Historic Forks of the Wabash:
Where Cultures Met

There are numerous historic sites in the United States, but nearly all of them focus on a single culture.  Historic Forks of the Wabash is one of the few that deals with what happened when two quite different cultures met.  Those two cultures were the European/white culture and the Native American Indian, represented here at Forks by the Miami Nation.

Because we usually see others in the light of our own experience, we are more aware of the differences than of the similarities, but the two cultures had many things in common.  Human habitation, both in Europe and in the Americas, can be traced back many millennia, so both had ancient historical roots.  Sadly, both cultures had extensive experience with war, though Indian war was usually on a much smaller scale than European: war parties were more likely to number 20 or 30 rather than the thousands of men which European generals hurled at each other.  Both cultures learned to find what they needed in the environment around them, and both had to adapt to changing seasons and learn to fortify themselves against snow and sub-zero temperatures.  Both found  the decorative arts to be important in clothing, in shelter, and even in the utensils used in cooking and other routine activities.

Indian cultures varied widely across the continent, but we can make some generalizations about how they were different from Europeans.  Writing goes back at least three millennia in Europe, but few Native Americans developed writing until after contact with Europeans.  Indian languages were quite flexible and expressive, but their literature was oral.

In weaponry, Indians moved from spears to atlatls to the bow and arrow, each a significant technological advance over the previous system, but because they never learned to smelt metals or to make gunpowder, they never developed the powerful long-range weaponry of Europeans.  The Indians' lack of metal technology also meant they never developed iron utensils of any kind, from axes to cooking pots.

In Europe, the use of money as a medium of exchange goes back to well before the time of Christ.  Native Americans sometimes used shells or wampum as a medium of exchange, but the great majority of their transactions were based on barter.

Europeans learned to weave cloth.  Native Americans wove sashes and other small articles but did not enlarge that technology to cloth that could be used for clothing or shelter.

Individual Miami did not own land.  They expected a right of privacy in and around their wigwams, but that right moved as the wigwam moved.  Europeans demanded proof of ownership, which required well-defined property lines and legal chains of title.

Indians governed themselves much more democratically than Europeans.  Decisions involving villages or tribes were based on consultation and usually made by consensus.  Thus, the ability to persuade was of great importance for an Indian leader, whereas Europeans were much more inclined to base decisions on authority and impose them by force.

Indians quickly recognized the technological superiority of the European products.  They did not feel bound by traditional ways and were very willing to adopt and adapt better ideas wherever they found them.  They learned to use firearms and steel traps to take the furs they needed for trading, they replaced skin clothing with woven goods, and they moved out of their wigwams into log houses.

The advantage of the Europeans was primarily in the area of technology, but that technology gave them both a sense of superiority and the means to force their will on Native Americans.  Among other things, that sense of superiority allowed them to insist on the European understanding of land ownership and the use of money for economic exchanges, which left most Miami bewildered and easy prey to dishonest traders.

One great irony in this meeting of cultures was that the Miami Chiefs, particularly Richardville and Lafontaine, were well educated, politically astute, and very wealthy.  They were superior in every way to the rough, uncultured white men and women who first appeared on the frontier, but not even the chiefs had the political clout to keep their people from being overrun by the incoming white settlers.  In the end, the Miami had to adopt the ways of the white man, their culture surviving primarily in their hearts.