ROI016, Miami Occupation of the Upper Wabash Drainage: A Preliminary Study Unit.

Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology, Indiana Department of Natural Resources

ROI016, Miami Occupation of the Upper Wabash Drainage: A Preliminary Study Unit.

Summary

This is the tDAR Project page that represents Reports of Investigation 016 from the Applied Anthropology Laboratories, Ball State University. In 1983, the Archaeological Resources Management Service at Ball State University submitted a draft proposal to the Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources for a Department of the Interior Survey and Planning Grant. The proposal requested funds to formulate an ethnohistoric study unit for the Miami Indian occupation of the Upper Wabash drainage in central Indiana. As proposed, the project would be carried out in four stages: study unit construction, background research, field reconnaissance, and laboratory analysis/report preparation. The parameters of the study unit would be defined through a series of meetings with the consultants for the project, Dr. Elizabeth Glenn and Dr. Stewart Rafert. Background research would be carried out at a level intensive enough to allow for the location of individual sites while providing general information for the formulation of the study unit. This second stage of the project would entail a review of such sources as the General Land Office notes and maps, the Garland series on the Indian Claims Commission, travelers accounts, county histories, atlases, and the HRAF bibliographies. Following completion of the background research, a representative sample of each site type located in the literature would be field checked to ascertain the location, integrity, and types of materials present. The field reconnaissance would be followed by laboratory analysis of the materials recovered and a report detailing the results of the project.

This proposal was submitted along with an additional proposal for a reconnaissance level survey to locate prehistoric sites within the Wabash River Valley of the Upper Wabash drainage. Following review of the draft proposals by the Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology, the two projects were combined into one project of two parts and the scale of each project was reduced. The ethnohistoric project would involve the preparation of a report based upon the study unit concept with particular emphasis placed on sampling primary literature sources (GLO surveys and notes, etc.) to determine the potential of the study unit for archaeological research. The report that follows documents the results of the project.

This report is focused on the occupation and utilization of the Upper Wabash drainage by the Miami during the period beginning with contact with Europeans (ca. 1650) and ending with the partition of the last tribally owned lands within the state of Indiana in 1873; the primary focus of the project is on the era between 1795 and 1881. This project is a direct outgrowth of several ethnohistorical and archaeological studies conducted within the Upper Wabash drainage in recent years (Glenn 1977: n.d.; Wepler 1982; Wepler and Cochran 1982, l983a, l983b; Rafert 1982; Jeff Snyder, personal communication 1984). Although basic research interests as reflected in the studies revolve around varied archaeological and ethnohistorical problems, the most pressing concern to emerge is the need for identification and conservation of a resource base that is rapidly being depleted. Many ethnohistoric sites within and around the limits of the Upper Wabash drainage have been engulfed in the expansion of urban centers at Fort Wayne, Huntington, Kokomo, Muncie, Anderson, and elsewhere. Other important sites, including Osage Village, are currently under cultivation and are annually suffering further damage from agriculture and erosion. Flood control projects throughout the drainage have claimed such sites as Deaf Man's Village, the home of Frances Slocum.

The first step in the conservation of the resources addressed in this project involves identifying sites in the literature. A sample of the types and locations of sites to be expected in the study unit are included in this report. Subsequent to locating sites in the literature, they need to be verified in the field. Following identification and verification, the potential of each site for contributing to the ongoing research within the region, and, ultimately to the fields of Anthropology and History, must be determined. It is the goal of this study to provide a framework and data for the identification and evaluation of these important resources.