Peoria (people)

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Illinois residential and hunting grounds before 1700

The Peoria 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 and Iowa . The Peoria, one of the leading tribes in the Illinois Confederation, lived at the time on the Illinois River , roughly where the present-day city of Peoria is located. Their name in the Illinois language means: someone comes and carries a load on his back .

history

In 1673 the Jesuit Jacques Marquette and the French explorer Louis Jolliet became the first Europeans to reach the Mississippi . The Peoria were one of several Illinois Confederation tribes visited by the explorers. The French Jesuit established there a mission in which in the following years many tribesmen to the Roman Catholic faith converted . Around 1680, the French commander La Salle built Fort Crèvecoeur on Peoria Lake near the Peoria village. Jacques Gravier, Superior of the Illinois Mission, developed an Illinois-French dictionary in 1687 with around 20,000 entries. It is called the Dictionary of the Peoria Language , is located in Harvard University and is now considered an important literary document of the extinct Illinois language.

The Peoria, like the other tribes of the Illinois Confederation, suffered from extremely difficult living conditions, especially in the 18th century. The never-ending wars against the Iroquois in the east and Winnebago in the north cost many tribes their lives. In addition, there was hunger and European diseases against which the Indians could not develop any defenses and finally widespread alcoholism led to the death of many people. Few survivors were left when the Peoria migrated to northwest Missouri in 1763. In the Treaty of Louisville 1832, the tribe exchanged their land for a small reservation on the Osage River in Kansas, in which more survivors of the Illinois Confederation were gradually taken in. In 1854 the remains of the Kaskaskia , the Wea and Piankashaw were added. They called themselves Confederated Peoria and counted a total of 437 tribe members, of which only fifty-five were descended from the Peoria. In the so-called omnibus contract of 1867, the Confederated Peoria, meanwhile also including the Miami , sold all the lands in Kansas. They acquired from the Quapaw an area in the northwestern Indian territory , which lies between the border with Arkansas and the Neosho River .

The Peoria accepted the inclusion of people from other cultures in their tribe. They adopted white children as if they were from their own tribe, married Americans and other tribes, and welcomed ex-black slaves. Today it is almost hopeless to find a real descendant of the Peoria with them. With the exception of small family gardens for growing squash and corn, the tribal land was owned by the community. In the late nineteenth century, they leased it to Texas ranchers for grazing .

The US government took over a school opened by the Quakers in 1870. The curriculum included English, math, and history. The reading and writing lessons were exclusively in English. The children were given Anglo-American names and were only allowed to speak English. From 1896, students could attend the Seneca Indian School in Miami , Oklahoma . As a result of the Dawes Act and Curtis Act of 1898, the US government tried to parcel out the land previously administered by the tribe. It was held in trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) until the Indians learned to farm it like white farmers. This should break the community structure of the Indians and integrate them into American society.

In 1956, the US government officially dissolved the Peoria tribe and withdrew federal recognition. Many members of the tribe protested and sued in court for re-recognition as a tribe. In 1978 the Peoria Indian Tribe of Oklahoma again received federal recognition, the members of which are descendants of the Peoria, Kaskaskia, Piankashaw and Wea.

In the 2000 US census , the Peoria Indian Tribe of Oklahoma had 1,795 enrolled members. The economic activities of the tribe include the operation of the Peoria Ridge Golf Course , which opened in 1999. An annual event is the Peoria Pow Wow , held in the tribal area east of Miami, Oklahoma. A special committee of the tribe started a program to revitalize the Peoria language and other cultural resources .

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f Peoria . Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Retrieved October 10, 2016 .
  2. Peoria Indians . Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 10, 2016 .
  3. ^ Census 2000, American Indian Tribes. Retrieved October 10, 2016 .