Every November, Native American Heritage Month gives us a chance to pause and look more closely at the first and longest-running stories of this place we call home. We’re grateful to Howard County Historian Gil Porter, who has shared his research, documentation, and deep knowledge of Kokomo’s earliest history. What follows is shaped by years of work Gil has carefully preserved and by his generosity in taking the time to gather and share it with our community.

If you’ve lived in Kokomo for any length of time, you’ve probably heard pieces of our origin story. Maybe it was in school, maybe from a family member, maybe during a walk along the Wildcat.

But Native American Heritage Month is a good reminder that Kokomo’s story doesn’t start with a courthouse, a plat map, or even a county line. It starts much earlier and it’s a shared story.

Howard County Historian Gil Porter put it simply: the history of Kokomo, Indiana, is a shared history with the Miami Indians. And once you start looking at our community through that lens, you see it everywhere.

This Place Has Been Home for a Long, Long Time

Long before Kokomo had a name, Native families lived along the Wildcat Creek. Not for decades. Not for centuries. For at least 10,000 years.

That’s hard to wrap your mind around, but it’s also kind of grounding. The riverbanks that feel peaceful to us today were once the center of daily life for generations of families who hunted, fished, raised children, and built community here.

There’s even a specific spot west of Kokomo that helps this history feel real. About seven-and-a-half miles outside town, a seasonal Native hunting and fishing camp is marked on an 1838 U.S. government land survey plat. It’s a quiet reminder that long before anyone called this “settlement,” it was already a homeland.

Howard County Is Unique in Indiana

Here’s a fact that surprises a lot of people:

Every single inch of Howard County lies within the Great Miami Reserve.

That’s unique among counties in Indiana. Not “mostly.” Not “partly.” All of it.

It’s one of the clearest ways to understand that this land has always been connected to the Miami people — and that connection didn’t vanish when county borders were drawn. The land remembers.

Two Societies Met Here and Everything Changed

In the 1840s, two societies converged in this area. And in 1846, many Miami families were forcibly removed from their homeland here. Miami tribal government was moved to Oklahoma, and Howard County became Indiana’s last named county.

That’s how Kokomo became the last county seat in the state.

Even our city’s name points back to this shared history. Kokomo is a Miami-Illinois word of unknown meaning. We don’t know exactly what it meant then but we know where it comes from, and who was here first.

The Treaty That Still Shapes Kokomo Today

One of the most important events in our local history happened in October 1834, when U.S. representatives met with Miami leaders at the Forks of the Wabash in Huntington, Indiana.

That meeting led to the 1834 Treaty, which included the first land taken from the Miami tribe in what is now Howard County. Gil Porter notes that this treaty still matters deeply to Kokomo today because it shaped what this town would become.

One detail from that treaty feels especially close to home: the original version was signed by a man who was likely a head man of the Kokomo village at the Rapids of the Wildcat, an area that lines up with downtown Kokomo today.

His name, preserved on an early copy of the treaty, was written phonetically as Co-come-wah. He may have been the man Kokomo himself.

When you think about that, it puts a different kind of weight on street names and landmarks. These aren’t just place labels, they’re echoes of people and communities who lived here long before we did.

A Return to the Wildcat

Native American Heritage Month isn’t only about remembering what happened centuries ago. It’s also about seeing Native culture here and now.

In September 2023, Kokomo welcomed Native drums and dancing back to Foster Park during “Drums Along the Wildcat.” It was the first time in about 180 years that those traditions returned to that space in Kokomo — in Myaamionki, a Miami word meaning “Place of the Miami.”

It wasn’t a reenactment. It was living culture, in the present tense, in a place where it belongs.

“Kokomo Voices” Is Starting Now

And this month, another important project is beginning right here in our community.

The Kokomo Early History Learning Center has launched “Kokomo Voices,” a local storytelling project connected to America’s upcoming 250th anniversary in 2026. The project starts during Native American Heritage Month 2025 and will continue through next year.

The goal is simple and powerful: collect and preserve stories from people whose families have lived here for centuries including current Native tribal members in our community.

As Learning Center president Michael Moore said in last week’s announcement, our stories don’t begin in 1844 when the county was organized. They don’t begin in 1776. Native families have lived along the Wildcat for at least 10,000 years. And as Moore emphasized: “We’re still here.”

“Kokomo Voices” will be gathering stories digitally and building an archive for future research, so that today’s voices are part of tomorrow’s history.

Why We’re Sharing This

Native American Heritage Month matters everywhere but it matters especially here.

Because this isn’t “somewhere else” history. It’s Kokomo history. It’s Wildcat history. It’s Howard County history.

It’s written into the land under our feet, the water that runs through town, and even the mystery of the name we say every day.

And as we reflect on that this month, we’re able to share this fuller picture because people like Gil Porter have made the effort to preserve it. His research helps connect today’s Kokomo to the generations who lived here first, and his willingness to share that work allows all of us to learn more honestly and more completely.

So this month, we invite you to take a moment to reflect on the first stories of this place and to honor the Native people whose history here is ancient, enduring, and still unfolding.

Kokomo’s story is a shared story.
And it deserves to be told that way.

Native American Heritage Month: Remembering Kokomo’s First Stories