Description
The Miami (the name possibly derived from the Chippewa word Omaumeg or "people of the peninsula") Indians live in two groups, the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and the Miami Nation of Indians of Indiana. Early Miami people are considered to belong to the Fischer Tradition of Mississippian culture. Written history of the Miami traces back to missionaries and explorers who encountered them in what is now Wisconsin, from which they migrated south and eastwards from the mid-17th century to the mid-18th century, settling on the upper Wabash River and the Maumee River in what is now northeastern Indiana and northwestern Ohio. When French missionaries first encountered the Miami in the mid-17th century, generating the first written historical record of the tribe, the indigenous people were living around the western shores of Lake Michigan.
Language
Miami-Illinois also known as Irenwa or Irenwe, is an indigenous Algonquian language. Revitalization of the Miami language and culture are being accomplished with the Myaamia Project at Miami University of Ohio.
Culture
The early Miami were known for growing a unique variety of white corn. They celebrated harvests and green corn time with feasts. Games played included the moccasin game, the double ball game, and darts. Their endogamous clans built summer villages of framed long houses, with a separate larger structure used for councils and ceremonies. Hereditary chiefs had religious as well as political functions. Mississippian societies were characterized by maize-based agriculture, chiefdom-level social organization, extensive regional trade networks, hierarchical settlement patterns, and other factors. The historical Miami engaged in hunting, as did other Mississippian peoples.