Wea Indians

The Wea were a Miami-Illinois-speaking Native American tribe originally located in western Indiana, closely related to the Miami Tribe. The name Wea is used today as the a shortened version of their numerous recorded names. The Wea name for themselves (autonym) in their own language is waayaahtanwa, derived from waayaahtanonki, 'place of the whirlpool', their name where they were first recorded being seen and is where they were living at that time. The different spellings of their name is numerous, as they were made by different settlers from different language and educational backgrounds. One French version is Ouiatenon; another Ouiateno; there were Wea villages, whose sites are now known as Lafayette and Terre Haute, Indiana, respectively. In 2004 the Indiana Historical Bureau installed a marker commemorating the Wea Village in Terre Haute and its living descendants. The Wea spoke a dialect of Miami, the same language as the Miami Tribe, both from the Algonquian languages.

When the Wea had increased considerably in numbers at their village of Ouiatenon, near present-day Lafayette, Indiana, Piankeshaw offered to move and take part of the people with him further downriver to start a new village, which he established near the mouth of the Vermilion River. He had tribal markings of holes or slits in his ears, and he was called Piankeshaw ("the Torn-Ears People"). The Piankeshaw were the Deer Clan of the Wea.

During the 19th century the Miami, Wea, Eel River and Piankashaw all occupied areas of Indiana. These tribes all signed treaties separately with the United States government and were considered to be distinct polities.

The Wea also had villages in present-day Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ohio. Their main homeland in the 18th century was in Indiana, as well as a few villages in Illinois and Ohio. The three largest villages of the Wea were Fort Ouiatenon, west of what is now Lafayette; a location now occupied by Terre Haute, and Chipicokia, at present-day Vincennes (founded by French Canadian colonists.), Indiana.

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