10/12/2026
Today we celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day. Stark County, Ohio was the historic homeland of several nations as early as the Paleoindian period (ca. 13,000-7,000 B.C.) One of the largest Paleoindian sites is located at Nobles Pond in Jackson Township. In the 1700s, nomadic and displaced nations migrated to the Ohio territory including the Lenape (Delaware), Shawnee, Wyandot, Miami, Ottawa, Seneca-Cayuga, Chippewa (Ojibwe), Potawatomi, and the Peoria tribes. The Sippo Valley, or the Plains of Sippo, were cultivated by the Delware nation several years before Thomas and Charity Rotch and James Duncan arrived to settle their communities of Kendal and Massillon. But the nation and its smaller tribes still used the area for hunting, fishing, and camping. This occasionally led to tense encounters, especially during the War of 1812. However, most interactions were peaceful and amounted to trading, hunting parties, and food exchanges. By the 1840s, through federal policies and often times coercive treaties, the remaining nations were forcibly removed to lands west of the Mississippi River. Today we recognize these nations as the first Americans and their rights of tribal sovereignty.
