Local History: Miami Indians In Derbyshire Subdivision
Little Turtle, Chief of the Miamis 1790. Drawing courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Collection, found at:
New York Digital Library Collection
In August of 2005, my husband brought home an article from our local newspaper, the Kokomo Tribune.
This article said that our subdivision of Derbyshire was once the home of a Miami Indian settlement named "Indian Suck."
I have always been a romantic when it comes to this area. I love the woods we live in. I marvel at how defined the animal paths are through the brush. I love meeting all the animal, insect, and bird visitors that happen by (Yes, even the spiders!). But most of all, I spend endless hours gazing at the spreading branches of our chinquapin oak tree, a huge, gnarled tree that looms over our backyard, and scatters acorns for the squirrels every fall.
So the article resonated with me—Indians once lived here, and might have picnicked or played under my oak tree? How fascinating is that?
Yet, two things struck me about the article. One, the name of the Miami settlement is given as "Indian Suck." Say what? What kind of name is that? Two, the author of the newspaper article did not identify where/how he got his information. I decided to investigate. The rest of this page outlines what I found.
The Original Kokomo Tribune Article from 2005.
Click here to read the original newspaper article.
Collaborating Evidence
I was concerned by the settlement name, "Indian Suck." This sounds like a prank name, and I worried that somehow, someone was pulling our collective legs by putting this name in an "official and authoritative" newspaper article. But when I started researching, I found out that this name is also mentioned by a historian on the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library website. This reassured me the name wasn't a prank.
An article on Chief Kokomo, which mentions the settlement, Indian Suck.
Read about Chief Kokomo, the namesake of the city of Kokomo, Indiana. Here, historian Carl Leiter mentions, at the very end, the location of the Miami settlement, Indian Suck.
Part 2 of the history of Chief Kokomo.
More info on Chief Kokomo.
Here is are some videos of my subdivision, or parts of it, anyway, just so you can see the area as it is today. All videos are in .wmv format.
My street, Venetian Way, in Derbyshire.
My yard and more of the street.
My backyard, and the chinquapin oak tree.
More Miami History Links:
To Learn more about the history of Kokomo, Indiana, including some tidbits on Miami History, go here: Kokomo History
To Learn more about the Miami Indians in Indiana, go here: Miami History in Indiana
To see a collection of Indiana maps pertaining to the Miamis, go here: Miami Map Collection
To Learn some fun things about the Miami Indians, go here: Miami Indian Fun-Facts
To see some drawings, paintings, and photos of Miamis, go here: Miami Pictures
To find general reference sources, both photographic and text, for Native Americans, go to the Native American Reference Page.
