Finding Aid, Miami Occupation of the Upper Wabash Drainage 1984

In 1983, Ball State University submitted a draft proposal to the Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources for a Department of the Interior Survey and Planning Grant. The proposal requested funds to formulate an ethnohistoric study unit for the Miami Indian occupation of the Upper Wabash drainage in central Indiana. The proposed project was to be carried out by William R. Wepler in four stages: study unit construction, background research, field reconnaissance, and laboratory analysis and report preparation.
This investigation focused on the occupation and utilization of the Upper Wabash drainage by the Miami during the period beginning with contact with Europeans (ca. 1650) and ending with the partition of the last tribally owned lands within the state of Indiana in 1873; the primary focus of the project is on the era between 1795 and 1881. This project is a direct outgrowth of several ethnohistorical and archaeological studies conducted within the Upper Wabash drainage. The most pressing concern to emerge was the need for identification and conservation of a resource base rapidly being depleted due to expansion of urban centers, agricultural cultivation and erosion.
The development of a preliminary ethnohistoric study unit for the Miami occupation of the Upper Wabash drainage was accomplished. In addition, the potential for further development of the study unit was explored, particularly in terms of identifying the types of sites likely to be encountered and the locations of a sample of the site types. From the information compiled, it was determined that there was a wealth of data available and that the resources contained within the study unit need to be approached through a systematic program of identification, evaluation, and preservation (Wepler 1984).