Pepikokia Indians, Nation de la Gruë. An Algonquian tribe or band mentioned in the latter part of the 17th century as a division of the Miami. In 1718 both they and the Piankashaw were mentioned as villages of the Wea. That the relation between these three groups was intimate is evident. They were located on the Wabash by Chauvignerie (1736) and by other writers of the period. They are spoken of in 1695 as Miamis of Maramek rivers, that is, the Kalamazoo. A letter dated 1701 1 indicates that they were at that time in Wisconsin. Chauvignerie says that Wea, Piankashaw, and Pepikokia “are the same nation, though in different villages,” and that “the devices of these Indians are the Serpent, the Deer, and the Small Acorn.”
The Pepikokia Indians were sometimes called Nation de la Gruë, as though the crane was their totem. They disappear from history before the middle of the 18th century and may have become incorporated in the Piankashaw, whose principal village was on the Wabash at the junction of the Vermilion.
Citations:
- Margry, Dec., iv, 592, 1880[↩]