Pepikokia. An Algonquian tribe or
band mentioned in the latter part of the 17th century as a division of the
Miami. In 1718 both they and the
Piankashaw were mentioned as villages
of the Wea. That the relation between these
three groups was intimate is evident. They were located on the Wabash by
Chauvignerie (1736) and by other writers of the period. They are spoken of
in 1695 as Miamis of Maramek rivers, that is, the Kalamazoo. A letter
dated 1701 (Margry, Dec., iv, 592, 1880) indicates that they were at that
time in Wisconsin. Chauvignerie says that Wea, Piankashaw, and Pepikokia
"are the same nation, though in different villages," and that "the devices
of these Indians are the Serpent, the Deer, and the Small Acorn."
They were sometimes called Nation de la Gruë,
as though the crane was their totem. They disappear from history before
the middle of the 18th century and may have become incorporated in the
Piankashaw, whose principal village was on the Wabash at the junction of
the Vermilion.
