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Offices within the Myaamia Center

The Myaamia Center includes several offices, with differing areas of focus and staff support.

Executive Director

The executive director is responsible for overseeing center operations, managing budgets, supporting the mission, planning and organizing, and overseeing fundraising.

In order to carry out these responsibilities, the Office of the Executive Director works with the collective talents and experiences of the following stakeholders:

Research and Development

Updates coming soon. 

Office Staff

Language Research

The mission of the Language Research Office is to further our level of knowledge of the Miami-Illinois language. The research undertaken by this office supplements the cultural and educational initiatives of the Myaamia Center, feeding directly into the language and cultural programs undertaken by the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma.

Research and Development

Miami-Illinois Digital Archive

A primary responsibility of the Language Research Office is updating and maintaining the online learner’s dictionary and the comprehensive Indigenous Languages Digital Archive (ILDA) database of the Myaamia language. This latter project entails the ongoing grammatical analysis and annotation of the data in the Jesuit Illinois dictionaries, as well as the digitization and eventual analysis of all later sources on the language. At present, the entirety of the eighteenth-century Illinois dictionaries of Largillier and LeBoullenger have been uploaded into ILDA, as well as about two thirds of Pinet’s Illinois dictionary. Of the nineteenth and twentieth century sources, all of Charles Trowbridge’s Myaamia language notes, Heckewelder’s Myaamia vocabulary, Truman Michelson’s Peoria fieldnotes, and the first of Albert Gatschet’s and Jacob Dunn’s Myaamia-Peoria field notebooks have been uploaded.

The purpose of this project is to make this vast amount of raw data maximally useful for both the Center’s language programs and linguistic research, and as such the ILDA database and the Language Research Office’s research are all freely kept available to the tribal and general public.

Grammatical research of Miami-Illinois

Moreover, the Language Research Office also makes the findings of its linguistic research accessible to the scholarly community, specifically to the field of Algonquian studies. This research will be made available in continued publications pertaining to aspects of the Miami-Illinois language, as well as public presentations at the annual Algonquian Conference. The current linguistic research goals of the Language Research Office include our ongoing study of the grammar of Miami-Illinois, including semantics, syntax, morphology and phonology, and the ways that those grammatical tools were (and are) used by speakers to make meaning in their lives.

The project of analyzing all the data in the original manuscripts as they are uploaded into ILDA is expected to continue for years to come.

Finally, the Language Research Office will make itself available to help or train any members of the Myaamia community who wish to learn the language more extensively or who wish to learn to do their own linguistic study of Miami-Illinois.

Office Staff

Education

The Education office develops educational models, materials, and programs that specifically address the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma’s language and culture educational needs. Key tribal programs that the Education Office assists in the development and implementation of are the Eewansaapita Summer Youth Educational Experience for 10-16 year-olds and the Aatotantaawi Book and Movie Club for citizens of the Miami Tribe.

The office also coordinates the Myaamia Heritage Program for Myaamia undergraduates at Miami University who attend the university with the support of the Myaamia Heritage Award. This program includes a three-course series on Contemporary Issues and Sovereignty, History and Cultural Ecology, Language and Culture, and concludes with a two-semester long senior project. The most recent examples of the Education Office’s work can be found on Aacimotaatiiyankwi: A Myaamia Community Blog.

The Education office works with the general Miami University community by visiting classrooms and collaborating with professors who incorporate Myaamia language and culture into their courses. Support is also provided for K-12 educators throughout the Midwest by making Myaamia educational materials available to public educators in a variety of ways. Examples of ongoing K-12 outreach are our collaboration with Dr. Stephanie Danker’s preservice teachers and with the Ohio History Connection on their fourth grade textbook: Ohio as America.

Current initiatives:

Research and Development

Saakaciweeta and Eewansaapita Curriculum Planning

Saakaciweeta (ages 6-9) and Eewansaapita (ages 10-16) are the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma's summer language and culture educational programs. They make use of core themes that rotate each year that also connect to tribal events throughout the year.

Telling Our Story: A Living History of the Myaamia

An interdisciplinary curriculum for 4th through 12th grades (public). This site in undergoing continued beta testing and is currently seeking to identify and respond to new educational needs related to Myaamia lifeways. This curriculum can be accessed at Teach Myaamia History.

keehkaapiišamenki: A History of the Allotment of Miami Lands in Indian Territory (Oklahoma)

Progress regarding the research and publications tied to this project can be found in Myaamia Center Publications.

šaapohkaayoni: A Myaamia Education Portal

The Šaapohkaayoni Education Portal was built to address the needs of the Myaamia community. Our community is widespread throughout the United States and Internationally, and traveling to access educational opportunities is not always feasible. This portal allows members of the Myaamia community to access educational opportunities from anywhere with Internet access.

These educational opportunities include self-directed learning modules, searchable learning resources, and the ability to sign up for synchronous and asynchronous programming.

Office Staff

Media and Technology

The Media and Technology Office develops the technological means by which research information and materials are distributed to the widespread Myaamia community. It also documents the Miami Tribe’s activities (through photography, videography, and publications of various formats) while assisting with the planning and execution of these activities.

Other ongoing projects include providing information technology support for the Myaamia Center and exploring technological aspects of language learning and culturally informative tools that indigenous people can use.

With such varied responsibilities and tasks, the Media and Technology Office interfaces with the other offices of the Myaamia Center and Miami Tribe of Oklahoma in many interesting and often unexpected ways.

Research and Development

Indigenous Languages Digital Archive (ILDA)

The ILDA project aims to create a digital archiving tool that can be used by indigenous communities working to revitalize their language and culture from documentation. The Myaamia Center continues to beta test this system with plans for a future release through the National Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous Languages.

In 2020, the Miami-Illinois Digital Archive (MIDA) was successfully adapted into the ILDA format, where it continues to be extensively used for research and analysis. 

Myaamia Dictionary

The Myaamia language learning tools are currently in a solid state of function and reliability, but our office continues to improve and enhance these resources. Myaamiaatawaakanki 'The Myaamia Dictionary' is a deployment of ILDA's dictionary capabilities and can be installed on most modern mobile devices and personal computers as a Progressive Web Application (PWA) or visited with any web browser at myaamiadictionary.org.

Distance Learning Support

The Office of Media and Technology works to provide equipment, staff support, and supplemental training to Myaamia Center staff and educators throughout the Myaamia community. This allows for engagement with learning audiences wherever they may be located. Resources such as educational videos and podcasts are produced by this effort and are used as supplemental content in community programs as well as on šaapohkaayoni 'the Myaamia Educational Portal'.

Myaamia Kiilhswaakani 'Myaamia Lunar Calendar'

The Myaamia Kiilhswaakani project is primarily managed by the Office of Media & Technology but is designed, edited, and distributed by an interdisciplinary group of staff from the Myaamia Center as well the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma Cultural Resources Office.

Myaamia Ethnobotanical Database

mahkihkiwa 'Myaamia ethnobotanical database' is a growing research-focused database of botantical knowledge gathered from tribal elders as well as modern and historical scholarly work. 

Office Staff

Miami Tribe Relations

Miami Tribe Relations advances Miami University’s educational partnership with the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. Neepwaantiinki, meaning "learning from each other" in the Myaamia language, aptly describes the foundation of this multi-layered reciprocal partnership.

The Miami Tribe Relations office serves in the following capacities:

  • Connection for potential Myaamia students interested in attending Miami University and ongoing individual and group support for Miami Tribe students at Miami University.
  • Support beyond graduation to Myaamia alumni, encouraging lifetime connections with both Miami University and the Miami Tribe.
  • Acting as a "gateway" for interested individuals to learn more about and/or associate with the Miami Tribe. The intentional plan is to monitor the activities that are in existence as well as any new initiatives that may evolve into future projects with the Miami Tribe.
  • Making the broader University campus aware and proud of the unique relationship with the Miami Tribe.

See Miami Tribe Relations to learn more about the history of the relationship between the Miami Tribe and the University, including resources for student programming and support and campus activities.

Research and Development

Project updates coming soon.

Office Staff

Assessment and Evaluation

The purpose of the Assessment and Evaluation Office is to observe, interpret, and document the impact of experiences among tribal citizens, especially the youth, who enter the Myaamia cultural learning environment. The Nipwaayoni Acquisition and Assessment Team (NAAT), created in 2012, is a specialized interdisciplinary team charged with developing assessment instruments that deepen our understanding of the community impact of language and cultural education.

Research and Development

Nahi Meehtohseeniwinki 'A Myaamia Living Well Model'

This project explores various facets of a Myaamia experience to better understand the meaning of nahi-meehtohseeniwinki ‘living well’ through the lens of Myaamia language and culture. This project seeks to provide guidance on (1) what it means for Myaamiaki to live well in the community today and (2) how to improve the process of nahi meehtohseeniwinki 'living well' for Myaamiaki.

Offices Investigating: Assessment & Evaluation, Education, Executive Director's Office

Office Staff

Contact the Myaamia Center

351 E. Spring St.
Bonham House, Miami University
Oxford, OH 45056
513-529-5648
Miami Tribe of Oklahoma Miami Tribe Relations National Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous Languages