forces near present day Ft. Recovery, Ohio. This defeat of the
Americans is the largest in any Indian warfare encounters. The American
casualties were 832 regulars of the 1st and 2nd infantry regiments and
Kentucky and Pennsylvania militiamen and 200 camp followers, the estimate
of Indians killed were 66 warriors. This is known as St. Clair Defeat and also
was known as one of four of the Old Northwest wars. This defeat caused
the very first Congressional hearings and it took four years for the Americans
to rebuild their forces. It was the greatest defeat in any battle the Americans
suffered in their revolution. September 27, 1792 General Rufus Putnam
made a treaty of peace with the Wea and other Indians of the Wabash area
at Vincennes Indiana. On August 3, 1795 the Wea along with the many other
tribes signed the great Treaty of Greenville Ohio.
Video
Myaamia Language - Dr. David J. Costa
Dr. David J. Costa is the Program Director for the Language Research Office at the Myaamia Center
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2kiaDY9DnQ
Publications on the Miami-Illinois language: Dr. David J. Costa’s Publications
Costa, David J. 1991a. Approaching the Sources on Miami-Illinois. In William Cowan, ed., Papers of the Twenty-second Algonquian Conference 30-47. Ottawa: Carleton University.
Costa, David J. 1991b. The Historical Phonology of Miami-Illinois Consonants. International Journal of American Linguistics 57: 365-393.
Grant, Anthony P. & David J. Costa. 1991. Some Observations on J.P. Harrington’s Peoria Vocabulary. Anthropological Linguistics 406-436.
Costa, David J. 1992. Miami-Illinois Animal Names. Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics 17/3: 19-44.
Costa, David J. 1993. The Mission Press Wea Primer of 1837. In William Cowan, ed., Papers of the Twenty-fourth Algonquian Conference 46-63. Ottawa: Carleton University.
Costa, David J. 1994. The Miami-Illinois Language. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.
Costa, David J. 1997. Iilaataweeyankwi: Our Language. A Handbook of the Miami Language. Miami, Oklahoma: Miami Tribe of Oklahoma.
Costa, David J. 1999. The Kinship Terminology of the Miami-Illinois Language. Anthropological Linguistics 41: 28-53.
Costa, David J. 2000. Miami-Illinois Tribe Names. In John Nichols, ed., Papers of the Thirty-first Algonquian Conference 30-53. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba.
Costa, David J. 2002. An Overview of the Illinois Language. In Masthay, Carl, ed. Kaskaskia Illinois-to-French Dictionary. St. Louis, Missouri, 2-5.
Costa, David J. 2003. The Miami-Illinois Language. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Costa, David J. 2004. Corrections to the Miami-Illinois Language. Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics 29/1: 10.
Costa, David J. 2005a. The St-Jérôme Dictionary of Miami-Illinois. In H. C. Wolfart, ed., Papers of the 36th Algonquian Conference, 107-133. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba.
Costa, David J. 2005b. Culture Hero and Trickster Stories. In Brian Swann, ed., Algonquian Spirit: Contemporary Translations of the Algonquian Literatures of North America, 292-319. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Baldwin, Daryl & David J. Costa. 2005. Myaamia Neehi Peewaalia Kaloosioni Mahsinaakani: a Miami-Peoria Dictionary. Miami, Oklahoma: Miami Nation.
Costa, David J. 2007. Illinois: A Place Name. Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas Newsletter XXV: 4, 9-12
Costa, David J. 2008. New Notes on Miami-Illinois. In Regna Darnell & Karl S. Hele, eds., Papers of the 39th Algonquian Conference, 123-165. London: The University of Western Ontario.
Costa, David J. 2008. On the Origins of the Name “Illinois”. Le Journal 24/4: 6-10.
Costa, David J. 2010. Myaamia neehi peewaalia aacimoona neehi aalhsoohkaana. Myaamia and Peoria Narratives and Winter Stories. Oxford, Ohio: Myaamia Project.
Costa, David J. 2013. On the Elements for a Grammar of Miami-Illinois. Papers of the 41st Algonquian Conference, eds. Karl S. Hele & J. Randolph Valentine. Albany: SUNY Press, pp. 40-59.
Costa, David J. 2014. On the Origins of “Pickawillany”. Names 62: 4, 214-17.
Costa, David J. 2015. Redacting Premodern Texts Without Speakers: the Peoria Story of Wiihsakacaakwa. In D. Costa (2015), ed., New Voices for Old Words: Algonquian Oral Literatures, 34-89. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Treaties were made between the US and the Wea.
Treaty of Castor Hill 1832 in Article 4: “The United States will also afford some assistance to that part of the Wea tribe now residing in the State of Indiana”,
One of the original six Tribes of the Miami Nation of the Northwest Territory.
The Miami Nation of Indians (Wea, Miami proper, Piankashaw (Deer Clan of the Wea), and Eel River) was at one time one of the largest and one of the most powerful Indian tribes of North America. They formed one of the leading families of the great Algonquin race. When the white man first heard of them they were living in the vicinity of the great lakes. Father Marquette paid them a high tribute. LaSalle described them in this way: “The Miamis are the most civilized of all nations of Indians - - neat of dress, splendid of bearing, haughty of manner, holding all other tribes as inferiors.”
The Wea name for themselves (autonym) in their own language is waayaahtanwa, derived from waayaahtanonki, 'place of the whirlpool', their name where they were first recorded being seen and is where they were living at that time.
The Wea increased considerably in numbers at their village of Ouiatenon, near present-day Lafayette, Indiana. Piankeshaw offered to move and take part of the people with him further downriver to start a new village, which he established near the mouth of the Vermilion River. He had tribal markings of holes or slits in his ears, and he was called Piankeshaw ("the Torn-Ears People"). The Piankeshaw were the Deer Clan of the Wea.During the 19th century the Miami, Wea, Eel River and Piankashaw all occupied areas of Indiana. These tribes all signed treaties separately with the United States government and were considered to be distinct polities.
The Wea also had villages in present-day Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ohio. Their main homeland in the 18th century was in Indiana, as well as a few villages in Illinois and Ohio. The three largest villages of the Wea were Fort Ouiatenon, west of what is now Lafayette; a location now occupied by Terre Haute, and Chipicokia, at present-day Vincennes (founded by French Canadian colonists.), Indiana. Lesser settlements included five villages on the South side of the Wabash across from Fort Ouiatenon, occupied by the Wea, Piankeshaw, Pepicokia, and Gros clans.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE WEAS 1600s - 1800s
Complied from Various Sources
******
1600s
One of the earliest record of the Wea Tribe was In 1672 were Jesuit Claude
Allouez, a part of a missionary group, found the Wea living along the Upper
Fox River were there were 3 cabins of Ouaouiatanoukak (Wea) Indians. La
Salle reported that in the summer of 1679 that the WEA, Miami and
Mascouten went to New York to join in alliance with the Iroquois. We do not
know exactly what came out of this alliance. In December of that year he
again visited with the Wea and Miami and found them in several villages at
the Kankakee portage. By 1680 both the WEA and Miami were living on the
ST. Joseph River and also on the Kankakee and Chicago Rivers. La Salle
mentions in his memoir that Allouez already left the Illinois country and was
among the WEA and Miami Indians, who the following spring moved south
and was the first Indian's to enter the Indiana area. A 1682 letter from La
Salle describes the newly-moved Miamis near Ft. St. Louis, located four
leagues from a party of the Emissaries, the Penguichias, Kolatica
Mengancockia making together a village of from two to three hundred fires
and have made their fields four leagues from the Fort. The Ouiatenon, to the
number of a hundred and twenty huts and are there now having come away
from their village with me. Several of these tribes have given me children to
be brought up in the French manner. Already there are some who speak
French who belong to the more distant tribes. They will be well suited for
serving as interpreters, and for making peace. Around the 1683 time period
the WEA and Miami continued their migration into the northern part of
Indiana and some were settled Northeast of Starved Rock and visited Ft. St.
Louis. About 1685 the French recognized six bands, or sub tribes, in the
tribe, but politically each of the six individually named groups constituted an
antonomous unit, as far back as we know their history and did not, as we
have seen, weld the six groups into a single political unit, or "Miami tribe."
They consolidated at a later period into three, namely: Atchatchakangouen,
"crane people", or Miami proper; Ouiatanon, "whirlpool people", or Wea; and
Pianguichia, "separators" (?), or Piankishaw. The United States
Government recognized these as three distinct tribes. In 1688 the WEA
separated into three groups. One party went to the ST. Joseph River, one to
the mouth of the Wisconsin River and one to the Mississippi River. Sometime
after 1691 the WEA left those places and moved to Grand Calumet River
(Gary Indiana) and to the forks of the Kankakee River (Chicago, Ill). About
1695 some of the tribe returned to the Wabash River and established a
village near the area of present day Lafayette, Indiana where they remained
1806.
1700s
By 1711 all the WEA from Chicago and the ST. Joseph area moved to
Wabash River area. The WEA would go out on war parties as far as
Kentucky, but no other tribes or British and French sent expeditions against
them. In 1716 they were told that the governor of France was going to make
them, the WEA, his most favored Nation and they would receive a
missionary, trading post, a garrison and a blacksmith by a Frenchman named
Maunoir. The WEA sent a message to governor Vaudreuil in Montreal,
requesting again their mission. He made that decision to establish a post
among the WEA Indians and built Fort (Post) Ouiatanon. By 1718 there
were a total of five villages there, four that are known are the Ouiatanon,
Piankeshaw, Peticotia’s and the Gros. In 1723 some started leaving Fort
Quiatanon and went to an old village site on the Maumee River called "La
Babiche". They were loyal to the French at that time and in 1731 Sieur de
Vincennes brought a group of Piankeshaw from the Vermilion River to his fort
at Vincennes where the Piankeshaw established a village called
Chippekawkay. August 1732 Simon Reaume, commander at Ouiatenon,
made an attempt to remove other groups from the Vermilion to his own fort. In
May 1736 Sieur de Vincennes was killed while fighting with these southern
tribes, and the Piankeshaw abandoned Chippekawkay, which was also
called “Little Ouiatenon.” By 1737 there were only 15-25 Piankeshaw
braves living at Vincennes Indiana, the remainder of the tribe had journeyed
up the Wabash and joined the Vermilion Piankeshaw. In 1761 the British
assumed control of Ft Ouiatanon. The Wea lived on the opposite side of Fort
Ouiatanon. It was also found that there were 400 braves plus women and
children with the French at Ft. Chartres in Illinois in 1764. June of 1778 the
tribes of the WEA, Kickapoo and Mascouten traveled to Detroit to talk with
the British. Five war Chiefs and three village chiefs attended. They were
Mau-wee-shinga, Au-qua-sa-ca, Nee-mee-ca, Packing-qoi-shinga, Cha-ha,
Oui-qua-po-quiois, Me-lou-e-son-ata, and Ta-pa-tia. George Roger Clark
was also holding peace treaties with many of the Wabash Chiefs at
Cahokia. In January of 1782 the Wea were peaceful and numbered around
600 braves along the Wabash. In 1791 General Charles Scott was appointed
to proceed against the Wea on the Wabash, he defeated the villages and
destroyed the villages and crops at Ft. Quiatanon. On November 4, 1791
Little Turtle, with a force of 3000 from 12 different Tribes encountered
American forces near present day Ft. Recovery, Ohio. This defeat of the
Americans is the largest in any Indian warfare encounters. The American
casualties were 832 regulars of the 1st and 2nd infantry regiments and
Kentucky and Pennsylvania militiamen and 200 camp followers, the estimate
of Indians killed were 66 warriors. This is known as St. Clair Defeat and also
was known as one of four of the Old Northwest wars. This defeat caused
the very first Congressional hearings and it took four years for the Americans
to rebuild their forces. It was the greatest defeat in any battle the Americans
suffered in their revolution. September 27, 1792 General Rufus Putnam
made a treaty of peace with the Wea and other Indians of the Wabash area
at Vincennes Indiana. On August 3, 1795 the Wea along with the many other
tribes signed the great Treaty of Greenville Ohio.
Video
Myaamia Language - Dr. David J. Costa
Dr. David J. Costa is the Program Director for the Language Research Office at the Myaamia Center
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2kiaDY9DnQ
Publications on the Miami-Illinois language: Dr. David J. Costa’s Publications
Costa, David J. 1991a. Approaching the Sources on Miami-Illinois. In William Cowan, ed., Papers of the Twenty-second Algonquian Conference 30-47. Ottawa: Carleton University.
Costa, David J. 1991b. The Historical Phonology of Miami-Illinois Consonants. International Journal of American Linguistics 57: 365-393.
Grant, Anthony P. & David J. Costa. 1991. Some Observations on J.P. Harrington’s Peoria Vocabulary. Anthropological Linguistics 406-436.
Costa, David J. 1992. Miami-Illinois Animal Names. Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics 17/3: 19-44.
Costa, David J. 1993. The Mission Press Wea Primer of 1837. In William Cowan, ed., Papers of the Twenty-fourth Algonquian Conference 46-63. Ottawa: Carleton University.
Costa, David J. 1994. The Miami-Illinois Language. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.
Costa, David J. 1997. Iilaataweeyankwi: Our Language. A Handbook of the Miami Language. Miami, Oklahoma: Miami Tribe of Oklahoma.
Costa, David J. 1999. The Kinship Terminology of the Miami-Illinois Language. Anthropological Linguistics 41: 28-53.
Costa, David J. 2000. Miami-Illinois Tribe Names. In John Nichols, ed., Papers of the Thirty-first Algonquian Conference 30-53. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba.
Costa, David J. 2002. An Overview of the Illinois Language. In Masthay, Carl, ed. Kaskaskia Illinois-to-French Dictionary. St. Louis, Missouri, 2-5.
Costa, David J. 2003. The Miami-Illinois Language. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Costa, David J. 2004. Corrections to the Miami-Illinois Language. Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics 29/1: 10.
Costa, David J. 2005a. The St-Jérôme Dictionary of Miami-Illinois. In H. C. Wolfart, ed., Papers of the 36th Algonquian Conference, 107-133. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba.
Costa, David J. 2005b. Culture Hero and Trickster Stories. In Brian Swann, ed., Algonquian Spirit: Contemporary Translations of the Algonquian Literatures of North America, 292-319. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Baldwin, Daryl & David J. Costa. 2005. Myaamia Neehi Peewaalia Kaloosioni Mahsinaakani: a Miami-Peoria Dictionary. Miami, Oklahoma: Miami Nation.
Costa, David J. 2007. Illinois: A Place Name. Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas Newsletter XXV: 4, 9-12
Costa, David J. 2008. New Notes on Miami-Illinois. In Regna Darnell & Karl S. Hele, eds., Papers of the 39th Algonquian Conference, 123-165. London: The University of Western Ontario.
Costa, David J. 2008. On the Origins of the Name “Illinois”. Le Journal 24/4: 6-10.
Costa, David J. 2010. Myaamia neehi peewaalia aacimoona neehi aalhsoohkaana. Myaamia and Peoria Narratives and Winter Stories. Oxford, Ohio: Myaamia Project.
Costa, David J. 2013. On the Elements for a Grammar of Miami-Illinois. Papers of the 41st Algonquian Conference, eds. Karl S. Hele & J. Randolph Valentine. Albany: SUNY Press, pp. 40-59.
Costa, David J. 2014. On the Origins of “Pickawillany”. Names 62: 4, 214-17.
Costa, David J. 2015. Redacting Premodern Texts Without Speakers: the Peoria Story of Wiihsakacaakwa. In D. Costa (2015), ed., New Voices for Old Words: Algonquian Oral Literatures, 34-89. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Treaties were made between the US and the Wea.
- Treaty of Greenville, Aug 3, 1795
- Fort Wayne Indiana Territory, June 7, 1803 (The Wea were not at the original treaty but signed later)
- Vincennes, Indiana Territory, Aug 13, 1803
- Grouseland Indiana Territory, Aug 21, 1805
- Vincennes Indiana Territory, Dec 30, 1805
- Fort Wayne Indiana Territory, Sept 30, 1809
- Vincennes Indiana Territory, Oct 26, 1809
- Fort Harrison, Indiana Territory, June 4, 1816
- Vincennes Indiana Territory, Jan 3, 1818
- St Mary’s Ohio Oct 2, 1818
- Vincennes Indiana Aug 11, 1820
- St Joseph Michigan Sept 21,1826
- St Joseph Michigan Sept 24, 1828
- Caster Hill Missouri, Oct 29, 1832
- Washington DC May 30, 1854
- Washington DC Feb 23, 1867 (1)
Treaty of Castor Hill 1832 in Article 4: “The United States will also afford some assistance to that part of the Wea tribe now residing in the State of Indiana”,