MIAMI, mi-ii'm(!. An important Algonquian tribe residing, when first known to the French' about 1660, in southeastern Wisconsin. They were somewhat superior to the northern tribes gen erally in their manner of living, and occupied a stockaded town with mat-covered houses. About the year 1690, in consequence of difficulties with the Illinois and Sioux. they removed to the south east and established themselves on the site of what is now Chicago and upon the Saint Joseph River of Michigan, whence they soon spread to the Wabash and Maumee and later to the Miami. Their principal band made headquarters at Kekionga, where Fort Wayne now stands, while others, settled lower down on the Wabash, developed later into two distinct tribes, known respectively as Wea and Pianki shaw (q.v.). All three, however, continued until the end of the eighteenth century to regard them selves as one people, and first cousins of the Illi nois, their western neighbors. whose language dif fered only dialectically from their own. In the colonial wars the Miami sided alternately with either party, but joined Pontiac's alliance in 1764 and took sides against the Americans in the Revo lution. continuing the struggle with the other
tribes of the Ohio Valley until their crushing defeat by General Wayne compelled them to make peace at the Greenville Treaty in 1795. The great chief. Little Turtle. who led the allied forces to victory against Saint Clair and Har mar, was a Miami. Under Tecumseh they again joined the English side in the War of 1812. At its close, being now thoroughly broken, they began to sell their lands, and by 1827 had ceded almost the whole of their original territory and agreed to remove to Kansas. Here they rapidly died out from disease. famine, and dissipation, until about 1873 the remnant, only 150 in num ber, were placed upon the Quapaw reservation in Indian Territory. where they number now only 95. A considerable band had continued to occupy a reservation in Wabash County. Ind., until 1872, when the land was divided and tribal relations dissolved. These now number about 240, practically all of mixed blood.