Minooteeni (Village) Park
Wabash Valley Progressives are creating a park at the north end of the Vincennes Riverwalk which will honor the Native Americans that lived in our area before us. We started this project to raise awareness about the indigenous people who lived in and were caretakers of the land before us (including this specific site), to assist indigenous people in their mission to preserve their languages, and to reimagine an underutilized public space into a welcoming, interpretive park. In consultation with the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, we settled on the name “minooteeni” which means “village” in the Myaamia language. Plans for the park include:
Interpretive signage about Native Americans who lived in the region
A nature playground with a water feature
A sample woodland Native American village
Native plantings around the site to emulate the vegetation around that time in history
