Ohio history centers are increasingly including Indigenous voices in their programming.
Tours and exhibits at the Fort Recovery Museum in Mercer County historically focused on violent battles between the United States and Indigenous nations in the seventeen hundreds.
The Beyond the Battlefield event was different. Miami, Shawnee and Wyandotte citizens shared their perspective on the battles that took place there but also spoke about things like their tribe’s modern day culture and economic development initiatives.
Josh Garcia is a citizen of the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma.
"Whenever you look at people groups on Google, we're the only people that will most likely pull up in black and white photos. So people still think we're living in the past, which is kind of a hard concept to deconstruct."
Ohio’s newest state park outside of Xenia in southwest Ohio will be called Great Council and will include a Shawnee museum and interpretive center on the site of a former 18th century village. It’s set to open sometime next year.