FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) – The Chief Richardville House, built in 1827, is the oldest house in Fort Wayne and is a testament to both American history and the enduring presence of the Miami Tribe in northeast Indiana.
“Many of the decisions that impacted our people were made in this home, including the removal treaty in 1840, and that removal treaty moved our government first to Kansas, but today, Oklahoma,” said Jared Nally, deputy tribal historic preservation officer for the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma.
Jean Baptiste de Richardville was born in 1761 in the Miami village of Kekionga, known today as Fort Wayne. By the 1790s, he and his mother Tacumwa controlled the portage that connected the Maumee, St. Joe, and St. Marys Rivers in Fort Wayne to the Wabash River, creating a commerce pathway connecting Canada to the Gulf of Mexico…