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Illinois Confederation

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For the former mascot/symbol of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, see Chief Illiniwek.

The Illinois Confederation,[1] sometimes referred to as the Illiniwek or Illini, were a group of twelve to thirteen Native American tribes in the upper Mississippi River valley of North America. The tribes were the Kaskaskia, the Cahokia, the Peoria, the Tamaroa, Moingwena, Michigamea, Albiui, Amonokoa, Chepoussa, Chinkoa, Coiracoentanon, Espeminkia, Maroa, Matchinkoa, Michibousa, Negawichi, and Tapouara. At the time of European contact in the 17th century, they were believed to number several thousand people.

History

When French explorers first journeyed to the region from Canada in the early 17th century, they found the area inhabited by a vigorous, populous Algonquian-speaking nation. What we know today about the Illinois is based on the historical account Jesuit Relations, written by French Jesuit priests. The Relations were the reports written by missionaries who lived among the various native nations and sent back to their superiors in France.

The Illinois spoke various dialects of the Miami-Illinois language, one of the Algonquian language family.

Among the earliest renditions of the modernized, Anglicized term "Illiniwek" were Liniouek (1656), "Aliniouek" (1658), "Alimiwec" (1660), "irini8ak" (1662), and "Ilinioüek" (1667). In 1670 Claude Allouez referred to a band of natives as "IlimoucK" (the editor added an alternative spelling "Iliniouek") in one sentence and "Ilinioüetz" in the next. The English translation changed the latter spelling to "Iliniouetz."[2] In the variable spelling of the times, the name of Allouez was also spelled "Alloues," "Alloez," Aloes," "Aloez," "Aloues," and "Daloes" in these early records.

However, 'Illinois' was not the Illinois tribes' name for themselves. 'Illinois' is a French spelling of an Old Ottawa term, /ilinwe/ 'he speaks the ordinary way'. This in turn was presumably borrowed from the Illinois or Old Miami verb /irenweewa/, which has the same meaning as the Ottawa form. The Illinois' name for themselves, 'Inoka' (sometimes spelled 'Inoca'), is given as such in all three Illinois dictionaries from the late 17th/early 18th century. For example, in the Illinois-French dictionary from the early 1700s often attributed to Gravier, the word 'In8ca' is given as 'Illinois peuple'. Or, in the 1725 French-Illinois dictionary written by LeBoullenger, this same word is spelled 'inoca', and translated "Illinois". [3] (The symbol 8' in old French usage represents the vowel /o/ in Illinois.)

In the seventeenth century, the Illinois suffered from a combination of exposure to Eurasian infectious diseases, to which they had no natural immunity, and warfare by the expansion of the Iroquois into the eastern Great Lakes region. The Iroquois had hunted out their traditional lands and sought more productive hunting and trapping areas. They sought furs to purchase European goods in the fur trade.

When a Peoria warrior murdered the Ottawa war chief Pontiac in 1769, the northern tribes retaliated against the Illiniwek. They suffered more losses. Many of the Illinois migrated to present-day eastern Kansas to escape the pressure from other tribes and Europeans.

Culture

The Illini lived in a seasonal cycle related to cultivation of domestic plants and hunting, with movement from semi-permanent villages to hunting camps. They planted crops of maize (corn), beans, and squash, known as the "Three Sisters". They prepared dishes such as sagamite. They also gathered wild foods such as nuts, fruit, roots and tubers. In the hunting season, the men hunted bison, deer, elk, bear, cougar, lynx, turkey, geese and duck. Women prepared the meat for preservation and the hides for equipment and clothing. They tapped maple trees made the sap into a drink or boiled it for syrup and sugar. [4]

Present day

As a consequence of the Indian Removal Act, in the 1830s the Illinois were relocated from where they had migrated to eastern Kansas to northeastern Indian Territory. Today they chiefly reside in Ottawa County, Oklahoma, as the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma.

References

  1. ^ The Indian Tribes of North America, by John R. Swanton. Bulletin (Smithsonian Institution; Bureau of American Ethnology), 145.
  2. ^ Thwaites, R.G. (1899) The Jesuit relations and allied documents travels and explorations of the Jesuit missionaries in New France, 1610-1791, 236. The English translation is on the next page.
  3. ^ Costa, David J. 2008. On the Origins of the Name “Illinois”. Le Journal 24/4: 6-10.
  4. ^ "The Illiniwek", The Lewis and Clark Journey of Discovery, National Park Service, accessed 29 Sep 2009

Costa, David J. 2000. "Miami-Illinois Tribe Names". In John Nichols, ed., Papers of the Thirty-first Algonquian Conference 30-53. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba.

Costa, David J. 2008. "On the Origins of the Name “Illinois”." Le Journal 24/4: 6-10.

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