Kekionga (meaning "blackberry bush"), also known as Kiskakon or Pacan's Village, was the capital of the Miami tribe. It was located at the confluence of the Saint Joseph and Saint Marys rivers to form the Maumee River on the western edge of the Great Black Swamp in present-day Indiana. Over their respective decades of influence from colonial times to after the American Revolution, French and Indian Wars, and the Northwest Indian Wars, the French, British and Americans all established trading posts and forts at the large village, originally known as Fort Miami, due to its key location on the portage connecting Lake Erie to the Wabash and Mississippi rivers. The European-American town of Fort Wayne, Indiana started as a settlement around the American Fort Wayne stockade after the War of 1812.
History
Long occupied by successive cultures of indigenous peoples, Kekionga was a large village of the Miami people at the time of European encounter; The largest village of its kind in the state of Indiana. Its name refers to the abundance of blackberries in the region, and was located in the most expansive brier patch in the state. Kekionga was naturally situated to be an important trading post for Europeans due to its location on the six-mile portage between the Maumee and Little rivers, which connected Lake Erie to the Wabash River and Mississippi River. Due to the mid-17th century French and Iroquois Wars over the fur trade, most traders believed the route was too dangerous. Following the wars, however, the portage proved to be the shortest route between the French colonies of New France (Canada) and La Louisiane. The area was full of wildlife as it had not been densely inhabited for years.
The Miami at first benefited from trade with the Europeans, who were primarily Canadiens from Quebec. Under Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes, the Canadiens established a trading post and fort, first at the St. Joseph River, and later at Kekionga. Vincennes and the Miami developed a strong and enduring friendship.
Kekionga remained a central site for the Miami for several decades; their other villages were more temporary. The large meeting house hosted official tribal councils. However, a smallpox epidemic struck Kekionga in 1733 and people evacuated the village for a year. In a speech at the Treaty of Greenville (1795), Little Turtle called Kekionga "that glorious gate ... through which all the good words of our chiefs had to pass from the north to the south, and from the east to the west."
Additionally, the village served as a gathering center for warrior natives of various tribes who engaged on the frontier. Approximately 26 war parties were known to have left the village throughout 1786. There is strong tradition and evidence to support that a secret society of prominent Miami warriors periodically met at the Miamitown to burn a captive and eat their flesh. There is additional information that for an extended period of time, the Shawnee would also torture captives here taken from southern Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. The site of this torture ground was allegedly located near the present day Columbia street bridge in Lakeside. This activity contributed to the outbreak of the Northwest Indian War.
Colonial period
British merchants, seeking to expand their economic base, convinced some Miami to travel East for trade, in violation of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. In 1749, the pro-British La Demoiselle left Kekionga to establish the English trading village of Pickawillany, which grew rapidly. Fighting between pro-French and pro-British villages broke out among the Miami in 1751, as tensions rose in the region. French officials tried to persuade the Miami to return to Kekionga, which was nearer their stronghold of Detroit and harder for the British to reach. Lieutenant Louis Coulon de Villiers was sent to the dilapidated Fort Miamis and given authority to commandeer French voyageurs to construct a new fort, which was finished in 1752. In the same year, the pro-French chief Cold Foot died at Kekionga in another smallpox epidemic. When the French-allied Three Fires Confederacy destroyed Pickawillany, most of the surviving Miami returned to Kekionga, which stopped assisting the French.