Preserving a Native Language and Culture: At first glance, Miami University in southwestern Ohio seems an unlikely spot for a major American Indian language and cultural preservation and revitalization project. There are no reservations in the state, nor is there a significant American Indian population.
By the 1850s most of the remaining Ohio tribes were removed to reservations west of the Mississippi River, joining others who were forced from their lands by the great sweep of the Indian Removal Act. The law was enacted in response to European Americans’ demand for the fertile lands occupied by many tribes east of the Mississippi River. American Indians comprise 0.3 percent of the Ohio population, numbering a bit over 11,000 people, according to the Census Bureau.
