[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 123 (Thursday, October 5, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H8896-H8897]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1330
       RESTORE FEDERAL RECOGNITION TO THE MIAMI NATION OF INDIANA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Quinn). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, this afternoon I have introduced a bill to 
restore the Federal recognition to the Miami Nation of Indiana.
  The Miami Nation of Indiana is one of our most historic Indian 
nations. Unfortunately, it is not currently recognized by the Federal 
Government. It is an ironic situation that we face. When Anthony Wayne 
won the battle of Fallen Timbers that lead directly to the Treaty of 
Greenville in 1795, the Miami Nation, at that point a defeated nation, 
entered into negotiations over a period of time with William Henry

[[Page H8897]]

Harrison in the Northwest Territory and the Federal Government, ceding 
millions of acres.
  Chief Richardville, the civil chief of the tribe, and Little Turtle, 
the war chief of the Miami Nation, did the best they could to keep as 
many Miamis in Indiana as possible, approximately at that point 800. 
The rest were transported in one of the many cases of mistreatment of 
Native Americans by the American Government, and moved across the 
Mississippi River.
  That tribe continued to be recognized and currently is basically the 
Miami of Oklahoma. They have completely at this point a distinctive 
history, a distinctive tribal form of government from the Miami Nation 
of Indiana. They moved across the Mississippi, then down into Oklahoma, 
have their own tribal governments and work with that, and occasionally 
even come in conflict with their brothers from Indiana over what to do 
with artifacts, over what things are important in the tribe. Because 
quite frankly, the Indiana Miami are not in many ways a traditional 
nation, in the sense they were not part of the reservation system that 
many other Indian tribes in America were part of.
  Their goals as a tribe are different. Theirs are predominantly 
historic and cultural goals as opposed to necessarily the same 
financial goals, because they are more or less integrated in, but that 
does not mean that they have not been a continual independent nation. 
Much of this is detailed in the book ``The Miami Indians of Indiana.'' 
This particular book was given to me by Charles Bevington, or 
Meshintoquah, chief of the Pecongeah Clan of the Miami Nation of 
Indiana.
  And he, Chuck, still gets benefits from the treaty of Greenville from 
1795. His kids get benefits from the Treaty of Greenville; yet our 
government says they are not an Indian tribe. Now, wait a minute. If 
they are getting treaty benefits directly from 1795, this seems like a 
tad of a stretch.
  Let me make a couple of points with this: one is, they have been in 
continual relationship with the Federal Government, one of the 
standards to be an independent Indian nation. One of the problems was 
that in 1897, the Secretary of the Interior based on an opinion by a 
then assistant Secretary withdrew the acknowledgment of the Indiana 
Miamis as a tribe.
  Since then, Congress has never terminated this relationship. Since 
then, there has been an acknowledgment that that was an error in 1897. 
In 1990, the Department of the Interior specifically admitted that the 
opinion of Attorney General Van Devanter was incorrect and that the 
trust relationship of the Indiana Miamis was wrongfully terminated. In 
other words, in 1897 this was wrongfully done. They reappealed to the 
BIA and lost their appeal, because, apparently, some of the minutes 
from meetings in either the late 1950s or early 1960s were lost partly 
because the Secretary's house trailer burned and the Miami did not have 
records of their continual meetings they had. They had powwows in our 
district, and throughout parts of northern Indiana they have had a 
consistent form of tribal government. So we are basically looking at 
technicalities that have disqualified a nation that is one of our most 
historic.
  Let me give my colleagues a couple of examples. The famous Indian 
chief, Little Turtle, was one of the greatest warriors in American 
history. This is a drawing by a Miami of Indiana person who lives in 
Fort Wayne area, my hometown. What is interesting about this is, this 
is not a drawing that is contemporary of its period, because the only 
oil painting of Little Turtle was in the White House, and it was burned 
when the White House was burned in 1812 when James Madison was 
President. And it was by Gilbert Stuart.
  But this is a likeness drawn after that. Little Turtle is famous 
because on American soil, he is the only person to have defeated full-
blown American armies authorized by this Congress, not once, but twice, 
bigger defeats, than Custard, bigger defeats than the Western, 
different things where Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull and all of those 
famous Indian chiefs, Little Turtle defeated American armies twice.
  George Washington said they had to get the junction of the rivers in 
what is now Fort Wayne but at that time was Kekionga, because it was 
the controlling of the Northwest territory and we would have never had 
a Lewis and Clark. We never would have had a Louisiana Purchase if we 
could not get control of the Northwest Territory. Little Turtle twice 
defeated those armies.
  He was victorious right near Eel River where his settlement was, and 
he also defeated La Balme from France, who was considered the foremost 
calvary officer in France.
  But then Little Turtle realized he was not going to be able to defeat 
Anthony Wayne. He stayed in the coalition with Blue Jacket and other 
Indian tribes, the Shawnee and others; but they were defeated at the 
battle of Fallen Timbers and that led to a change in the West. Little 
Turtle decided to work with the United States Government. Then the 
civil chief, Chief Richardville, also decided to work with the United 
States Government and in Fort Wayne. We hope within a few months this 
will be a national historic landmark; it is the oldest Indian treaty 
house east of the Mississippi still on its site.
  It is Chief Richardville's house. It is where the Miami Nation 
congregated. It was their civil chief. We also have Richardville's son-
in-law Lafontaine, in an Indian house. After all, Indiana is named 
after the Indians, but we do not have respect and have not respected 
them enough.
  We have two treasures of these homes. This is apparently the only 
Native American home east of the Mississippi on its original site. 
Richardville and Little Turtle were in fact in essence punished because 
they stopped warring with the United States.
  It is time that the United States correct what are acknowledged 
wrongs in decertifying the Miami Nation in 1897, to reconcile the 
bookkeeping error. One last point, they have agreed by a 12 to zero 
council meeting to suspend their gaming rights. The act says that 
pursuant they will not pursue gaming in class 3, and only be allowed 
with expressed approval from Congress.
  It is unfortunate that true rights are being denied because of 
gambling, but they have agreed to suspend theirs.

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