Indigenous people have lived in what we now call Ohio for . The United States government out of the state in the 19th century, sending them and their governments to reservations in places like modern day , and .
But some organizations in the region are joining a growing movement to invite them back to educate Ohioans with a more complete history of our region.
This month around 20 people joined in on a Wyandotte social dance at the Fort Recovery Museum and Monument in Mercer County. Chris Houk, a lifeways researcher with the , helped lead the dance as part of the programming for Fort Recovery鈥檚 first event.
鈥淵ou need to understand this is the last place where we were free,鈥� Houk said. 鈥淭his is the last place we wanted to be.鈥�
Historically, the museum鈥檚 tours have focused on.
But during the event, Miami, Shawnee, and Wyandotte citizens came to provide people with a fuller picture of their modern cultures and communities 鈥� their children鈥檚 stories, their art, their economic development initiatives 鈥� the types of things that go beyond a few violent hours from hundreds of years ago.
They played lacrosse with kids on the lawn, displayed colorful traditional textiles made from plants still found in the state today, and showed people crisp, computer generated images of what people living in the region two thousand years ago might have looked like.
Josh Garcia, a media specialist with the Wyandotte Nation, traveled from Oklahoma with Houk for the event. Now in his mid-twenties, when he was 10 years old. When he isn鈥檛 doing events like the one at Fort Recovery, he makes TikToks about topics like traditional eastern fletchings used by historic Ohio sovereign nations.
Traditional Eastern fletchings used by Wyandot(te), Shawnee, Lenape, Tsilagi, Anishinabe, Hudinosuane, and others. From what I was taught, this type of fletching doesn鈥檛 shows up anywhere else in the world. (Lmk if you know anything different!)
鈥淲henever you look at people groups on Google, we're the only people that will most likely pull up in black and white photos,鈥� Garcia said, 鈥淪o people still think we're living in the past, which is kind of a hard concept to deconstruct."
A growing movement
Talon Silverhorn, a citizen of the and the cultural programs manager for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources helped organize the event.
鈥淥hio is full of native history and a lot of places have been interpreting that history without Native people for quite a long time,鈥� Silverhorn said, 鈥淭here is a growing trend now that is a direct result of the tribe's efforts to get more accurate representation that is now bearing fruit here in Ohio.鈥�
George Ironstrack, a citizen of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, a historian, and the assistant director of the at Miami University in Oxford, said events like these are particularly significant in a state like Ohio that has within its borders today.
鈥淢ost Midwesterners at the private level, and then also at the governmental, political level, don't have a history of interacting with tribes as these vibrant political, cultural, social entities,鈥� Ironstrack said.
, which owns the Fort Recovery museum, is one of the organizations in the state working to amend that: they have who are citizens of historic Ohio tribes and to regulate who can interpret tribal history at the sites they own. Ironstrack said that makes a difference.
鈥淭he Ohio History Connection, formerly the Ohio Historical Society, has really revitalized, created new connections with sovereign political entities, tribal nations, especially those in Northeast Oklahoma, who have direct connections to what is today the state of Ohio in terms of our homelands,鈥� he said.
Jared Nally, also a citizen of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and a research assistant in the Myaamia Center focusing on the revitalization of Myaamia textiles and cultural ecology, said at the event that he thinks Ohioans are starting to take notice of his tribe鈥檚 presence in the state.
鈥淲e might not be visible to all the citizens in Ohio, but we have a lot of collaborative relationships with state and local governments, a lot of connections with the museums, so I think we have a presence working in our homelands," Nally said.
A fuller history
Silverhorn, the ODNR employee who helped organize the event, grew up in northeastern Oklahoma and first visited Fort Recovery when he was a kid during an Eastern Shawnee Cultural Tour where hundreds of Shawnee people packed into buses to see sites in Ohio.
He said the history presented to them back then focused on war and painted Indigenous Ohioans with a broad brush, but he said that鈥檚 starting to change with events like the one at Fort Recovery.
鈥淭hese places are trying to do things the right way and trying to represent people accurately,鈥� Silverhorn said. 鈥淎nd more importantly, they are providing the space and the platform and resources for the people themselves to do it themselves.鈥�
鈥淵ou need to understand this is the last place where we were free. This is the last place we wanted to be.鈥�Chris Houk, a lifeways researcher with the Wyandotte Nation
Fort Recovery site manager Kim Rammel agreed. She said visitors have an appetite for more accurate history of the region presented by citizens of federally recognized sovereign nations.
鈥淭hey want to know both sides,鈥� Rammel said. 鈥淓very story has two sides and if you only hear one side, it makes you question, 鈥榃hat is the other perspective?鈥� There's always another perspective. It's not always comfortable. But so what? It's true.鈥�
One of Silverhorn鈥檚 main projects with the ODNR is developing Ohio鈥檚 76th state park outside of Xenia. It will be called and will include a Shawnee museum and interpretive center on the site of a former 18th century tribal village. The entire project has been designed with input from the three federally recognized Shawnee tribes that exist today. It鈥檚 set to open sometime next year.