The Illiniwek

In the 1600's the territory of the Illini Confederacy, a tribal group composed of twelve or thirteen allied tribes, covered areas that are now part of four states, including the region where St. Louis was founded in 1764. By the early 1800's, when treaties with the United States ultimately moved them away from their homeland, their population had dwindled to less than 200 people. Who were the Illiniwek people, and what brought about their swift decline?
The Illiniwek were hunters and gatherers, farmers, warriors, and traders. In the Algonkin tongue ilini means "man" and iw means "is". "When one speaks the word 'Illinois,'" said the explorer Jacques Marquette, "it is as if one said in their language, 'the men',... As if the other [Indians] were looked upon by them merely as animals." According to the present day Peoria Indian tribe of Oklahoma, Illinois means "tribe of superior men". The Illini dialect was similar to that of the Miami, and closely related to the Chippewa (Ojibway), Potawatomi, and Kickapoo.

The Illini lifestyle flowed around a clearly defined a yearly cycle. Each April they returned to their semi-permanent villages of elm bark or reed-mat covered lodges, and at the beginning of May women planted crops of maize (corn), beans, and squash, sunflowers and melons (after obtaining seeds from the Europeans). The women also gathered firewood and wild foods such as nuts (hickory, black walnuts, butternuts, hazelnuts, pecans, and acorns), fruit (wild strawberries, papaws, grapes, and plums), roots and tubers (swan-potato, groundnut, wild lotus, and yellow pond lily, which they called macoupin), and plants for beverages (sumac, wintergreen, leatherleaf, and sassafras). June signaled the time for the annual buffalo hunt to the west of the Mississippi. During the six-week hunt the women performed most of the butchering and prepared the meat and hides. By the end of July the Illiniwek returned to their villages for the first harvest. The last harvest was in late August or the beginning of September. Most of the harvest was dried for later use, when other foods were unavailable. Another hunt took place in the fall and early winter, for buffalo, deer, elk, bear, cougar, lynx, turkey, geese and duck. Late in winter the maple trees were tapped and the sap was made into a drink or boiled down for syrup and sugar. The early spring raids completed the Illiniwek year, and brought them back to the beginning of the cycle. The Illiniwek traded with other tribes, and the Europeans when convenient.

By the 1600's, the Illiniwek Confederation probably consisted of the Kaskaskia, Peoria, Cahokia, Tamaroa, Michigamea, Moingwena, Tapouaro or Tapouro, Coiracoentanon or Korakoenitanon, Espemnka, Chinkoa or Chinko, Cepoussa or Chepoussa, Maroa, and Omouahoas. In this loosely-knit confederacy, the tribal council, with a formally appointed chief, was the governing body. Each tribe had a totem, similar in function to a European coat-of-arms. Before 1600 the Illiniwek Confederacy had a Grand Chief and one or more totems to signify the entire group of tribes.

The clothing of the Illiniwek was simple. Except for winter buffalo robes, Illini dress was usually made of deer hide. Men wore a loincloth, while women wore a wraparound skirt, with a belt over one shoulder and under the other; a deerskin wrap was worn on the upper body. Both sexes wore moccasins with quill decorations. Illini men shaved or clipped most of the hair on their heads, leaving a scalp lock and a tuft of long hair in front and one behind each ear. A woman's long hair was usually fastened behind the head. Men also tattooed their entire bodies, or painted themselves in solid colors or designs. Chiefs painted their faces red and wore scarves woven of bear and buffalo hair.

In war and raiding the Illini believed it was more honorable to take captives than to kill an enemy. Male prisoners became slaves, while captive women and children were often adopted into families to replace lost family members. A raiding party was judged successful if they had no losses. Illini warriors began to torture captives only after they were tortured by the Iroquois, and Illini warriors hung the scalps of their enemies on their lodges.

Oral tradition, as recorded by a French Jesuit historian in 1721, placed Illini origins on "the banks of a very distant sea, to the westward". The Illini Confederacy probably adopted the last remnants of the Mississippian Culture (as it once existed at Cahokia Mounds) in the 16th century. In the 1600's Illiniwek territory ranged from the southern tip of Lake Michigan to west central Iowa through eastern Missouri to central Arkansas. An estimate of their population mentioned by the French (probably exaggerated), accounted for 20,000 warriors in 60 villages. In the latter part of the 1600's their population and the size of their territory began to decline due to the encroachments of other tribes, including the Iroquois, Sioux, Fox, Kickapoo and Mascouten. In addition, the French moved into Illiniwek territory, establishing forts, missions and trading posts.

The Illini moved to the west to escape the continuous onslaught by the aggressive Iroquois League. Many Illini moved into the Osage territory on the Missouri River. The French under Robert de LaSalle and Henri Tonti encouraged them to return to live under French protection, although Iroquois attacks continued. Wars between the tribes continued, and new friction with the Cherokee, Koroa, Shawnee and Chickasaw began. Although the Iroquois made peace with the Illiniwek in the early 1700's, tribal strength continued to decline due to smallpox and other deadly diseases brought by the Europeans. Another problem was infighting among tribes of the Illiniwek Confederacy. By the mid-1700s, most Illini tribes lived in the Cahokia village, the Kaskaskia village, or the Michigamea village in the Kaskaskia River area, and other tribes began to move onto lands they vacated around the tip of Lake Michigan. Smallpox and continuing war, including the "French and Indian War" (1754-1763) further depleted the Illini tribes, who become increasingly dependent on the French.

The French lost the war, however, and the 1763 Treaty of Paris ceded French Louisiana east of the Mississippi to the British. In hopes of keeping the British south of the Ohio River, the Ottawa chief Pontiac gathered Indian forces from many tribes to attack frontier forts. After receiving a commitment of Illini aid for his growing confederacy, Pontiac was angered when no Illini help was forthcoming. In 1766, after the failure of his uprising, a disappointed Pontiac stabbed Peoria Chief Black Dog during an argument. Three years later, Pontiac was fatally stabbed in the Cahokia village, and buried across the river at the new village of St. Louis. In retaliation for the murder of Pontiac, the midwest tribes descended upon the Illiniwek in force. After a number of battles, many of the surviving Illini moved west of the Mississippi. The Kaskaskia, however, under the leadership of chief Jean-Baptiste Ducoign, returned to their village site on the river that now bears their name.

In the American War of Independence (1775-1783) the remaining Illini were again divided in their support. After George Rogers Clark and his small army took the town of Kaskaskia in a surprise attack, Ducoign, acting as chief of the Peoria and the Kaskaskia, gave the Americans his support, providing hunters and scouts. However, when Clark's forces attacked Vincennes part of the Peoria fought alongside Henry Hamilton's British forces.

At the end of the war, the Algonkian-speaking tribes, quietly backed by the British, fought to keep the Americans south of the Ohio. These tribes were defeated in 1794 at the Battle of Fallen Timbers by American General "Mad" Anthony Wayne. The resulting Treaty of Greenville affected the Illini directly, as Chicago, Lake Peoria, and the mouth of the Illinois River were reserved for American forts.

By 1800 there were less than 50 warriors remaining in the Peoria village near Ste. Genevieve, and less than 20 at the Kaskaskia village. In 1803, after the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from the French, the Kaskaskia gave up their claims in the Illinois Country and were left with two small reserves. The Peorias and Kaskaskias soon moved to the west side of the Mississippi. On October 27, 1832, the Kaskaskia signed the treaty of Castor Hill, Missouri whereby they forever ceded claims to lands within Illinois and Missouri. The Kaskaskia also formally joined the Peoria. The total combined Illini tribal population (of about 140 people) was given 150 sections of land in Kansas. In 1846 the Peoria settled on the Marais des Cygnes River, and chief Baptiste Peoria donated the land for the townsite that would come to be called by a mispronunciation of the tribe's name, Paola, Kansas. On May 30, 1854, the Kaskaskia, Peoria, Piankeshaw and Wea (formerly of the Miami tribe), a group of 259 people, were consolidated into the Confederated Peorias by treaty. A provision of the treaty declared that tribal land was to be divided into individual plots; land not allocated to individual tribal members was sold by the government to whites. This allocation provision anticipated the General Allotment Act, or Dawes Act, of 1887, when this allocation system took effect for all of the federally recognized Indian tribes with reservation land. In 1867, the Confederated Peorias agreed to sell their remaining land in Kansas and move to the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Some remained behind in Kansas and became U.S. citizens. In 1870, the Peoria tribal list held 164 names, while 55 had become citizens, each receiving $1,375.47, their final share of tribal assets.

The once-powerful Illiniwek Confederation was depleted through war, lack of unity, and disease. They were swept up in the tide of history as Europeans and other Indian tribes competed for their lands. Today, the descendants of these proud people are centered in the Peoria Indian Tribe of Oklahoma. Like many American Indians, they have been able to preserve their heritage and some of their customs, while losing the homes and lands once so important to them.