WEA LAND !
WEA, PIANKESHAW & EEL RIVER WEA VILLAGE SITES
By: Brenda K. Haffner-Lindley 1997/98; © 2000-2025
BEFORE 1718
The Wea Village of Le Gros, AKA The Great, was called by the Indians “Chippecoke” or Brushwood, the old village at Vincennes which was the principal home to the Piankeshaw Wea. The Piankeshaw are the Deer Band of the Wea Nation. Another ancient Piankeshaw village of this area was on the Vermillion of the Wabash. The Miami name of the Vermillion was Piankeshaw. The Weas two principal village of this time was near the mouth of the Eel River near Logansport, named Kenapacomaqua,which we shared with the Eel Rivers, and the largest was on the Wea Prairie which was called Ouiatenon located on the Wabash River in Lafayette Indiana.
“They have five villages which are all contiguous the one to the other. They are Oujatanon(Ouiatenon), Peanguichias (Piankeshaw), Petitscotias, Le Gros are four of them.”
1. Kenapacomaqua ----- 6 miles above Logansport IN. near mouth of Eel River.
2. Ouiatenon / Wea Plains ----- between Lafayette and Attica IN.
3. LeGros/Cippecoke ----- Vincennes.
4. Petitscotias
5. Is lost
WEA VILLAGES & LOCATIONS
1. Kenapacomaqua ----- On the west bank of the Eel River, near its mouth, about six miles above present day Logansport Indiana.
2. Kawiakiugi, Thorntown, Kowasikka ----- West and a bit north of present day Thorntown. Eel River Tribes Reservation.
3. Ouiatenon ----- Wabash River, present day South River Road, Lafayette Indiana.
4. Sugar Creek Village/Reserve ----- Sugar Creek, Indiana.
5. The Black Swamp ----- Region lying between Kirklin and the village of Boxley on the Strawtown Road.
6. Weauteno, Orchard Town, Lower Wea Town ----- Wabash River, present day Terre Haute Indiana.
7. Upper Wea Village/Town ----- 2 miles above Orchard Town, right by Fort Harrison.
8. Reservation Area ----- St. Genevieve Missouri near Blackwater Fork.
9. Old Wea Town ----- North side of the prairie, between Terre Haute and Vincennes.
10. Wea Reservation ----- Western Parke County, Indiana.
11. Ancient Wea Village, Oakhill ----- Near Vermilion Salines, 4 miles west of present day Danville, Illinois.
12. Old Indian Village Reservation ----- Pennville, Indiana.
13. Kankakee Marsh area ----- ??
14. LeGros, Chippecoke ----- Piankeshaw, Vincennes, Indiana.
15.Petitscotias ----- ??
16. One of the original 5 Wea Village sites in Indiana is now lost.
17. Reservation ----- On 250 sections of land in the northeast part of present day Miami County, Indiana. ca. 1827 / Wea & Piankeshaw placed here after they took our Reserve in Parke County.
18. Reservation ----- Kansas, east of the Peoria and Kaskaskia Tribes.
19. Reservation, Confederated Peoria Tribe ----- Miami County Kansas.
OTHER WEA SITES OF HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE
Jacko Godfroy, father of Wea Chief Jacco Tackeketah Godfroy, also had a Trading Post at Fort Ouiatenon.
1827 - Town of LaGrange. Cicott’s Trading House was about 6 miles below LaGrange. Now Independance, Warren County Indiana.
The Piquah Village was located near Dayton, Ohio and was part of Eel River Chief Little Turtle’s Band. Many Wea and others resided at this village.
Jacko Godfroy, Wea Chief Jacco's father, lived in the Old Wea & Eel River Village of Kenapekamekonga (Kenapacomaqua) on the Eel River, 6 miles above present day Logansport, Indiana. He traded here from the years of 1775-1791.
Shenooenish, aka The Solider & Little Charlie, was Chief of the Thorntown Band of Wea & Eel River Indians. Their Village of Kawiakiugi “Place of Thorns” was located near present day Thorntown, Boone County, Indiana.
In the Kankakee Marsh area where the Wea lived there were sand hills covered with Oak stands, or islands all around.
In Pennville Indiana there was an old Indian Village Reservation and Wea Chief Jacco Godfroy lived there for a time.
The ancient Wea Village of Vermillion Illinois is now called Oakhill, which is near Danville, Illinois. It is said that the Ancient Wea Village was the home of Jacco and Mary Godfroy’s mother’s people, Nancy MorningStar Hunter.
Weauteno, aka Orchard Town, Located in Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana.
Sugar Creek Wea Village was the site of Wea Chief Stone Eater’s town in Parke County, Indiana. Stone Eater was Chief Jacco's War Chief.
Wea Chiefs Jacco, the Swan, Stone Eater, and the Bull’s Village territories ranged from below Weauteno (Orchard Town) to the Shawnee Prairie, over to Thorntown, and up to Ouiatenon near present day Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, Indiana.
Fort Harrison was built up the river from Orchard Town about 2 miles at the site of another Wea Village (near Terre Haute). These two Wea villages were known also by the name of the “Upper Wea Village” and the “Lower Wea Village.”
The big Wea Reservation in 1818 was located in today’s Parke County, Indiana.
There was a third Wea Village known as the “Old Wea Town” on the north side of the prairie between Terre Haute and Vincennes Indiana.
Jacco Godfroy signed 2 Treaties in Ohio as a Wea Chief and was granted land in what was called the “BLACK SWAMP.” The Black Swamp was a desolate place, full of moisture and disease in a region lying between Kirklin and the village of Boxley on the Strawtown Road Indiana.
The Eel River Tribes Reservation was called the “Place of Thorns,” located in present day Thorntown, Boone County, Indiana. The Thorntown Wea & Eel River were known as the “Kowasikka.” The Wea & Eel River also had a village named Kenapacomaqua on the west bank of the Eel River, near its mouth about six miles above present day Logansport Indiana.
TO LEARN MUCH MORE SEE THE BOOK
BOOK for SALE
The Godfroy’s: Wea & Miami Indians & Their French Families; A History & Genealogy Throughout Time. Volume-II History – 2014
The work above with much more added information, including additional chiefs, times and locations, will be contained in my upcoming “Volume-II History” book
See above link for the book NOW IN PRINT & FOR SALE 2014
This is one of several pieces of my work that have recently (2005'ish) been the victim of a plagiarist, aka a copyright infringer. Unfortunately, I was kind and generous enough to share some of my work with certain distant family members, before it was completely finished or published, who took extreme advantage of the situation and fraudulently published my material on their “new” 2004 Internet webpage. Since I have discovered that my work was published without my knowledge or permission and before it was available to the public, I have decided I might as well “also” put my own hard work, which has taken over ten (10) years of research time, on the Internet as well.
Of the below sources I have used a few in my research. Many more of my references were from historic out-of-print books or government archival documents. I wanted to present to you sources that you could easily reach and study, and what better way than the Internet itself. It is our hope that you will not only learn of our Ancestors’ time and their culture, but eventually come to know and love our People the Waayaahtanwa (Wea).
© 1997-2025
For information on Copyrights & Infringement SEE:
Website & Photo © Copyright Laws
COPYRIGHT NOTICE – SEE HOMEPAGE
POTAWATOMI HISTORY
Ouiatenon History, TCHA
FORT OUIATENON - A FRENCH & INDIAN HISTORY
Ouiatenon - Henry Hamilton’s Journal
Ouiatenon - William Henry Harrison and the West
Wea Indian Orchard Town Burial Ground – Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana
Kenapacomaqua - Indiana Indian Tribes
Kenapacomaqua Wea Village - American State Papers
Petitscotias A Wea Band
Brouillette’s Old French House
Kowasikka A Wea/Eel River Village - Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin
The Great Black Swamp
Eyes on the Wabash; A History of Indiana's Indian People from Pre-contact
THE HISTORY EARLY TERRE HAUTE 1816 TO 1840; BY BLACKFORD CONDIT, D.D.
Wea Chief Jacco Tackeketah Godfroy's Genealogy; By: Brenda Haffner-Lindley
Kenapacomaqua - American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and.., Part 2, Volume 1
Petitscotias A Wea Band – Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico
Chippecoke Piankeshaw Wea Village - History of Vermillion County Illinois; Chapter III
Chippecoke - The government of the people of the state of Indiana; Rawles, William A.; 1863–1936
The Great Black Swamp Photos & Maps
Glenn Black Laboratory of Archaeology
Indiana University of Indianapolis – Historical Archaeology
