Agouasaque

Agouasaque is a recorded name for the Wabash River, which flows through the homeland of the Piankashaw before joining the Ohio. The Piankashaw were a Miami-speaking people whose villages included settlements near the mouths of the Vermilion and Embarras rivers. French traders established a post beside the southern village, which became known as Vincennes.

In 1731 the French officer Vincennes brought some Piankashaw from the Vermilion to settle near his fort. Other families remained along the upper river or returned there. French traders and Piankashaw families also formed ties through marriage. The Piankashaw maintained ties with neighboring Wea communities as French, British and American claims to the Wabash valley changed. Their villages remained part of a river country connected by kinship, cultivation and trade.