Michigamea (Algonquian: 'great water,'
from mlchi 'great,' 'much,' guma 'water'. Baraga
gives the correct form of 'Michigan' as Mishigamaw, 'the
big lake', while Dr Win. Jones says that the Chippewa of the
north shore of Lake Superior refer to Lake Michigan by the name
Mishawǐgŭma,
'big, wide, or expansive waste,' on account of the few or no
islands). A tribe of the Illinois
confederacy, first visited by Marquette when he descended the
Mississippi in 1673. Their village was situated at that time on
the west side of the Mississippi and near a lake bearing the
same name as the tribe, probably Big lake, between the St
Francis and Mississippi rivers, Arkansas. This tribe was the
most southerly of the confederacy, and its extreme southern
situation has led some authors to the conclusion that the people
were not Algonquian,
but this is an evident error. It must have been shortly previous
to the time that the first knowledge of the tribes of this
general region was obtained that a group or division of the
Illinois confederacy, including the Cahokia, Tamaroa, and
possibly the Michigamea, pushed southward to escape the attacks
of the Sioux and
the Foxes. It is therefore
probable that at this period the Michigamea moved on into south
Illinois, and thence passed over into south east Missouri. The
intimate relation of the ancient remains of these two sections
would seem to confirm this opinion. About the end of the 17th
century they were driven out by the
Quapaw or
Chickasaw,
crossing over into Illinois and joining the
Kaskaskia. According
to Chauvignerie their totem was the crane. He attributed to them
250 warriors, which is evidently an exaggeration, as he
estimated the whole Illinois confederacy at only 508 warriors.
It is probable that the Michigamea were only a remnant at the
time they joined the Kaskaskia. They were never prominent in
Indian affairs. In 1803 Gen. W. H. Harrison supposed that there
was but one man of the tribe left alive, but as late as 1818 the
names of 3 Michigamea appear as signers of a treaty with the
Illinois.
