“We’re not just a part of the past”: Indiana Dunes trail honors Miami and Potawatomi cultures

Before trailgoers walk through the Indiana Dunes National Park, a plaque by the visitor’s center introduces them to a layer of history they might have otherwise missed.

“As you walk along these trails, remember the ancestors—those who made this place their home and still have ties here,” it reads.

Less than an hour from Chicago in northwestern Indiana, the park is located on the ancestral land of several Indigenous peoples, including the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi.

“I think oftentimes in the broader public imagination, native peoples are a part of an almost mythical past,” says Logan York, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma.

“We’re not just a part of the past. We’re people with a past, but we’re still very much around, and we’re still just as Miami as we were 200 years ago,” York adds.

With the goal of creating an educational trail that honors the past, present and future of the Potawatomi and Miami peoples, the two tribes collaborated with Indiana Dunes Tourism and the national park to create the Indiana Dunes Indigenous Cultural Trail.

The groups started working together around 2017. They raised over half a million dollars through grants, donations and crowdfunding. The first phase of the trail was completed in 2023, with developments still underway.

For York, who helped plan and design the cultural trail, preserving and using the Miami language is essential to keeping Miami culture alive.

The 20 acre trail features signs written in English, Potawatomi and Miami. “We need people to understand that we still use our language,” says York, calling it “the glue that holds the whole culture together.” Most tree names along the tree trail are also shown in the three languages.

The Miami word for the American Elm, for example, is Pahkokwanisi. The tree is a key material for basketry as well as siding for bark-covered lodges. Other trees along the trail, such as the Eastern Cottonwood Tree, or Maaloonseentia in Miami, were used to make dugout canoes.

They also used the trail to highlight the cultural importance of storytelling, ceremonies and educational events with a fire pit which features designs found in Miami ribbonwork. “It’s a place for tribal citizens to actually gather around in such a beautiful place. But I also very much think it is a public space. The Indiana Dunes are meant to be shared by everyone,” York says.

A fire pit which features designs found in Miami ribbonwork is featured along the trail. [Credit: Smith Donovan]

The fire pit is meant to serve as a communal space for storytelling, ceremonies, and educational events. [Credit: Smith Donovan]

Limestone snapping turtle sculptures are a key feature on the cultural trail. The two large turtles’ shells have Indigenous calendar designs on them. Bmejwen Kyle Malott, advanced language specialist with the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, created the calendar designs for the turtles.

“In Potawatomi culture, there are 13 months, not 12, because there are 13 full moons in a year. And so each one of those moons depicts a new phase throughout the year, and each one of those moons tells us what we’re supposed to be doing during those times of year,” he explains.

Limestone snapping turtle sculptures are a key feature of the cultural trail, depicting the Potawatomi lunar calendar. [Credit: Julie Zenderoudi]

The Potawatomi lunar calendar is based on the 13 full moon phases. Depicted on a turtle shell, the months are named after a connection with the earth and nature that occurs in that time period. [Credit: Julie Zenderoudi]

Protecting native plants

Beyond the art that brings awareness to Miami and Potawatomi Cultures, this region has a unique array of fauna. The Indiana Dunes National Park is made up of converging ecosystems, from beaches and prairies to wetlands and savannas. But because the dunes are an edge habitat — where one ecosystem meets another — invasive species are a threat to native plants like mnomen, also known as wild rice.

Mnomen, which translates to “the good berry,” is culturally significant to the Potawatomi. “It’s directly tied to the migration story and why the different tribes actually were brought to this Great Lakes region,” says Jennifer Kanine, director of the Department of Natural Resources for the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi.

In addition to invasive species, mnomen faces another distinct threat: coal-fired power plants and industrial steel mills that are embedded within the national park.

A 2024 case study by the National Parks Conservation Association found that air pollution from such plants and mills left the park particularly vulnerable to invasive species. That’s because excess pollutants in an ecosystem can lead to overgrowth of harmful organisms, causing invasive plants to spread and risk reducing the natural biodiversity.

Kanine, along with the Pokagon Band Kowabdanawa odë kė team and National Park Service staff, are working to protect mnomen by combating the invasive species that can outcompete it, harvesting mnomen grains and planting them in suitable locations within the park.

Prescribed fires are another way to address the issue, and there were eight scheduled this past spring. According to the National Park Service, prescribed fires at Indiana Dunes are an essential element in the park’s long-term natural resources restoration goals, which includes removing invasive species.

As for the cultural trail, it is not yet complete, with plans to extend it onto adjacent lands. York hopes that with the expansion, other national parks will be inspired to collaborate with their local Indigenous tribes, using their past to guide the future.

“We use our past as a scaffolding for our future. We’re not trying to be like we were in the past, but we’re trying to learn as much as we can from our past to better inform our future and better protect our future.”