Treaty of the Forks of the Wabash 1840
The Treaty of the Forks of the Wabash, signed in November of 1840 by the Myaamia and the U.S. government, marks the point in time when Myaamia leaders, for reasons still unknown, yielded to the unrelenting pressure of the U.S. government to leave their homeland. This treaty relinquished their reservation in Indiana in exchange for a reservation of the same size (500,000 acres) west of the Mississippi in what would later become the Kansas Territory, as well as stipulated that the Tribe would move to the new reservation within 5 years of the agreement. The Myaamia resisted this removal for six years, hoping to remain on individual family allotments that had been created decades prior and retain their essential cultural connection to their land. However, the expulsion began on October 6th, 1846 with the forcible loading of hundreds of Myaamia by the U.S. Army into canal boats leaving for the Kansas Territory. To provide perspective; as these canal boats passed through Cincinnati, mere miles away, Miami University students participated in classes, joined the first fraternities, and debated topics in literary societies like the Miami Union and the Erodelphian.