Wapinippi

Wapinippi is a Miami-Illinois name associated with the White River, which winds through wooded valleys towards the Wabash River. In the late eighteenth century Lenape people displaced from eastern homelands established communities along its banks. Their villages became centres of a new homeland, connected to the Miami and other neighboring peoples.

In 1818 Delaware leaders signed a treaty at Saint Mary's ceding their claims to lands in Indiana to the United States. In return, the treaty promised them a country west of the Mississippi. They were allowed three years to leave, and many made the journey west. The agreement opened much of the White River country to American settlement, profoundly altering the communities that had made their homes along its course.