Wea Indians
The Wea Indians were members of the Miami Indians, although they lived apart from the Miami nation. The United States referred to the Weas as a separate tribe in the Treaty of Greeneville. The Weas were a small group of Indians who lived in Wisconsin at the time of first European contact. They were part of the Algonquian Indians. The Algonquian Indians consisted of various tribes that spoke similar languages. In the late 1700s and the early 1800s, the Piankashaw Indians and the Wea Indians worked closely together, often sharing the same villages. In 1820, the Weas sold their lands in Indiana to the United States. They remained in Missouri and Illinois until 1832, when they agreed to move to a reservation in Kansas. The Wea Indians did not play a major role in Ohio during the 1700s and the 1800s, but they did sign numerous treaties. In these agreements, the Weas forfeited all claims to the land in what is modern-day Ohio.
References and Suggested Reading
- Barr, Daniel P., ed. The Boundaries Between Us: Natives and Newcomers Along the Frontiers of the Old Northwest Territory, 1750-1850. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2006. - Available from Amazon.com
- Bond, Beverley W., Jr. The Foundations of Ohio. Columbus, OH: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1941.
- Hurt, R. Douglas. The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1996. - Available from Amazon.com
- O'Donnell, James H., III. Ohio's First Peoples. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2004. - Available from Amazon.com
- Ricky, Donald B., ed. Encyclopedia of Ohio Indians. St. Clair Shores, MI: Somerset Publishers, Inc., 1998. - Available from Amazon.com
- Wheeler-Voegelin, Erminie, Emily J. Blasingham, and Dorothy R. Libby. An Anthropological Report on the Miami, Wea, and Eel-River Indians. New York, NY: Garland Pub. Inc., 1974. - Available from Amazon.com
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"Wea Indians", Ohio History Central, July 1, 2005, http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=642
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