Indigenous Peoples of Ohio

Learn about the indigenous people of Ohio, tribes and bands, state-recognized tribes, agencies, records, reservations and repositories.

Ohio is a Iroquoian word meaning "great river".

Tribes and Bands of Ohio
The Ohio Territory had been occupied by the Erie’s, which had become virtually extinct after battling with the Iroquois (1650). Many other Native American tribes relocated in Ohio Territory due to the large influx of European colonies that increasingly spread across their lands.

There were eight prominent tribes comprising the Ohio Territory.


 * The Chippewa and Ottawa came down from Ontario and the upper Great Lakes area.
 * The Delaware were from the New Jersey and Delaware region.
 * The Iroquois Tribe was made up of an alliance of six tribes; the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, Seneca, and the Tuscarora. They drove off most of the other tribes to obtain more hunting and trapping territory.
 * The Miamis, migrated from Wisconsin lived in the valleys by the Miami River.
 * The Mingos name was given to a group of Mohawks, Cayugas, and Caughnawagas; they lived in the Southeast Ohio Territory.
 * The Shawnees settled in the South, had migrated from Pennsylvania
 * The Wyandots, lived in the North West and originally came from Ontario.

The Delaware, Chippewa and Ottawa tribes could be found scattered throughout the Ohio country.

Tribe Recognized by the State of Ohio
United Remnant Band of the Shawnee Nation (also known as Shawnee Nation United Remnant Band)

Other Ohio Tribes
The following list of Native Americans who have lived in Ohio has been compiled from Hodge's Handbook of American Indians... and from Swanton's The Indian Tribes of North America. Some may simply be variant spellings for the same tribe.

Honniasont, Huron, Illinois, Kickapoo, Mosopelea, Neutrals, Ofo, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Seneca, Shawnee

Agencies of the Bureau of Indian Affairs
Agencies and subagencies were created as administrative offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and its predecessors. Their purpose was (and is) to manage Indian affairs with the tribes, to enforce policies, and to assist in maintaining the peace. The names and location of these agencies may have changed, but their purpose remained basically the same. Many of the records of genealogical value were created by these offices.

The following list of agencies that have operated or now exist in Ohio has been compiled from Hill's Office of Indian Affairs..., Hill's Guide to Records in the National Archives Relating to American Indians , and others.


 * Ohio Agency
 * Piqua Agency

Records
The majority of records of individuals were those created by the agencies. Some records may be available to tribal members through the tribal headquarters.They were (and are) the local office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and were charged with maintaining records of the activities of those under their responsibility. Among these records are:


 * Allotment records
 * Annuity rolls
 * Census records
 * Correspondence
 * Health records
 * Reports
 * School census and records
 * Vital records

Reservations
From the mid-1800s, the official policy of the United States government toward the Native Americans was to confine each tribe to a specific parcel of land called a reservation. Agencies were established on or near each reservation. A government representative, usually called an agent (or superintendent) was assigned to each agency. Their duties included maintaining the peace, making payments to the Native Americans based on the stipulations of the treaties with each tribe, and providing a means of communication between the native population and the federal government.

Sometimes, a single agency had jurisdiction over more than one reservation. And sometimes, if the tribal population and land area required it, an agency may have included sub-agencies.

The boundaries of reservations, over time, have changed. Usually, that means the reservations have been reduced in size. Sometimes, especially during the later policy of "termination," the official status of reservations was ended altogether.

The following list of reservations has been compiled from the National Atlas of the United States of America, the Omni Gazetteer of the United States of America , and other sources. Those reservations named in bold are current federally-recognized reservations, with their associated agency and tribe(s). Others have historically been associated with the state or are not currently recognized by the federal government.

Currently there are no federally-recognized reservations in Ohio.

Superintendency
Michigan SuperintendencyThe Delawares were under the jurisdiction of this superintendency

FamilySearch Library
Some helpful books regarding the Indians of Ohio are:


 * McConnell, Michael Norman. A Country Between: the Upper Ohio Valley and Its Peoples, 1724-1774. (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.) ; A comprehensive history of Native Americans in the states of Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania.
 * Moorehead, Warren King. The Indian Tribes of Ohio Historically Considered: a Preliminary Paper. (New York, New York: AMS Press, 1983.) ; A reprint of a study done in 1899 by the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications.
 * Prevost, Toni Jollay. The Delaware and Shawnee Admitted to Cherokee Citizenship and the Related Wyandotte and Moravian Delaware. (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1993.) ;
 * Tregillis, Helen Cox. The Native Tribes of Old Ohio. (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1993.) ;
 * Watson, Larry S., ed. Senate Document No. 512, 23rd Congress, 1st Session. Five Volumes. (Laguna Hills, California: Histree, 1988.) Documents and correspondence concerning the removal of Native Americans to Oklahoma from various states, including Ohio.

Several more sources are listed in the Place Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under:


 * OHIO - NATIVE RACES

OnLine Links

 * America Indians of Ohio 1654 to 1843
 * Native American Genealogy and resource links
 * One State, Many Nations; Native Americans of Ohio
 * Ohio History Central, an Online Encyclopedia of Ohio History -- article on American Indians

Additional Information

 * Ohio-History for a timeline of Ohio.
 * Ohio-Military Records for a list of forts.