Native Americans of East-Central Indiana

by Chris Flook

Native Americans lived, hunted and farmed in east-central Indiana for two thousand years before the area became a part of the Hoosier State.
Mounds and enclosures built by Adena and Hopewell peoples still stand near the White River and reflect their vibrant and mysterious cultures. The Lenape tribes moved to east-central Indiana many years later after the Northwest Indian War. Led by the great chiefs Buckhongehelas and Kikthawenund, the White River Lenape attempted to forge an identity after being forced from their homeland on the Atlantic coast. Place names like Delaware County, Muncie, Yorktown and Anderson demonstrate the importance of the tribe in local history. Author Chris Flook explores the unique yet often untold history of the Native experience in east-central Indiana.

Genres: Indigenous

176 pages, Paperback

Published June 6, 2016

Reviews

[Warren Fournier]

Indiana is a weird place, full of history and legends that many Hoosiers have never known. From an ancient earthen clock that still keeps time, to mysterious stone circles (one of which is under Lake Michigan), to rocks with indecipherable hieroglyphs, centuries of forgotten human lives lay scattered throughout public and private lands of the State.

Most amazing to me are the countless earthworks that have been destroyed by farming, seemingly innocuous mounds of earth that were thought to be mere impediments to plough and tractor, which were actually the fading footprints of a complex civilization. This book attempts to collect what little we know about these ancient structures and the people who built them, and then brings us a portrait of their ancestors as documented by European settlers in the post-contact period following the 1600s, all the way to the government-enforced diaspora of indigenous peoples from Indiana after the founding of the American State.

I was amazed to discover that these earthworks are mathematically oriented to predict and record sunsets and sunrises during summer and winter solstices, and that jewelry made of shells from the Gulf of Mexico were among the many artifacts found in Indiana mounds. I was also surprised to learn how the French and the native Algonquin-speaking tribes, particularly the Miami, got along very well until British colonials took over with their very harsh treatment of indigenous peoples as inferior races. There were also stories that you'll never hear in your American history classes at school, such as the 19th Century Indiana witch hunt, where nationalist native Americans, led by Lenape prophets, tortured and burned at the stake numerous European Christian missionaries and their "Indian" converts as sorcerers.

This summer, I plan to take a road trip across the State to explore many of these historic places, and this book was a great starting point for this adventure.

SCORE: 4/5

WORD OF THE DAY: Miscegenation

[Sandra S Walters]

The author spends an inane amount of time stating that not all authorities agree, and that statement is made for pretty much every single point in the entire book. Consequently, the reader is left completely confused.Even the definitions of periods and trademarks got mixed up within this swirl of indecision. And finally, historical events such as French/British wars for territory/fur trading dominance have such an enormous scope in comparison to the scope of the book’s title. While those conflicts were certainly relevant, I would most like to know what was their impact upon the geographical scope of the book.

I would really have liked to read at least a theory of what tribal life may have existed during the different periods, and how those groups may have co-existed with other indigenous peoples during modern time periods. The author favors a theory of widespread population decimation by disease prior to early European exploration to the extent that the Indiana geographical area was largely uninhabited when the first explorers arrived in Indiana. However, pressure from the colonies is said to be the reason for the migration of the Delaware tribe from their historical homes in the east to eastern Indiana. That pressure did not exist at the time of the first explorers;therefore how long had the unoccupied territory been absent of humans? Were modern period indigenous people living in this area and if so, who were their people? I really feel like this book raises many questions but answers few. Perhaps it will prompt me to look at other titles in search of answers.

[Art Hill]

Excellent overview of archeological and historical information that we have about the many groups of native/indiginous people who lived in east-central indiana from ancient times to the mid 19th century. It's a great jumping-off point for deeper reading. Everyone in ECI should read it.