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Miami chief of the Mississinewa band · Also spelled Me-shin-go-me-sia
On the record
Meshingomesia was born about 1782 near the mouth of Josina Creek in present Wabash County, the eldest of ten children of the chief Me-to-cin-yah (Metocinyah), and succeeded his father as chief of his Mississinewa band. Whether he fought at the Battle of the Mississinewa in December 1812 is disputed in the sources themselves, and the dispute is carried here openly rather than settled. He married Te-Ke-Quah about 1815. When removal came in 1846, fifty-five members of his father's family were among the 126 Miami exempted, and Meshingomesia's band held its reserve on the Mississinewa. Contemporaries remembered him as temperate and prudent in business; he adopted white dress while keeping the Miami language, and in later years joined the Baptist church. He died 16 December 1879, owning 160 acres, and was buried in the Miami Indian Cemetery in Grant County.
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- § 06 — people of the record
Sources: History of Grant County (Brant & Fuller, 1886) via INGenWeb; Bureau of Indian Affairs acknowledgment petition summary; Anson, The Miami Indians.