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!
Ducoigne, Jean Baptiste. A Kaskaskia chief at the
beginning of the 19th century, noted mainly for his firm adherence to the United
States and friendship for the whites. Reynolds (Pion. Hist., in, 22, 1887)
describes him as a cunning half-blood of considerable talent. In his Memoirs,
Gen. W. H. Harrison, who had dealings with Ducoigne, speaks of him as "a
gentlemanly man, by no means addicted to drink, and possessing a very strong
inclination to live like a white man; indeed has done so as far as his means
would allow." Writing to the Secretary of War, he says: "Ducoigne's long and
well-proved friendship for the United States has gained him the hatred of all
the other chiefs and ought to be an inducement with us to provide as well for
his happiness, as for his safety." According to Reynolds, Ducoigne asserted that
neither he nor his people had shed the blood of white men. He was a signer of
the
treaties of Vincennes, Aug. 7 and 13, 1803; by the latter the United States
agreed to build a house and in close 100 acres of land for him. He had two sons,
Louis and Jefferson, and a daughter, Ellen, who married a white man and in 1850
was living in Indian Ter. The name of Louis appears on be half of the Kaskaskia
in the
treaty of Edwardsville, Ill., Sept. 25, 1818. Ducoigne's death probably
occurred shortly before Oct., 1832, as it is stated in the
treaty at Castor Hill, of that date, that there should be reserved "to Ellen
Ducoigne, the daughter of their late chief," a certain tract of land. The name
is perpetuated in that of the town of Duquoin, Perry co., Ill. (C. T.)
This site
includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These
items are presented as part of the historical record and should not be
interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes
implied .
Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Frederick Webb Hodge, 1906
