Ohio University Helps Miami Tribe Preserve its History - Higher Education

Ohio University Helps Miami Tribe Preserve its History - Higher Education: CINCINNATI – A southwestern Ohio university is working to preserve 19th century land grant documents recently recovered by the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma that mark the tribe’s transition from collectively-held land to individual ownership as it tried—and mostly failed—to avoid government relocation.

Miami University’s preservation work on the eight land grants—one signed in 1823 by President James Monroe and seven signed in 1843 by President John Tyler—stems from a long collaborative relationship between the tribe and university. That relationship led to the creation several years ago of the university’s Myaamia Center, which helps the tribe with research needs.

Tribe member George Ironstrack, the center’s assistant director, says the grants found in storage at a Catholic diocese in Indiana are historically important because they show tribe members trying to secure a land base for their families. He says the grants were promised in treaties that increasingly required the tribe to give up large amounts of land sought by the government and others.