While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Illinois (Iliniwek, front ilini 'man',
iw 'is', ek plural termination, changed by the French to
ois). A confederacy of Algonquian tribes, formerly occupying south
Wisconsin, northern Illinois, and sections of Iowa and Missouri,
comprising the Cahokia, Kaskaskia, Michigamea, Moingwena, Peoria, and
Tamaroa.
The Jesuit Relation for 1660 represents them as living
southwest of Green Bay, Wis., in 60 villages, and gives an extravagant
estimate of the population, 20,000 men, or 70,000 souls. The statement in
the Jesuit Relations that they came from the border of a great sea in the
far west arose, no doubt (as Tailhan suggests), from a misunderstanding of
the term "great water," given by the Indians, Which in fact referred to
the Mississippi. Their exact location when first heard of by the whites
can not he determined with certainty, as the tribes and bands were more or
less scattered over southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, and along the
west bank of the Mississippi as far south as Des Moines river, Iowa. The
whites first carne in actual contact with them (unless it be true that
Nicollet visited them) at La Pointe (Shaugawaumikong), where Allouez met a
party in 1667, which was visiting that point for purposes of trade. In
1670 the sane priest found a number of them at the Mascoutin village on
upper Fox river, some 9 miles from where Portage City now stands, but this
band then contemplated joining their brethren on the Mississippi. The
conflicting statements regarding the number of their villages at this
period and the indefiniteness as to localities render it difficult to
reach a satisfactory conclusion on these points. It appears that some
villages were situated on the west side of the Mississippi, in what is now
Iowa, yet the major portion of the tribes belonging to the confederacy
resided at points in northern Illinois, chiefly on Illinois, river. When
Marquette journeyed down the Mississippi in 1673 he found the Peoria and
Moingwena on the west side, about the mouth of Des Moines river. On his
return, 2 months later, he found them on Illinois river, near the present
city of Peoria. Thence he passed north to the village of Kaskaskia, then
on upper Illinois river, within the present Lasalle county. At this time
the village consisted of 74cabins and was occupied by one tribe only.
Hennepin estimated them, about l680, at 400 houses and 1,800 warriors, or
about 6, 500 souls. A few years later (1690-94) missionaries reported it
to consist of 350 cabins, occupied by 8 tribes or bands. Father Sebastian
Rasles, who visited the village in 1692, placed the number of cabins at
300, each of 4 "fires," with 2 families to a fire, indicating a population
of about 9,000 perhaps an excessive estimate. The evidence, however,
indicates that a large part of the confederacy was gathered at this point
for awhile. The Kaskaskia at this time were in somewhat intimate relation
with the Peoria, since Gravier, who returned to their village in 1700,
says he found them preparing to starts., and believed that if he could
have arrived sooner "the Kaskaskians would not thus have separated from
the Peouaroua [Peoria] and other Illinois." By his persuasion they were
induced to stop in south Illinois at the point to which their name was
given.
The Cahokia and Tamaroa were at this time living at
their historic seats on the Mississippi in south Illinois. The Illinois
were almost constantly harassed by the Sioux,
Foxes, and other northern tribes; it was
probably on this account that they concentrated, about the time of La
Salle's visit, on Illinois river. About the same time the Iroquois waged
war against them, which lasted several year, and greatly reduced their
numbers, while liquor obtained from the French tended still further to
weaken them. About the year 1750 they were still estimated at from 1,500
to 2,000 souls.
The murder of the celebrated chief
Pontiac, by a Kaskaskia Indian,
about 1769, provoked the vengeance of the Lake tribes on the Illinois, and
a war of extermination was begun which, in a few years, reduced them to a
mere handful, who took refuge with the French settlers at Kaskaskia, while
the Sauk, Foxes, Kickapoo, and
Potawatomi took
possession of their country. In 1778 the Kaskaskia still numbered 210,
living in a village 3 miles north of Kaskaskia, while the Peoria and
Michigamea together numbered 170 on the Mississippi, a few miles farther
up. Both bands had become demoralized and generally worthless through the
use of liquor. In 1800 there were only about 150 left. In 1833 the
survivors, represented by the Kaskaskia and Peoria, sold their lands in
Illinois and removed west of the Mississippi, and are now in the northeast
corner of Oklahoma, consolidated with the
Wea and Piankashaw. In
1885 the consolidated Peoria, Kaskaskia, Wea, and Piankashaw numbered but
149, and even these are much mixed with white blood. In 1905 their number
was 195.
Nothing definite is known of their tribal divisions or
clans. In 1736, according to Chauvignerie (N. Y. Doc. Col. Hist., ix,
1056-1855), the totem of the Kaskaskia was a feather of an arrow, notched,
or two arrows fixed like a St Andrew's cross; while the Illinois as a
whole had the crane, bear, white hind, fork, and tortoise totems.
In addition to the principal tribes or divisions above
mentioned, the following are given by early writers as seemingly belonging
to the Illinois: Albivi, Amonokoa, Chepoussa, Chinko, Coiracoentanon,
Espeminkia, and Tapouara. In general their villages bore the names of the
tribes occupying them, and were constantly varying in number and shifting
in location.
The Illinois are described by early writers as tall and
robust, with pleasant visages. The descriptions of their character given
by the early missionaries differ widely, but altogether they appear to
have been timid, easily driven from their homes by their enemies, fickle,
and treacherous. They were counted excellent archers, and, besides the
bow, used in war a kind of lance and a wooden club. Polygamy was common
among them, a man sometimes taking several sisters as wives.
Unfaithfulness of a wife was punished, as among the
Miami, the Sioux, the
Apache, and other tribes, by
cutting off the nose of the offending woman, and as the men were very
jealous, this punishment was often inflicted on mere suspicion.
It was not the custom of the Illinois, at the time the
whites first became acquainted with them, to bury their dead. The body was
wrapped in skins and attached by the feet and head to trees. There is
reason, however, to believe, from discoveries that have been made in
mounds and ancient graves, which appear to be attributable to some of the
Illinois tribes, that the skeletons, after the flesh had rotted away, were
buried, often in rude stone sepulchers. Prisoners of war were usually sold
to other tribes.
According to Hennepin, the cabins of the more northerly
tribes were made like long arbors and covered with double mats of flat
flags or rushes, so well sewed that they were never penetrated by wind,
snow, or rain. To each cabin were 4 or 5 fires, and to each fire 2
families, indicating that each dwelling housed some 8 or 10 families.
Their towns were not inclosed.
The villages of the confederacy noted in history are:
Cahokia (mission)
Immaculate Conception (mission)
Kaskaskia
Matchinkoa
Moingwena
Peoria
Pimitoui
