The Miami Nation

Aamaawia John Bickers is Assistant Professor of History at Case Western Reserve University, where he teaches courses in Native American and Early American history.

ii meehtohseeniwiyankwi aatotamankwi (How we talk about our lives) kweehsitawakiki (Acknowledgements) Note on Language Introduction Part I: Ciikaahkwe Waapaahsiki Siipionki (Along the Wabash River) 1. From Peoplehood to Nationhood 2. Annuities, Alcohol, and Aesthetics 3. From Myaamionki to the Miami Reservation Part II: Ciikaahkwe Waapankiaakamionki (Along the Marais Des Cygnes River) 4. Life on the Miami Reservation 5. Kansans, Confederates, and Conflict Part III: Ciikaahkwe Noosonke Siipionki (Along the Neosho River) 6. Churches, Schools, and a Town called Miami Epilogue Appendix A: Maawikimaki/Akimaki (Principal Chiefs/Chiefs) Appendix B: Niisonaminki Akimaki (Second Chiefs) Notes Bibliography Index

"This is perhaps the most important academic book to appear on the history of the Myaamia people. . . By grounding this study in the history of Myaamia people, rather than place, Bickers has dramatically altered both the ways in which people will view Myaamia history moving forward, as well as the histories of all Indigenous peoples in the southern Great Lakes."--James Buss, author of Winning the West with Words: Language and Conquest in the Lower Great Lakes "Bickers seeks to explain how and why his Myaamia ancestors made the decisions they did and how their descendants in each generation managed the consequences of those decisions in an ever-changing environment of American expansion and intrusion. . . At every stage of American intrusion the Myaamia people and their leaders knew they had to adapt to survive. The key question then was how to adapt in a way that maintained their culture and community. Because of this change over time the twenty-first century Miami Tribe of Oklahoma might not look completely familiar to Myaamia people of the early nineteenth century. But the communal, cultural, and political threads that both remain and are restored speak to the maintenance of the Myaamia community over the centuries."--John Bowes, author of Land Too Good for Indians: Northern Indian Removal