On Oct. 23, the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma added Akima Pinšiwa Awiiki, known in English as the Chief Richardville House, to the Miami Tribe’s own Tribal National Register of Historic Places. The move was tied to the bicentennial of the 1826 Treaty of Mississinewas. The Tribe and the Myaamia Heritage Foundation donated toward planned repair of the house’s historic back porch, the Tribe says. WOWO News/Talk reported that an Oct. 23 event hosted by the History Center marked the announcement.
That action is separate from the home’s federal recognition. The Miami Tribe says the house was placed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1997 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2012. A National Park Service database record lists the property at 5705 Bluffton Road and identifies 1827 as a significant year. The 2026 addition is the Miami Tribe’s own register entry, recognizing the site’s significance to Miami people.
The property’s treaty link is both historical and literal. According to the Miami Tribe, the 1826 Treaty of Mississinewas provided $600 toward a house for Miami leader Jean Baptiste de Richardville. Richardville added $1,600 of his own money. The house was completed in 1827 and became home to Richardville’s descendants for generations, the Tribe says.
Richardville served as principal chief of the Miami Nation from 1818 until his death in 1841. The Tribe describes him as a diplomat who spoke Miami, French and English and played a role in treaty negotiations with the United States during a period of increasing pressure on Indigenous lands. The National Park Service calls the house a rare treaty house in the United States and says it served as Richardville’s primary residence and the center of his work as a sovereign Miami leader.
The site is part of a wider story of political relationships. The National Park Service says Richardville’s leadership shaped the Old Northwest and helped the Miami maintain cultural identity as U.S. power expanded west. It says his treaties allowed more than half of the Miami people to remain in their traditional homeland after much of the territory was ceded. The service cites that history as part of the home’s national significance.
The Miami Tribe’s release says the house stands on high ground overlooking the St. Marys River, beside an important portage route. Under the 1818 Treaty of St. Marys, Richardville reserved the right to select five sections of fee-simple land in a location of his choosing. The Tribe says the area has long been associated with his Myaamia family and became an important political center for Myaamia people near Kiihkayonki, the Myaamia name for Fort Wayne.
The federal landmark nomination also drew on community scholarship. A National Park Service account by Michele Curran describes work with Fort Wayne historians and cultural heritage professionals from the Myaamia Project. The service credited their research and knowledge with helping bring Miami language and perspective into the nomination. That account shows how Miami cultural expertise helped inform the house’s national recognition.
Preservation work at the property has continued across decades. The Miami Tribe’s announcement says the Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society acquired the house in 1991 and has maintained it since. In 2016, the History Center reached out to the Tribe to discuss protecting the home; the Tribe contributed toward replacing its roof. The current donation toward porch repair extends that relationship, with the Myaamia Heritage Foundation participating.
The Oct. 23 announcement included a statement from Chief Douglas Lankford. He described the treaty’s 200th anniversary as an opportunity to reflect on Miami history and protect places connecting present and future generations to the Tribe’s ancestral homeland. He also thanked the History Center for its care of Akima Pinšiwa Awiiki.
The register addition pairs the Tribe’s recognition of its connection to the site with upkeep of the building. The Miami Tribe and the Myaamia Heritage Foundation contributed toward porch work, while the History Center maintains the property. The announcement places the new register record and preservation donation within a relationship extending back to 2016.
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