The Piankashaw Indians were a former subtribe of the Miami and
are no longer extant. Their name was a Miami term that possibly
meant "those who separated and formed a tribe." Reportedly, only
nine surviving Piankashaw resided in Oklahoma in 1937. They were
the children and grandchildren of George Washington Finley, the
last Piankashaw chieftain. Today their descendants are members
of the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. The Piankashaw were
an Algonquian-speaking people. Europeans first reported them in
1682 along the upper Illinois River in Illinois. They
subsequently moved into Wisconsin, where some crossed the
Mississippi River. Most, however, returned to the upper Illinois
by 1700. Little is known about their culture. Principal
Piankashaw settlements were located near the confluence of the
Vermilion and Wabash rivers in present Vermilion County,
Indiana, and at the French fur trading outpost of Vincennes
(present Vincennes in Knox County, Indiana). Piankashaw
loyalties fluctuated between the French and