This is another photo of the Nuck House.

This is the home of the man the Nuck’s worked for, Chief Francis Lafontaine. His name in Miami was Topeah, which is said to mean something like Frost on Leaves or Frost on Bushes.

This house, too, was moved from its original location. It was in the way of US-24 when that road was widened, and was moved here. US-24 runs right alongside the Forks of the Wabash, so it was not a distant move. The building still has much the same relationship to the terrain that it had at its original location.

Stewart Rafert’s book, “The Miami Indians of Indiana: A persistent people 1654-1994″ (1996) has some information about him. He was almost more a representative of the U.S. Indian Agent, who was working for Indian removal, than of his own people. The Miami people did not want to be removed, and they resisted his authority. “Lafontaine went west with the removal group and died suddenly in the spring of 1847 at Lafayette on his journey home from Kansas. Lafontaine’s death freed the village chiefs from further interference from the federal government and traders in Indiana. The Miami were able at last to maintain a tribal council form of government without a compromised chief.”