CINCINNATI — Two new historical markers honoring the Wyandot Removal Trail will be dedicated on Indigenous People’s Day, Monday, Oct. 12, in Lebanon and North Bend.
The markers acknowledge the last tribal nation removed from Ohio. Rebecca Wingo, the University of Cincinnati’s director of public history, said the Wyandot people were removed in 1843, marching from Upper Sandusky to Cincinnati before boarding steamboats bound for Kansas Territory.
“It was a huge procession,” Wingo said, describing 664 people, a couple hundred wagons and a couple hundred horses making the journey. Wingo and her graduate students worked with the Wyandotte Nation — the tribe’s current name — to create 15 markers commemorating the removal trail.
The Lebanon marker will note that hundreds of people lined the trail to watch as the Wyandot nation passed. Wingo said the crowds were mixed: some spectators were eager to claim newly vacated land, while others were sad to see Ohio’s last tribal nation go, and some poked, prodded and stole from tribal members as they proceeded.
The North Bend marker commemorates a moment of silence the Wyandots held as they passed the tomb of William Henry Harrison. Principal Chief Henry Jacquis asked the steamboat captain to cut the engines so the nation could pay tribute to the general many of them had fought alongside in the War of 1812.
Both dedications take place Monday. The project gives the removal trail a lasting public presence along the route the Wyandot people were forced to travel more than 180 years ago.
