Jean Baptiste Richardville

Jean Baptiste Richardville

Jean Baptiste de Richardville (c. 1761 – 13 August 1841), known as Pinšiwa in Miami (meaning Wildcat, also spelled Peshewa) and Joseph Richardville, was the last akima (civil chief) of the Miami people. He was a signatory to the Treaty of Greenville (1795) and later treaties with the United States through the Treaty of Mississinwas (1826). A fur trader who controlled an important portage connecting the Maumee River to the Little River, by his death in 1841 he was considered the wealthiest man in Indiana. He had acquired more than 20 square miles of property along the rivers.

In 1827 he completed construction of a treaty house partially funded by the United States. The Richardville House is the first in northeastern Indiana to be built in the Greek Revival style, the oldest Native American house in the state, and one of the few surviving treaty houses in the United States. It was designated in 2012 as a National Historic Landmark.