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Miami - Oklahoma (U.S.)

Native American

image located by Ben Cahoon, 19 April 2018

The band
The flag
Former flag

See also:

The Band

map image by Peter Orenski based on input from Don Healy

Miami - Oklahoma

The Miami originally lived in the southern Great Lakes in the region that today comprises the states of Indiana and Ohio. By 1840 they had been pushed west of the Mississippi River in to what today is the State of Kansas. These lands were confiscated by the United States government and the Miami were moved to a small parcel of land in modern day Oklahoma.

Beginning in 1887, under a process called allotment, the remaining land of the Miami Nation was allotted to individual tribal members, thus eliminating any tribal homeland for the Tribe. Today, the Miami are without any reservation lands, any trust lands, but not without their culture or heritage (ENAT, 132-133). Many individuals of the Tribe still own private property within what used to be their final reservation.

The Flag

The current flag is white with a seal depicting a crane rising over a turtle on a yellow disk, surround by a white ring with the name, in turn surrounded by a four-colored ring black-yellow-blue-red. From the bottom of the seal hangs six black and white feathers and the name MIAMI NATION is written below in blue.

Former Flag

image by Luc Baronian, 28 May 2005

The former flag of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma is white. It bears the tribal seal in the center (Barbara Nichols, Asst. Librarian, Miami Tribe, letter dated Nov. 14, 1994). Actual flags repeat the Tribe's name underneath the seal in black letters. That seal is dark blue and bears the name of the Tribe in red stylized letters that simultaneously form two tepees (sample seal provided by the Miami Tribal HQ). Above this tepee motif is the Miami word "mamaque" which means "together". Below the tepee motif is the word "pehkokia" which means "peace". Both words appear in metallic gold. Circling the blue disc is a black band bearing the legend "The Great Seal of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma". The lettering for this is also metallic gold. Due to artistic license, the dark blue may range all the way to light blue, the metallic gold elements may appear as either yellow or white and a narrow white edging may separate the black ring from the blue central disc.

The origin of the Miami name may come from the Ojibwe word meaning "people of the peninsula", referring to their original midwestern homelands. One other possibility includes the Miami's own word for "pigeon". The Miami originally refereed to themselves by the term "Tightwees", which means "cry of the crane".

© Donald Healy 2008
information provided by Peter Orenski, 15 January 2008

I took a picture of this flag in Miami, Oklahoma during the Summer of 2001. The flag is white, 3:5, with the seal occupying 2/3 of the height of the flag and the words MIAMI TRIBE OF OKLAHOMA placed below the seal in black letters. Notice that some details are different from another image of the seal flag on a URL posted by Antonio Martins: www.eighttribes.org (no longer active). On this latter image, the blue of the seal is darker, the words "mamaque" and "pehkokia" appear in white instead of yellow, the logo consisting of two red tipis forming the letter M does not have an outline and is a little difference in style, the outer rim of the seal does not have yellow outlines and the wording on the outer rim forms a completed circle (the last word reaches the first).
Luc Baronian, 28 May 2005