Our Tribe

Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma

The Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma is a confederation of Kaskaskia, Peoria, Piankashaw, and Wea Indians united into a single tribe in 1854. The tribes which constitute The Confederated Peorias, as they were then called, originated in the lands bordering the Great Lakes and drained by the mighty Mississippi. They are Illinois or Illini Indians, descendants of those who created the great mound civilizations in the central United States two to three thousand years ago.

Peoria

The red arrow of the Peorias represents the sun.

Piankashaw

The turquoise arrow of the Piankashaws represents our native soil.

Wea

The blue arrow of the Weas represents the blue waters.

Kaskaskia

The green arrow of the Kaskaskias represents the green of the grass and the trees.

Read More
Read More
Read More
Read More

Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma

Ancestral Lands

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1

Cahokia Mounds State Park

2

Fort De Chartes

3

Ste Genevieve

4

Paola Kansas

5

Mounds at Lewiston (Dickson Mounds)

6

Plum Island

7

Angel Mounds State Park

8

Hoosier Natl. Forest

9

Serpent Mound

1. Cahokia Mounds

The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site is the site of a Pre-Columbian Native American city (which existed c. 1050–1350 CE) directly across the Mississippi River from modern St. Louis Missouri. This historic park lies in south-western Illinois between East St. Louis and Collinsville. The park covers 2,200 acres (890 ha), or about 3.5 square miles, and contains about 80 mounds, but the ancient city was much larger. At its apex around 1100 CE, the city covered about 6 square miles and included about 120 manmade earthen mounds in a wide range of sizes, shapes, and functions. At the apex of its population, Cahokia may have briefly exceeded contemporaneous London, which at that time was approximately 14,000–18,000.

https://cahokiamounds.org/

2. Fort de Chartres

Fort de Chartres was a French fortification first built in 1720 on the east bank of the Mississippi River in present-day Illinois. It was used as an administrative center for the province. Due generally to river floods, the fort was rebuilt twice, the last time in limestone in the 1750s in the era of French colonial control over Louisiana and the Illinois Country. It was also a major point of trade for the Peoria and Kaskaskia tribes.

http://www.fortdechartres.us/

3. Ste Genevieve

Ste Genevieve is the county seat of Ste. Genevieve county and is a important historical site to the Peoria. Upon being removed from their ancestral lands in the late 1700s the Kaskaskia, Peoria and Wea tribes all found a new home in Ste Genevieve before being removed to Miami County, Kansas in the early 1800s. It is here that the subtribes truly began to unite into a cohesive cultural group.

https://www.nps.gov/stge/index.htm

4. Paola, Kansas

Paola is a city in and the county seat of Miami County, Kansas. The area was originally under control of the Osage people. Settlement of the area primarily occurred, however, when the Kaskaskia, Peoria, Wea, and Piankashaw tribes were forcibly moved to the area in the 1830s. It is here that these tribes formed the Confederated Allied tribe led by Samuel Baptiste Peoria. They initially named their settlement Peoria Village. It wasn’t until 1852 when a local priest was credited for renaming the city Paola after a small town in Italy. During the 1850s and 1860s there was more and more pressure to remove the local tribe’s once again which resulted in the “Omnibus Treaty” of 1867 and finally removed the Confederated Peoria to Ottawa County, Oklahoma.

https://cityofpaola.com/

5. Mounds at Lewiston

The Mounds at Lewiston (Dickson Mounds) is a Native American settlement site and burial mound complex near Lewistown, Illinois. It is located in Fulton County on a bluff which overlooks the Illinois River. It is a large Burial complex containing at least two cemeteries, ten superimposed burial mounds and a platform mound. The site was established in 800 CE and was in use until after 1250 CE. This site is of great importance to the Peoria due to the extensive presence of the Peoria within the Illinois River Valley.

http://www.illinoisstatemuseum.org/content/dickson-mounds-visitor-information

6. Plum Island

Plum Island is the traditional site of the Peoria annual council meeting and was a common meeting place for Peoria and Kaskaskia Tribal citizens alike. Today it is an eagle sanctuary which helps protect a population of wintering bald eagles. It is near The Grand Village of the Kaskaskia, Le Rocher and Matthiessen State Park.

7. Angel Mounds

Located on the banks of the Ohio River in southwest Indiana, Angel Mounds State Historic Site is one of the best-preserved, pre-contact Native American sites in North America. Built between A.D. 1000 and 1450, the town was occupied by more than 1,000 people who were part of the Mississippian culture, and included earthen mounds built to elevate important buildings. The original town covered an area of 103 acres and served as an important religious, political and trade center for people living within a 75-mile radius. More than 600 acres comprise Angel Mounds State Historic Site, which includes an interpretive center, recreations of Mississippian buildings and a working reconstruction of the 1939 Works Progress Administration (WPA) archaeology laboratory.

https://www.indianamuseum.org/historic-sites/angel-mounds/

8.  Hoosier National Forest

The Hoosier National Forest is a property managed by the United States Forest Service in the hills of southern Indiana. Composed of four separate sections, it has a total area of 202,814 acres. The Hoosier National Forest is the ancestral territory of the Wea and Piankashaw tribes, and still holds many sites of cultural significance.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/hoosier/

9.  Serpent Mound

Serpent Mound is the world’s largest surviving effigy mound—a mound in the shape of an animal—from the prehistoric era. Located in southern Ohio, the mound is 411-meter-long (1348-feet-long). Some estimates place the construction of the National Historic Landmark—also called Great Serpent Mound—at around 300 B.C. There are three burial mounds nearby two created by the Adena Culture (800 B.C. – A.D. 100) and one by the Fort Ancient culture (A.D. 1000-1650). This Site is of great significance to not only the Peoria but all native people.

https://www.ohiohistory.org/visit/museum-and-site-locator/serpent-mound

Our Culture

Peoria Tribe

Pah-mee-ców-ee-tah ca. 1830
(Peoria Chief) Man who Tracks

The Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma is a confederation of Kaskaskia, Peoria, Piankeshaw and Wea Indians united into a single tribe in 1854. The tribes which constitute The Confederated Peorias, as they then were called, originated in the lands bordering the Great Lakes and drained by the mighty Mississippi. They are Illinois or Illini Indians, descendants of those who created the great mound civilizations in the central United States two thousand to three thousand years ago.

Forced from their ancestral lands in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa and Missouri in 1818 after the treaty of Edwardsville, the Peorias were relocated first in Missouri, then in Kansas and, finally, to northeastern Oklahoma. There, in Miami, Ottawa County, Oklahoma is their tribal headquarters.

Kee-mo-rá-nia, No English ca. 1830

The Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma is a federally-recognized sovereign Indian tribe, functioning under the constitution and by-laws approved by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior on August 13, 1997. Under Article VIII, Section 1 of the Peoria Constitution, the Peoria Tribal Business Committee is empowered to research and pursue economic and business development opportunities for the Tribe.

The increased pressure from white settlers in the 1840’s and 1850’s in Kansas brought cooperation among the Peoria, Kaskaskia, Piankashaw and Wea Tribes to protect these holdings. By the Treaty of May 30, 1854, 10 Stat. 1082, the United States recognized the cooperation and consented to their formal union as the Confederated Peoria. In addition to this recognition, the treaty also provided for the disposition of the lands of the constituent tribes set aside by the treaties of the 1830’s; ten sections were to be held in common by the new Confederation, each tribal member received an allotment of 160 acres; the remaining or “surplus” land was to be sold to settlers and the proceeds to be used by the tribes.

Baptiste Peoria (Chief), Signed the Treaty of May 30th 1854

The Civil War caused considerable turmoil among all the people of Kansas, especially the Indians. After the war, most members of the Confederation agreed to remove to the Indian Territory under the provisions of the Omnibus Treaty of February 23, 1867, 15 Stat. 513. Some of the members elected at this time to remain in Kansas, separate from the Confederated Tribes, and become citizens of the United States.

The lands of the Confederation members in the Indian Territory were subject to the provisions of the General Allotment Act of 1887. The allotment of all the tribal land was made by 1893, and by 1915, the tribe had no tribal lands or any lands in restricted status. Under the provisions of the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936, 49 Stat. 1967, the tribes adopted a constitution and by-laws, which was ratified on October 10, 1939, and they became known as the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma.

As a result of the “Termination Policy” of the Federal Government in the 1950’s, the Federal Trust relationship over the affairs of the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma and its members, except for claims then pending before the Indian Claims Commission and Court of claims, was ended on August 2, 1959, pursuant to the provisions of the Act of August 2, 1956, 709 Stat. 937, and Federal services were no longer provided to the individual members of the tribe. More recently, however, the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma was reinstated as a federally recognized tribe by the Act of May 15, 1978, 92 Stat. 246.

Piankashaw Tribe

Ni-a-có-mo ca. 1830

The Piankashaw Tribe was a native tribe who were originally a subtribe of the Miami Nation who eventually separated from them, hence being known as Peeyankihšiaki (Those who Separate). The Piankashaw’s primary occupational area during the 1700s ranged from west of Lake Michigan to the confluence of the Vermillion River and the Wabash River including pockets of smaller villages all throughout the Greater Indiana and Illinois area. Various other Piankashaw villages were also found throughout the Southern Indiana region and along the wabash river and were found to be frequently trading furs with the french settlers at post Vincennes.

The Piankashaw loyalties fluctuated between the french and the Americans throughout the 1700s. Hostilities between the French, Americans and the Piankashaw continued until their culmination in the war of 1812. There were in total ten treaties with the piankashaw beginning in 1795. In 1805 the Piankashaw ceded their lands in Indiana and Ohio, following the trend set by the Kaskaskia the year prior.

“The Piankashaw tribe cedes and relinquishes to the United States for ever, all that tract of country (with the exception of the reservation hereinafter made) which lies between the Wabash and the tract ceded by the Kaskaskia tribe, in the year one thousand eight hundred and three, and south of a line to be drawn from the north west corner of the Vincennes tract, north seventy eight degrees west, until it intersects the boundary line which has heretofore separated the lands of the Piankeshaws from the said tract ceded by the Kaskaskia tribe.”

With this 1805 treaty the majority of the Piankashaw joined the Kaskaskia, wea and Peoria to the South of St. Louis in Ste. Genevieve before being removed to the reservation in Miami County, Kansas By the Treaty of October 29, 1832, 7 Stat. 410 and were granted 250 sections of land adjacent to the Peoria and Kaskaskia reserve. It is in Kansas that the Piankashaw, Wea, Kaskaskia and Peoria united to form the confederated Peoria in 1854 before being removed to Indian Territory (Modern Day Oklahoma) by the Omnibus treaty of February 23rd 1867.

Wea Tribe

Go-to-ków-páh-ah ca. 1830 (Wea Brave)

The Wea Tribe was a subtribe of the Miami Nation. In the late seventeenth century they lived near the western shore of Lake Michigan. During the next 150 years, they moved frequently and the 1750’s found them living on the Wabash and White Rivers, in the present States of Indiana and Illinois. The Weas supported the British during the Revolutionary War. The tribe was also involved in the unrest of the 1790’s in the northwest, which culminated with the Indians’ defeat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. Two Wea Chiefs signed the subsequent Treaty at Greenville.

Some of the Weas joined the confederation headed by two Shawnee brothers, Tecumseh and the Prophet, in the first and second decades of the nineteenth century. Other members of the tribe, in an attempt to disassociate themselves from this movement, removed west of the Mississippi to an area south of St. Louis. Here they maintained their close relationship with bands of the Piankashaws and Peoria, some of whom had earlier removed to this area.

On October 2, 1818, at St. Mary’s, Ohio, the Weas ceded most of their lands in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio, except for a reserve in Indiana, on the Wabash River. The remaining Indiana Reserve was ceded by the Treaty of August 16, 1820, 7 State. 209. Having disposed of all their lands, the remaining Wea removed to Missouri and Arkansas where they joined the other tribal members and the Piankashaws who had also left Indiana and Illinois. By the Treaty of October 29, 1832, 7 Stat. 410, the Wea, jointly with the Piankashaws, were granted 250 sections of land in what is now Miami County, Kansas, on lands adjacent to the Peoria and Kaskaskia Reserve.

Kaskaskia Tribe

Wah-pe-seh-see ca.1830 (Kaskaskia Mother)

The Kaskaskia, along with the Peoria, were two of the principal tribes in what was known as the Illinois Confederacy. At the time of first European contact, the tribes of this confederacy held sway over the present area of southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois and along the west bank of the Mississippi River as far south as the Des Moines River in Iowa. By 1700, however, most of the tribes of the confederacy resided in northern Illinois, chiefly on the Illinois River. As a result of continuous war with their northern neighbors, in particular the Sac and Fox Tribes, by the time of the Revolutionary War the Confederacy, represented now by the Peoria and Kaskaskia, was reduced to a fraction of its former strength and had been dispossessed of most of its former territories.

The tribes managed to avoid major conflict with the Americans in both the Revolutionary War and the trouble, which culminated in the Battle of Fallen Timbers and the 1794 Treaty of Greenville. By the Treaty of August 13, 1803, 7 Stat. 78, the Kaskaskia ceded all of their remaining lands in Illinois to the United States in return for protection and patronage. During the trouble associated with the War of 1812, most of the Kaskaskia removed west of the Mississippi to Missouri and Arkansas where they maintained their close relationship with the Peoria. On October 27, 1832, the two tribes signed a treaty, 7 Stat. 403, which gave formal recognition to this union and granted them 150 sections on the Osage Reserve in Miami County, Kansas.

Tribal Emblem

The general outline of the emblem is an arrowhead bearing four crossed arrows. Each of the arrows represents one of the four tribes making up the tribe now known as Peoria.

The red background symbolizes the tribe’s past – the trickery, the tears, the hardships, and the heartaches that our ancestors endured. The large arrowhead of natural color represents our present generation – a promise that we will work, as individuals, and as a tribe, to cherish and preserve our heritage and customs. The arrowhead points downward, indicating peace. We will live in peace, but we will not be suppressed.

  • The turquoise arrow of the Piankashaws represents our native soil.
  • The red arrow of the Peorias represents the sun.
  • The blue arrow of the Weas represents the blue waters.
  • The green arrow of the Kaskaskias represents the green of the grass and the trees.

May our tribe never forget that these are gifts from the Great Spirit.

The crossing of the arrows represents our promise to future generations that by banding together our spirit cannot be broken and our heritage and customs will never be forgotten.

Alice Giles Burgess, a tribal citizen, designed this emblem. It was presented to the Peoria Tribal Business Committee and approved by them on January 29, 1983. It was presented to the tribal membership at the Annual Meeting in March 1983.

PEORIA TRIBAL CEMETERY

Members of the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma are eligible for burial in the Peoria Tribal Cemetery. Non-Indian spouses may be buried alongside tribal member spouses.

Upon the death of a tribal member, the family will need to call the Peoria Tribal Office. If other family members are already interred in the cemetery, every effort will be made to locate an available grave site nearby. Once the grave site has been determined, tribal office staff will make contact for digging of the grave.

The family of the deceased is responsible for the costs of digging the grave. There is no other cost to individuals of Peoria descendant for plots in the tribal cemetery.

All plots are designated on a first need, first served basis. The only exception made is when a joint headstone is placed for spouses.

SCHOOLHOUSE PRESERVATION

The schoolhouse is in its final phase of restoration. National Park Service funds will be used for installing floor registers and filter grille to complete the HVAC system, installing wood flooring, installing light fixtures, switches, outlets, and panels to complete the electrical system, replacing crawl space access doors with metal bars, completing the stone walkway at the western entrance, replacing metal louvers on the cupola with painted wood louvers, and replacing an inappropriate concrete stoop at the southeastern entrance with a porch.

It has also gotten a much-needed coat of paint on the exterior, and has had storm windows installed to help make it more energy efficient.