Michigamea
The Michigamea belonged to the Illinois , a confederation of around twelve small Algonquin- speaking Indian tribes , who at the beginning of the 17th century were scattered over an area that included northern Illinois and parts of Missouri , Iowa and Arkansas . In the seventeenth century, the Michigamea lived on the upper Sangamon River in what is now the US state of Illinois, making them the southernmost tribe of the Illinois Confederation. There they made their living by farming, hunting, fishing and collecting wild plants. Growing maize and gathering roots and wild plants was a woman's job, while the men went hunting and fishing.
Although the men of Michigamea were skilled warriors, they were defeated by the Fox and other hostile tribes and driven further south. The French Jesuit Jacques Marquette visited them in 1673 in their main village, which at that time was on the Mississippi River in northeastern Arkansas. Around 1700 they were driven north again by the Quapaws . Together with the Chepoussa , another Illinois tribe, they returned to Illinois and settled at the confluence of the Kaskaskia River with the Illinois River in what is now Randolph County.
In 1720 the French built the Fort de Chartres near them . The Michigamea and other southern Illinois tribes owed the French a certain protection from their enemies. Nevertheless, the Indians suffered from European diseases and the loss of their cultural identity, so that many relatives became addicted to alcohol . The population of Michigamea decreased dramatically during this time. In June 1752 they saw an attack by the Sauk , one of the hostile tribes from the north, which cost more lives.
Eventually the few survivors were accepted into their tribe by the neighboring Kaskaskia and recognized as a tribe by the United States in 1803. As members of the Kaskaskia, they united with the Peoria to form the Confederated Peoria Tribe in the 1830s and migrated from Illinois to Kansas . Because they had sold their tribal land in Illinois to the Americans, they were given two small reservations there . Under increasing pressure from white settlers in Kansas in the 1840s and 1850s, more small tribes joined forces. In addition to the Peoria, Kaskaskia and Michigamea, this also included the Piankashaw , Wea and Tamaroa . In an 1854 treaty, the United States formally accepted this cooperation, allocating 160 acres (0.65 km²) of land to each member of the tribe .
In 1867 the Confederated Peoria Tribe in the northeast Indian Territory , now Ottawa County in Oklahoma , was assigned this land. In 1889 157 Peoria, including an unknown number in Michigamea, moved to their new reservation .
See also
literature
- Charles Callender: Handbook of North American Indians . Vol. 15: Northeast, Chapter: Illinois, pp. 673-680. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC 1978. ISBN 0-16004-575-4
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Michigamea . Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Retrieved October 16, 2016 .
- ^ Peoria Tribe of Oklahoma , history. Retrieved October 16, 2016 .