The 1816 Treaty of St. Louis and the 1821 and 1833 Treaties of Chicago.

The 1816 Treaty of St. Louis is one of the names of a series of fourteen treaties signed between the United States and various Indian tribes from 1804 through 1824. All of the treaties were signed in the St. Louis, Missouri, area.

The 1816 Treaty of St. Louis was signed by Ninian Edwards, William Clark, and Auguste Chouteau for the United States and representatives of the "Council of Three Fires" (also known as the People of the Three Fires; the Three Fires Confederacy; or the United Nations of Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi Indians) residing on the Illinois and Milwaukee rivers. It was signed on August 24, 1816,and proclaimed on December 30, 1816. 

Despite the name, the treaty was conducted at Portage des Sioux, Missouri,
located immediately north of St. Louis, Missouri.

These treaties were to form the legal basis in which native tribes were to be relocated west of Missouri in Indian Territory and which was to clear the way for the states to enter the Union.

By signing the treaty, the tribes, their chiefs, and their warriors relinquished all right, claim, and title to land previously ceded to the United States by the Sac and Mesquakie (Fox) tribes on November 3, 1804. By signing the treaty, the Council of Three Fires also ceded a 20 mile wide and 70-mile long strip of land to the United States, which connected Chicago and Lake Michigan with the Illinois River.

The specific land given up included:

The said chiefs and warriors, for themselves and the tribes they represent, agree to relinquish, and hereby do relinquish, to the United States, all their right, claim, and title, to all the land contained in the before-mentioned cession of the Sacs and Foxes, which lies south of a due west line from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the Mississippi river. And they moreover cede to the United States all the land contained within the following bounds, to wit: beginning on the left bank of the Fox river of Illinois, ten miles above the mouth of said Fox river; thence running so as to cross Sandy creek, ten miles above its mouth; thence, in a direct line, to a point ten miles north of the west end of the Portage, between Chicago creek, which empties into Lake Michigan, and the river Deplaines, a fork of the Illinois; thence, in a direct line, to a point on Lake Michigan, ten miles northward of the mouth of Chicago creek; thence, along the lake, to a point ten miles southward of the mouth of the said Chicago creek; thence, in a direct line, to a point on the Kankakee, ten miles above its mouth; thence, with the said Kankakee and the Illinois river, to the mouth of Fox river, and thence to the beginning: Provided, nevertheless, That the said tribes shall be permitted to hunt and fish within the limits of the land hereby relinquished and ceded, so long as it may continue to be the property of the United States.

Many of the chiefs and warriors signed the treaty with an “X”; one wonders whether they fully understood what the treaty would mean, given that they were told they could continue to hunt and fish there forever.

In exchange, the tribes were to be paid $1,000 in merchandise for 12 years. The land was surveyed by John C. Sullivan and this land was originally intended as land grant rewards for volunteers in the War of 1812. Many of the streets in the survey run at a diagonal that is counter to Chicago's street grid.

The 1821 and 1833 Treaties of Chicago:

The first treaty of Chicago was signed by Michigan Territorial Governor Lewis Cass and Solomon Sibley for the United States and representatives of the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi (Council of Three Fires) on August 29, 1821, and proclaimed on March 25, 1822. The treaty ceded to the United States all lands in Michigan Territory south of the Grand River, with the exception of several small reservations. Also ceded by the Indians was a tract of land, easement between Detroit and Chicago (through Indiana and Illinois), around the southern coast of Lake Michigan, while specific Indians were also granted property rights to defined parcels.

Potawatomi Chief Metea gave the following speech in defense of his land at the signing of the Treaty of Chicago:

Chief Metea

“My Father,—We have listened to what you have said. We shall now retire to our camps and consult upon it. You will hear nothing more from us at present. [This is a uniform custom of all the Native Americans. When the council was again convened, Metea continued.] We meet you here to-day, because we had promised it, to tell you our minds, and what we have agreed upon among ourselves. You will listen to us with a good mind, and believe what we say. You know that we first came to this country, a long time ago, and when we sat ourselves down upon it, we met with a great many hardships and difficulties. Our country was then very large; but it has dwindled away to a small spot, and you wish to purchase that! This has caused us to reflect much upon what you have told us; and we have, therefore, brought all the chiefs and warriors, and the young men and women and children of our tribe, that one part may not do what others object to, and that all may be witnesses of what is going forward. You know your children. Since you first came among them, they have listened to your words with an attentive ear, and have always hearkened to your counsels. Whenever you have had a proposal to make to us, whenever you have had a favor to ask of us, we have always lent a favorable ear, and our invariable answer has been ‘yes.’ This you know! A long time has passed since we first came upon our lands, and our old people have all sunk into their graves. They had sense. We are all young and foolish, and do not wish to do anything that they would not approve, were they living. We are fearful we shall offend their spirits, if we sell our lands; and we are fearful we shall offend you, if we do not sell them. This has caused us great perplexity of thought, because we have counselled among ourselves, and do not know how we can part with the land. Our country was given to us by the Great Spirit, who gave it to us to hunt upon, to make our cornfields upon, to live upon, and to make down our beds upon when we die. And he would never forgive us, should we bargain it away. When you first spoke to us for lands at St. Mary’s, we said we had a little, and agreed to sell you a piece of it; but we told you we could spare no more. Now you ask us again. You are never satisfied! We have sold you a great tract of land already; but it is not enough! We sold it to you for the benefit of your children, to farm and to live upon. We have now but little left. We shall want it all for ourselves. We know not how long we may live, and we wish to have some lands for our children to hunt upon. You are gradually taking away our hunting-grounds. Your children are driving us before them. We are growing uneasy. What lands you have, you may retain forever; but we shall sell no more. You think, perhaps, that I speak in passion; but my heart is good towards you. I speak like one of your own children. I am an Indian, a red-skin, and live by hunting and fishing, but my country is already too small; and I do not know how to bring up my children, if I give it all away. We sold you a fine tract of land at St. Mary’s. We said to you then, it was enough to satisfy your children, and the last we should sell: and we thought it would be the last you would ask for. We have now told you what we had to say. It is what was determined on, in a council among ourselves; and what I have spoken, is the voice of my nation. On this account, all our people have come here to listen to me; but do not think we have a bad opinion of you. Where should we get a bad opinion of you? We speak to you with a good heart, and the feelings of a friend. You are acquainted with this piece of land—the country we live in. Shall we give it up? Take notice, it is a small piece of land, and if we give it away, what will become of us? The Great Spirit, who has provided it for our use, allows us to keep it, to bring up our young men and support our families. We should incur his anger, if we bartered it away. If we had more land, you should get more; but our land has been wasting away ever since the white people became our neighbors, and we have now hardly enough left to cover the bones of our tribe. You are in the midst of your red children. What is due to us in money, we wish, and will receive at this place; and we want nothing more. We all shake hands with you. Behold our warriors, our women, and children. Take pity on us and on our words.”

The second Treaty of Chicago granted the United States government all land west of Lake Michigan to Lake Winnebago in modern-day Wisconsin in 1833. The treaty included lands that are part of modern-day Illinois, as well. The treaty Indians (the Potawatomi) in return received promises of various cash payments and tracts of land west of the Mississippi River.

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The word "Mississippi" comes from the Ojibwe Indian Tribe (Algonquian language family) word "Messipi" or "misi-ziibi," which means "Great River" or "Gathering of Waters." French explorers, hearing the Ojibwe word for the river, recorded it in their own language with a similar pronunciation. The Potawatomi (Algonquian language family) pronounced "Mississippi" as the French said it, "Sinnissippi," which was given the meaning "Rocky Waters."

160 years after the explorations of Marquette and Jolliet, Native Americans signed away all rights to their land east of the Mississippi River in the 1833 Treaty of Chicago.

At the concluding ceremony for the treaty in 1835, just prior to the evacuation of the Native Americans, five-hundred warriors gathered in the then nascent city (town of Chicago founded in 1833). In full dress brandishing tomahawks, they danced the last recorded war dance in the Chicago area.

In 1848, the Illinois and Michigan Canal was built on the ceded land, and in 1900, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.

Today, Indian Boundary Park in Chicago's West Ridge community commemorates this Treaty.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

How Waterways, Glacial Melt, and Earthquakes Realigned Ancient Rivers and Changed Illinois Borders.

From about 1673 until 1783, Illinois was known as the Illinois Country (Fig. 1) and the Illinois Territory from 1809 until statehood in 1818. 

(Fig. 1) Original proposed Illinois borders within the Illinois territory. A future addition to Illinois from the future state of Wisconsin.

In the 17th century, the French-built trading forts in the Illinois Country. Louis Jolliet and Father Pierre Marquette suggested a canal from the Illinois River to Lake Michigan to eliminate the portage at Mud Lake. But the canal was never built by the French. At the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, the area was ceded to the British and was then awarded to the new United States by the Treaty of Paris (1783). When the borders of Kentucky and Indiana were established, they formed Illinois' southern and eastern borders (the Ohio and Wabash Rivers and to 42°35" north latitude line, which extended between the Wabash River and the southernmost tip of Lake Michigan). The proposed northern boundary in an 1817 plan considered by the US Congress (derived from the Northwest Ordinance) was a straight line from the southernmost tip of Lake Michigan (in Indiana) to the Mississippi River just south of the Rock River confluence with the Mississippi River.

Nathaniel Pope, Illinois Territory Delegate in the United States Congress, proposed modifying the northern border by moving it 51 miles north for economic reasons and giving Illinois access to Lake Michigan, the Great Lakes, and the St. Lawrence Seaway. Another reason for the northern border move was unstated but was related to slavery. After the Missouri Comprise of 1820, Illinois would become a northern state and a vital part of the Union by 1860. While many in southern Illinois were sympathetic to the Confederate cause during the Civil War (1861-1865), most of the state of Illinois was not.

Many inhabitants living in the northern Illinois Territory (later Wisconsin) objected to the movement of the north boundary, the loss of the Lake Michigan waterfront and the location of a shipping port. The land, water, and population loss delayed Wisconsin's development for 30 years, and Wisconsin finally became a state in 1849. With the help of his brother Senator John Pope of Kentucky, Nathaniel Pope got Congress to move the northern boundary to its present-day location (Fig. 2).

(Fig. 2) Ancient Mississippi River location east of Quad Cites between the Rock and Green rivers to Illinois River and south to St. Louis. Location of the land additions to Illinois from the future states of Iowa and Missouri.

Adding 5,440,000 acres also raised the population to (nearly) 40,000, which was required for statehood. Illinois became a state in 1818. The port area on Lake Michigan became the future town of Chicago (Chicagou) in 1833 (Chicago incorporated as a city in 1837). It linked the two shipping routes with a portage between a small river that drained into Lake Michigan with the Illinois River. In 1848, the Illinois and Michigan Canal was completed, allowing the shipment of goods between the two waterway systems. With tensions rising and Civil War a possibility, the canal provided the Union with a northern route to ship goods without using the Ohio River. After the railroad and canal connected Lake Michigan to the rest of the state, Chicago grew incredibly fast. Chicago is the largest city in Illinois, and the greater Chicago area includes three-quarters of the state's population. The ceding of 8,500 miles of territory and the lakefront property on Lake Michigan by the US Congress to Illinois due to Nathaniel Pope's efforts altered the fortunes of Wisconsin and Illinois. Due to the northern boundary shift, the 5,440,000 acres added to Illinois include very productive soils.

During the Pleistocene Era (2.6 million years ago until about 11,700 years ago), numerous glacial advances covered most of Missouri and Illinois, with the two most recent designated as the Illinoian and Wisconsinan glaciations. Melt waters from these glaciers contributed to the re-alignment of the Mississippi River. The western boundary of Illinois was the Mississippi River (Fig. 2). However, before the Pleistocene glacial period, the ancient Mississippi River passed much farther to the east, as shown by the blue dashed lines. Today's lower Illinois River follows its course. The Wisconsin glacier eventually blocked the ancient Mississippi River, and its terminal moraine (point of furthest advance southward of a glacier) was about 12,000 to 15,000 years ago. The ancient Mississippi River then re-aligned itself to its current position, later used as the western border when Illinois became a state. If the Mississippi River had not been re-aligned, the 7.5 million acres (Fig. 2) would belong to the conditions of Missouri and Iowa. Before 1803, the French controlled the land west of the current Mississippi River and was part of the Louisiana Purchase that year. After Iowa and Missouri became states, they had a border dispute settled by the US Supreme Court. The border between these two states was primarily the 40°35" latitude line, which, if extended into the current area of Illinois between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers (Fig. 2), would determine the acreage each state would have gained if the ancient Mississippi River had not re-aligned. A total of 3.5 million acres would have gone to Missouri and 4 million acres to Iowa. This area includes some of Illinois's most productive soils for corn and soybean production.

Further to the south, the Mississippi River (just south of current Cape Girardeau, Missouri) was re-routed (Fig. 3) at the end of the Great Ice Age. After the last glacial advance, the melting ice flooded and altered the course of many channels and streams, including the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Approximately 12 to 15 thousand years ago, scientists believe that the Ohio and Mississippi rivers changed course (Fig. 3) south of Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

(Fig. 3) The re-alignment of the Mississippi River south of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The bedrock lined the Mississippi River channel near Thebes, Illinois.

The 6-mile stretch of the Mississippi River near Thebes, Illinois, is unique. It is the only Mississippi River section in a narrow bedrock-lined valley with rock underlying the navigation channel. Some geologists believe heavy seismic activity along the Commerce Geophysical lineament (a northeast-trending magnetic and gravity feature that extends from central Arkansas to southern Illinois) about 12,000 years to 15,000 years ago created a fault that helped the Mississippi River cut through the "Thebes gap" [1] and made a new confluence 25 miles north of the current confluence, where the River switched from a braided, meandering river to one that cut through rock. The Mississippi River currently forms the state boundary between Missouri and Illinois. 

At Thebes, the Mississippi River is now located 30 miles to the east (Fig. 3) of where the ancient Mississippi River flowed. Before the 20th century, the Mississippi River migrated rapidly by eroding the outside and depositing on the inside of a river bend. Numerous oxbow lakes [2] mark old positions of the channel that have been abandoned. Early Holocene (the term given to the last 11,700 years of the Earth's history) to late Wisconsin liquefaction (conversion of soil into a fluid-like mass during an earthquake or other seismic events) features in western lowlands were induced by a local source, possibly by the Commerce fault (which is north of New Madrid Fault) as a result of earthquake upheaval along the Commerce Geophysical lineament running from central Indiana to Arkansas.

The New Madrid area has been the center of seismic activity for thousands of years, affecting the Mississippi River and perhaps the Ohio River re-routing. The land has rebounded by as much as 13 feet in 1,000 years after the last glacial period. The previous significant seismic activity resulted from an earthquake in 1450-1470 AD and another earthquake in Cahokia, Illinois, in 1811-1812.

Floodwaters of the ancient Mississippi River did not initially pass through this relatively narrow channel and valley. Instead, they were routed by the bedrock-controlled uplands near Scott City, Missouri, and north of Commerce and Benton, Missouri (Fig. 3) to an opening in the upland ridge 40 miles to the southwest. Then the River turned back to the south and merged with the ancient Ohio River near Morely, Missouri. Once floodwaters of the Mississippi River (from the north) and Ohio River (from the east) could cut a valley trench along a fault and through the bedrock-controlled upland west of Thebes. As a result of the Commerce fault, the distance the Mississippi had to travel was shortened from 50 miles to 6 miles. The two historic rivers also once joined at Malden, Missouri; however, the location of the confluence continued to change over time and is now located south of Cairo, Illinois, at Fort Defiance State Park [3]. The confluence of these two mighty rivers created a very rapidly changing channel. It appears that the bedrock-controlled upland was worn away by both rivers after seismic activity. The creation of the Commerce fault contributed to the opening of the bedrock-controlled channel (Fig. 3) after the last glacial advance, approximately 12,000 years to 15,000 years ago.

The modern-day Cache River Valley of southern Illinois (Fig. 4) has a string of tupelo-cypress (trees) swamps, sloughs, and shallow lakes, remnants of the ancient Ohio River whose confluence with the Mississippi River was once northwest of Cairo, Illinois. 

Cache River Valley on the Ohio River in Illinois.

The ancient Ohio River Valley, 50 miles long and 1½ to 3 miles wide, was formed by the meltwaters of northern glaciers as they advanced and retreated in numerous iterations over the last million years. The Mississippi River flowing southward from Minnesota was (and is today) a meandering river of oxbows and cut-offs, continuously eroding banks, re-depositing soil, and changing paths. Its historic meandering is particularly apparent in western Alexander County, Illinois, where topographical maps show oxbow swirls and curves, and Horseshoe Lake, where the ancient Mississippi River once flowed (Fig. 4).

(Fig. 4) The location of the ancient Cache River valley and ancient Ohio and Tennessee Rivers.

The upland hills of the Shawnee National Forest just north and west of the town of Olive Branch and north of Route 3 give way to a low-lying plain between the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Historically this region has been a delta, confluence, and bottomlands dating back 30,000 to 800,000 years BP (Before Present: where "present" is defined as 1950 AD), with many of Illinois lands shown on the maps located on both sides of the Mississippi River as its channel changed positions over time. As a result, the fertile farmland soils of western Alexander County formed in alluvial (clay, silt, sand, gravel) and lacustrine (sedimentary rock formations which formed at the bottom of ancient lakes) deposits.

Hydrologically, the Ohio River is the main eastern tributary of the Mississippi River. Today it runs along the borders of six states 981 miles west from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the Mississippi River confluence at Cairo, Illinois and drains lands west of the continental divide from the Appalachian Mountains encompassing all or part of 14 states. The Ohio River, a southwestern flowing river, was formed between 2½ and 3 million years ago when glacial ice-dammed portions of north-flowing rivers.

About 625,000 years ago, the ancient Ohio River, fed by Kentucky's Green and Cumberland rivers, flowed through the Cache River Basin and was smaller than the current Ohio River. The Wabash River (Indiana) had yet to form at that time. The Tennessee River was not a tributary of the Ohio River but formed the main channel before the later Ohio River appeared.

During the Woodfordian period (75,000 to 11,000 years ago), the floodwaters from the historic Ohio River watershed drained into eastern Illinois via Bay Creek (Fig. 4) to the northwest and then west through the Cache River Valley through present-day Alexander County, Illinois, where it converged with the Mississippi River near Morely, Missouri, located west of the Horseshoe State Conservation area. The middle Cache River Valley is 1.3 miles wide due to the previous River having been much larger since it carried waters from the ancient Ohio River Valley and the local waters from the upper Cache River Valley to the Mississippi River.

Extensive deposits of gravel and sand, some as deep as 160 feet, rest on the bedrock floor of the middle and eastern portions of the valley and offer evidence of glacial flooding which carved the valley deeply into the bedrock and then, as the water receded, back-filled the valley with sediments. With increasing sediment fill and climate changes, the ancient Ohio River shifted away from the Cache River Valley and into its present course. This event probably took place between 8,000 and 25,000 years ago. As a result, the Cache River became a slow-moving stream with extensive isolated, low swampy areas with a water table that ebbed and flowed with seasonal precipitation.

The upper and middle sections of the Cache River Valley, the Main Ditch, and Bay Creek are located in the ancient Ohio River Valley, where river water crossed through the state of Illinois approximately 10-20 miles north of the present Ohio River position. The Cache River Valley is deeper at a lower elevation (between 320 and 340 feet) than expected in a slow-moving swampy river system. The New Madrid Fault runs under and near Karnak and Ullin, Illinois, and the Cache River Valley elevation does not fit with the rest of the area. Steve Gough, a land-use change-over-time expert, has suggested a large section under the Cache River Valley sank during a significant earthquake in about 900 AD. The cypress trees in the Cache River Valley swamps are up to 1,000 years old, which would be consistent with this time estimate.

(Fig. 5) The additions and subtractions to Illinois. The orange area is the net border of Illinois without all the Mississippi and Ohio rivers re-routing and the decision to provide Illinois with Lake Frontage on Lake Michigan and connecting waterways.

If all these waterway-related changes had not occurred, the state of Illinois would only have 22 million acres, much smaller than the current 35 million acres (Fig. 5). All but one of the changes would have made Illinois 40% smaller and reduced the current population by more than 80%, since Chicago and Rockford would be in Wisconsin, Cairo, and Metropolis in Kentucky, Quincy in Missouri, and Rock Island, Moline and Peoria in Iowa. Borders such as the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, which were naturally re-aligned, dramatically changed the size and shape of Illinois. Clearly, the location of these waterways matters.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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Additional Reading:

The History of Ancient Lake Chicago and Today's Lake Michigan.

Illinois on the west side of the Mississippi River - Missouri on the east side of the River.

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[1] Just south of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, the Mississippi River cuts a seven-mile gorge through the thick limestone of the Shawneetown Ridge. The gorge, known as the Thebes Gap or the Grand Chain, is as narrow as 3,000 feet in places and was notoriously difficult to navigate.

[2] An oxbow lake is a U-shaped lake that forms when a wide meander of a river is cut off, creating a free-standing body of water.

[3] Fort Defiance, known as Camp Defiance during the American Civil War, is a former military fortification located at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers near Cairo in Alexander County, Illinois.

The 1833 Winnebago Murder Trial in Frontier Illinois.

Indians of the Great Lakes region subscribed to a kinship-centered system of justice.  

In the case of murder, the victim's family was obligated to retaliate in kind against the perpetrator's family unless the presentation of a suitable gift could be arranged to "cover the dead," that is, assuage the aggrieved relatives. Similar customs applied as well to intertribal killings, and quite naturally, Indians expected to continue their practice of justice in whatever conflicts would arise with white settlers. In doing so, they were frustrated by the Anglo-American legal system, in which, rather than the family, administered justice. One such confrontation in frontier Illinois occurred when Winnebago Indians attempted to assert their ethos in coping with the intrusion of whites into the upper Mississippi Valley.

The Winnebagos were a Siouan-speaking people encountered by the French in the Green Bay vicinity in the early 1600s. Over the next two centuries, members of the tribe pursued the fur trade throughout south-central Wisconsin and northwestern Illinois along the Rock River and its tributaries. In the War of 1812, several Winnebago bands fought alongside the British and their allies, Tecumseh and the Shawnee Prophet. Later, leaders of the bands were upset when they learned that their British allies had made peace with the Americans. The leaders remained disgruntled when Superintendent of Indian Affairs William Clark invited them to send a peacemaking delegation to his headquarters at St. Louis. Still influenced by British traders, they were not anxious to acknowledge fealty to the Americans. While at least one band of Winnebago under Choukeka (Spoon or Ladle) Decora signed the June 3, 1816, treaty of amity, other bands refused. 

Tensions increased as lead miners, traders, and military men penetrated Winnebago lands. The newcomers commonly assessed the Winnebago demeanor as fiercely independent, resistant to "civilization," sullen, and aloof. 

American officials expressed irritation that the disaffected Winnebago bands continued to make seasonal visits to British posts at Fort Maiden across the strait from Detroit and at Drummond Island at the northern end of Lake Huron. There they received presents and encouragement from sympathetic British commanders.

American efforts at stopping the trips could have been more effective. Colonel Joseph Lee Smith, commander of the Third Infantry Regiment at Fort Howard (Green Bay), regarded the Winnebagos as "vicious," "active," and having a "mischievous character." As proof, in January 1820, he related the following example of Winnebago's duplicity with the British. A band claiming they were bound for Mackinac had stopped making friendly statements States. On departing, however, instead, Drummond obtained British gifts; on bypassed Fort Howard. Discovered and destroyed a hill near Lake Winnebago Green Bay. He argued that only the presence of an intimidating force of Americans would hold in check the tribe's "evil and unfriendly propensities."

At about the same time, traders and government officials at Green Bay experienced hostility as they attempted to cross waterways near Winnebago villages. An Indian from a village at Lake Winnebago fired a shot that pierced the awning of a boat carrying Captain William Whistler, his three children, and four or five soldiers. The boat flew the American flag. Whistler stopped the vessel and ordered his interpreter to make inquiries. The Winnebago declared that they controlled the route and that no vessel could pass without their permission. As no one was injured and because Whistler did not wish to press matters at that point, he and his party proceeded unmolested.

In retaliation for the harassment, John Bowyer, the Indian agent at Green Bay, soon arrested The Smoker, a visiting "great chief of the Winnebagos." Replying to Bowyer's interrogation, The Smoker professed ignorance of the attack but stated that if the reports proved true, he would bring in the band's leader (who, in the meantime, had reportedly gone on a hunt up the Mississippi) "before the Ice [is] made." With that guarantee, Bowyer released The Smoker and announced that the first chief who approached the fort would be imprisoned if the matter were not resolved by spring. 

Lewis Cass, Governor of Michigan Territory from 1813 to 1831.

In a letter to Michigan Territorial Governor Lewis Cass, Bowyer described the Winnebagos as "unfriendly to the Government." He cautioned that "their character with the white and red people are bad, they are great liars and robbers" and that "no dependence can be placed in what they say."

Bowyer's reports described several confrontations. A boat belonging to a trader named Ermatinger was shot in the mast while crossing Lake Winnebago. On the Fox River, an army surgeon reported that he had been treated "insolently" by Winnebagos, who seized and searched his baggage. Nothing short of placing a strong garrison at the Fox-Wisconsin portage, Bowyer insisted, would "keep this tribe in order."

In the spring of 1820, Thomas Forsyth, an agent at Rock Island, reported to Clark that the Winnebagos had been "daring and impudent" in the vicinity of Fort Armstrong, killing government-owned cattle and repeatedly stealing corn from the Sauks. Clark showed little inclination to trust a delegation of principal men from a Rock River Winnebago band who met him in St. Louis "on a visit of inquiry and friendly professions." In passing on Forsyth's report, Clark claimed to Secretary of War John Caldwell Calhoun that "no confidence can be placed in this vicious Tribe" because "they have later been very insolent and even threatened Fort Armstrong after having killed their cattle." Clark asserted that a lesson for the Winnebago renegades was long overdue, for "they appear not to have any respect for our government, and friendly councils have never produced any favorable effect in preventing their excesses." 

John Caldwell Calhoun, U.S. Secretary of War.

To Forsyth, Clark urged vigilance, yet he admitted that he did not know what the federal government intended to do about the murderers. In April 1820, when Governor Lewis Cass was embarking on a tour of the Northwest, Calhoun reminded him that "certain individuals of the Winnebagoes, Chippewas, and Menomonee have evinced a hostile spirit, which must be repressed." In consultation with each tribe, wrote Calhoun, Cass should "represent to them the desire of the Government to cultivate friendly dispositions towards them, but which cannot be continued unless they effectually restrain the hostile conduct of their people."

In July, the scholarly Jedidiah Morse spent fifteen days in the vicinity of Green Bay on an expedition authorized by the War Department. In his final report, Morse stated that he found it difficult to obtain reliable information on the Winnebagos, partly because of the language barrier and partly because "no other tribe seems to possess so much jealousy of the whites, and such reluctance to have intercourse with them." Morse also commented on Winnebago's sense of territoriality. He confirmed that "they will suffer no encroachment upon their soil; nor any persons to pass through it, without giving a satisfactory explanation of their motives and intentions." Whites who failed to take that customary and precautionary step, said Morse, endangered their lives.

At the time, Morse's antipathy towards whites bated to a "state of consideration." Two young warriors' relatives had been accused of the murder and scalping of two soldiers just outside the gates of Fort Armstrong. Both Indian and white behavior during the episode is well documented in letters and reports, and a close analysis of those records reveals important cultural divergence in the matters of retributive justice and punishment. 

Francis Paul Prucha observes in his study of United States Indian policy that normal federal procedure in the early 1820s was to demand that accused Indians be surrendered by tribal leaders. If the chiefs resisted, various threats, military expeditions, seizure of hostages, or rewards to cooperative Indians generally achieved the purpose.

To American authorities, the murder and scalping of John Blottenburgh and Clement Attley Riggs, two unarmed soldiers on a woodcutting detail, appeared a wantonly savage act. Leaders of the suspected Winnebago bands were summoned and ordered to surrender the culprits. Calhoun directed Cass and Indian Agent Richard Graham to clarify to Winnebago leaders that such atrocities would not be regarded with impunity. Unless the chiefs demonstrated their loyalty by promptly surrendering the "wicked authors" of the crime, the government would consider the chiefs as participants in guilt, and the entire Winnebago nation would be "made to feel the just vengeance and retribution of the Government." Calhoun asserted that it was the responsibility of the chiefs to avert "disastrous consequences and annihilation." Indian gestures of friendship, while expected, were insufficient; the murderers had to be handed over to federal authorities.

Calhoun, however, urged restraint. Rather than overreact to frontier reports of a contemplated general Winnebago attack on Fort Armstrong, he described the killings as the work of a few individuals acting "without the knowledge or authority of the Chiefs." The latter, he correctly predicted, would "disavow it, or any hostility on the part of their nation towards the United States, but take the most prompt and active measures to cause the perpetrators to be arrested and delivered for punishment." 

Lieutenant Colonel Henry Leavenworth

Although his frontier commanders ─ impatient with slow-moving courts and aware of the difficulties of assembling creditable witnesses ─ often preferred summary execution by firing squad, Calhoun ordered that the accused Winnebagos be transferred to civil authorities. Lieutenant Colonel Henry Leavenworth, who had been summoned from Fort Snelling for the investigation, grumbled: "It would have been better to have executed them and then have tried them ─ If they are tried, they must be executed, or we shall feel the weight of the Winnebago Tomahawk." 

To ensure compliance, the Army seized four Winnebagos as hostages. They were released when the chiefs, as promised, brought three men to Prairie du Chien, "preceded by a white flag, and attended by a large concourse of the tribe." The next day Prairie du Chien justices of the peace interrogated the three Indians while the chiefs looked on. 

All three of the prisoners belonged to Winnebago bands on the Rock River. In the spring of 1820, they had set out for Fort Armstrong, ostensibly as traders. Sometimes en route, the eldest, Chewachera [or Chewacuhra], implored the other two's assistance in avenging the death of his sister and her husband, who the Indians claimed was attacked and left to drown by American soldiers. One of the warriors was as young as fifteen, and the other was Chewachera's nephew and therefore bound by custom to obey his commands. Jerago, the youngest of the trio, said that he resisted because he knew the act's consequences and their agent would be angry. He cried and begged the others to "forget our Relations that the Americans had killed." After unsuccessfully attempting to wrest the guns from his companions, he fired shots to alert his mother and thwart the plan. Jerago would not disavow his loyalty to his fellow tribesmen in yielding to interrogation. "They went off and killed two soldiers," he said. "I did not wish to be drawn into this business, but since I have had Irons put upon my hands, which hurts me, I will remain with them."

According to stories told separately by each prisoner, there had been no elaborate scheme for ambushing officers at the fort; the act was premeditated only one day. Wading from their camp on the east bank of the river to the island on which the fort stood, the three determined to lie in wait for someone to come out. If no one appeared after a considerable time, they resolved to forego revenge and simply enter the fort, shake hands, and have a friendly smoke ─ the original preference of the two younger men. But when Blottenburgh and Riggs appeared, the warriors shot them, and Chewachera bashed their heads with the back of an axe and scalped them. The three headed back up Rock River without stopping to stretch the scalps on a hoop. En route to their village, they were taunted by their tribesmen for their rash act. Chewachera and his nephew Whorahjinka were "so much cursed" at their lodge that they unceremoniously threw away the Soldiers' scalps.

Winnebago society placed restrictions on individuals who wished to seek retribution. Permission had to be secured from the chiefs. Warriors who failed to receive that permission, or refused to pursue it, subjected themselves to the only restrictive measures that the chief and the community could adopt ─ temporary loss of prestige, the sort of treatment suffered by the three Winnebago.

Chewachera openly admitted his guilt. He absolved the other two of murderous intent and corroborated their versions of the affair. He did, however, amplify his reasons for revenge:

I knew that my sister had been ill-used below I did not think any more of that. I never had any ill intentions until I heard that my sister had been abused ─ Women ought to be respected. My Father did not encourage any person to use women ill. But my sister had been ill-treated. . . and when I came near the place where it was done, I lost my senses and did a bad act I have done it I delivered up my body to the Chiefs what more can I say.

Whorahjinka added that when they were leaving their lodges, the women had cried on behalf of the slain relatives, and the recollection of that scene helped to trigger the killing of the soldiers. Twice he tried to prevent the contemplated act but finally acquiesced because "my body belonged to my Uncle. I was obliged to do as he did or told me to do."

In an effort to ascertain the facts and project an impartial posture, White authorities attested to the veracity of the interpreters used in the proceedings. One of them, an Indian of an unspecified tribe known as Fast Walker, satisfied the whites before he was sworn in that he knew the purpose and obligations attached to an oath, stating that the Great Spirit would not forgive him ─ even beyond the grave ─ should he lie under oath. When asked the customary way in which to bind an Indian's word, Fast Walker replied, "By laying the hand on a Medicine Sack, a ball or an arrow and saying, 'May my Medicine prove bad, or may the ball or the arrow pierce my heart if I tell a lie.' " Rather than request a medicine bag for his own swearing-in, he told the whites: "The Americans know more than the Indians. I see you have a book there you say is the word of God (or the heart of God). I believe it and will attest upon it as you do."

Leavenworth conducted the interrogation before an assemblage of Rock River Winnebago. Referring to Chewachera's accusations, Leavenworth insisted that the matter had been looked into by Nicholas Boilvin, the United States Indian agent at Prairie du Chien. Boilvin, after talking to a man who had buried the Winnebago couple, reported that although one of the bodies bore marks that might have been attributed to an accident, neither body had broken bones, nor was there evidence that the woman had been assaulted. He said they drowned after falling through the ice. Leavenworth dismissed the charges against the Americans as a lie sung in the Indians' ears by "some bad bird." He claimed that two years had elapsed since the disputed incident and that it was as unreasonable for Winnebago to kill his young men at Rock Island in retaliation for those drowning victims as it would be for him now to kill Winnebago at Prairie La Crosse or Black River in response to the murders of the soldiers.

As on previous occasions, Leavenworth promised that if tribal leaders reported to him any cases of Americans killing Winnebago, he would punish the perpetrators. In a rhetorical flourish that his listeners could not have taken seriously, the Colonel claimed that if his own Father or brother killed an Indian, he would spare no effort to have him hanged, and "such are the sentiments of every white man."

In order to demonstrate "our love of justice [and] that we do not wish to harm the innocent," the authorities released Jerago after concluding that he had done everything possible to prevent the crime. That magnanimous gesture, Leavenworth warned, should not be misconstrued; justice also required that the guilty be punished. Glossing over such Winnebago concepts of justice as payment to relatives of victims, Leavenworth asserted that the "unfortunate young men" had "committed a crime which by your laws subject them to the punishment of death." "Our laws," he concluded, "are the same."

Commending the Winnebago for their good faith in surrendering the murderers and lifting the cloud of distrust that hung over their nation, Leavenworth reminded them that for several years the Rock River bands had had had a bad reputation among whites. He hoped that their future conduct would disprove that negative appraisal. Finally, he warned against asking for the release of the two remaining prisoners, who, in his opinion, deserved the death penalty. In fact, he saw no reason why the Winnebago did not execute those of their nation who killed whites.

Apparently, the Winnebago made threats when they learned that only Jerago would be returned. The delegation had the temerity to tell Leavenworth that he should release the others for the sake of his "Forts and children." Leavenworth scolded them:

What do you mean by that? Is it war? If war serves your intention, you should have kept the prisoners and not given them up. Neither my Forts nor my soldiers are afraid of war ─ they are always ready and would be pleased with it if the Winnebagos wish it. You behaved like men in giving up the prisoners, but in asking me to release them again, you act like old women asking for bread.

The Colonel claimed to have made no promises regarding Chewachera and Whorahjinka. He judged that they were guilty and that Jerago was innocent. Leavenworth instructed the delegation to close any pending business with their agent and return to their villages. He expected assurances that the chiefs would restrain their men.

After meeting in the council, Shungapaw spoke for the Indians. He wished to know when Leavenworth was leaving to go upriver so that the band could accompany him. The suspicious Colonel refused to reveal his plans beyond saying that he intended to hold the prisoners until receiving orders from the President. Upon noticing that Shungapaw no longer wore an American medal (a gift of friendship), Leavenworth accused the Winnebago of mischievous intent. "When you are desirous of any favor, you are very good Americans and appear to be proud of wearing their medals," he said, "but when your wishes are disappointed, you throw them aside." Indeed, he warned them that a watchful eye would be kept upon them because he expected to hear of more murders. Next time, the Americans would not await a surrender; annihilation would be the result for those who began warfare. Shungapaw denied any evil intention and explained that he had given his medal to the brother of one of the prisoners in order to assuage his grief. He maintained that neither the chiefs nor the warriors present had mentioned war and that all were satisfied that their "Great Father, the President," would decide the prisoners' fate.

Reporting to Calhoun after a tour through Winnebago country, Governor Cass expressed satisfaction with Leavenworth's "wise and decisive" handling of matters. The Indians had learned a lesson, said Cass, and the United States should regret nothing except the "untimely fate of the soldiers." Commenting on the likelihood of future complaints, Cass was confident, after talking with men he termed principal Winnebago chiefs, that only the "intemperate passions of Individuals" would again produce such conduct. The chiefs, he believed, would disavow violent acts and would surrender offenders as quickly "as the relaxed state of their Government" would permit.

Leavenworth took the prisoners from Rock Island to Edwardsville in the autumn of 1820. From there, they were transferred to the jail at Belleville. The trial finally took place on May 12, 1821, after Chewachera and Whorahjinka had been held for nearly a year. Jacob Hough, a soldier from Fort Armstrong, testified that he and Andrew Peeling found the bodies of Blottenburgh and Riggs less than a mile from the fort. The two victims had been shot and scalped, and Blottenburgh was hacked in the left side with an axe. Jerago, having been called to testify, told the same story he had related in the earlier interrogation. The jury took only half an hour to reach a verdict of guilty. The following day Chewachera and Whorahjinka were sentenced to death by hanging; the execution was set for mid-July.

The physical condition of the two prisoners was a matter of grave concern both in the Illinois press and among their fellow Winnebago. According to one account, the two had been "hearty, robust men" in the fall of 1820 but were "scarcely able to stand or move by the trial." Upon inquiry by Leavenworth and others, the Indians made specific complaints about their treatment in jail during the winter. According to their statements, they had neither fire nor bedding and were made to sleep on a hard floor. Their daily rations consisted of "cornbread of the size of a small biscuit and half that quantity of meat." On one occasion, they received no food or water for three days and nights. The Illinois Intelligence called for an investigation in the belief that the allegations of inhumanity were exaggerated. One editorialist asked rhetorically: 

Do we call ourselves a Christian nation: Do we boast of our humanity ─ our justice? Were these men in the custody of American people and American laws? If this is true, in what do our prisons differ from those of the Spanish Inquisition or ourselves from nations we are pleased to call barbarous and uncivilized?

William A. Beaird, sheriff of St. Clair County and keeper of the Belleville jail, was accused of mistreating the Winnebago prisoners. He responded to the charges by writing a letter to the newspaper "to teach editors not to injure the characters of innocent persons on the false statements of murdering Indians." In reply to the sheriff, the editor reminded readers that the Indians' statements were not false merely because of their source and that at least one of the two men might still be vindicated of the murder charge. Sheriff Beaird maintained that the prisoners were kept in a thick-walled dungeon in which a fire would have been impossible but through which no cold drafts could penetrate. There was no suggestion, he said, that the Indians be moved near a fireplace. He labeled the charge regarding the bedding "a most absolute falsity" because Indian Agent Thomas Forsyth, wintering in St. Louis, had provided two blankets and two buffalo robes. Although Beaird said the prisoners had not fared well over the winter, he claimed they had more food than they could eat. Noticing that during the incarceration, one "dangerously. . . broke out in large sores, and bleeding at the nose, toothache, and scurvy," Beaird frequently had ordered that soup be prepared as "an extra dainty." The unaccustomed salt provision and their "close confinement in a very tight prison" caused what he called their "meager appearance."

Following the sentencing, Naw Kaw Carmani, the last Winnebago claiming a tribal-wide chieftainship, spoke to the assemblage. Although he would live until after 1830, Naw Kaw was already in his late eighties. In an opening litany of stock phrases, he claimed to be an American, pleading by the Great Spirit that he stood sincerely for peace, and stated that he had less power in his nation than the judge who had just pronounced the sentence. Then bitterness came through in his closing remarks:

When I came down here, I had hoped to find that Che-wa-cha-rah and Who-rah-jin-kah had been better treated, but my heart is oppressed at the cruelty that they have received. I did hope that pity would have been found for them. . . . But let peace be between us. I look up to our Great Father as I do to the Great Spirit for protection.

My Father ─ I came here to see justice, but find none ─ Cah-rah-mah-ree is honest, speaks what he thinks, and shakes you by the hand for the last time.

A report of the trial and verdict was sent to Washington. President James Monroe approved of the sentences meted out to the "misguided" Winnebago, but he had reservations regarding the pre-trial examinations of the accused. As a result, Secretary of War Calhoun was instructed to send word of a temporary reprieve for Whorahjinka. That decision showed at least some sensitivity to Indian perceptions of the circumstances. Whorahjinka's "extreme youth" certainly figured into the move, but so too did an appreciation that he acted as the nephew of Chewachera, "to whom he appeared to consider his body to belong and that he was of course bound to do whatever he told him to do." Whorahjinka's execution date was delayed to August 14, and Calhoun queried William Clark about the impact on the Winnebago of a full presidential pardon. In late June, the enfeebled Chewachera died in prison.

Presidential reprieve proved a false hope, for Leavenworth, who served as a prosecutor in the trial, was convinced that Whorahjinka's guilt was indisputable. While admitting that the Indians had been mistreated in captivity, Leavenworth felt positive that the tribes would "harbor motives of revenge" if Whorahjinka were released. On the expiration of the reprieve, Whorahjinka was hanged at Kaskaskia.

Agent Forsyth confirmed the predicted hostile mood of the Winnebago when he requested that his quarters be located adjacent to Fort Armstrong, as the Winnebago were "by no means well intended, on account (as they say) of the treatment their two men experienced previous to their trial." Fearful of Winnebago's revenge, American policymakers followed the old Anglo-Saxon custom (closely paralleling Indian practice) of making a wergild, or payment, in order to appease the victims' relatives and defuse any desire for retaliation. Because the bands were living near Thomas Forsyth's agency (although not within his jurisdiction), the War Department instructed him to make moderate compensation to the relatives of the two dead Indians "to relieve [them] from the distress which . . . they have suffered."

The Fort Armstrong murders and the resulting trial of the Winnebago prisoners illustrate the extent to which Indians of Illinois complied outwardly with the white man's system of justice. Yet their submission to Anglo-American legal concepts was structured whenever possible with an eye to conformity with their own traditionalism. 

Through the 1820s, continuing American penetration of the Winnebago domain provoked a variety of sporadic responses by Winnebago individuals and bands. Although initially, no tribal-wide policy underlay such responses, Americans insisted that a well-coordinated tribal policy existed. It thus became increasingly difficult for the Indians to practice traditional customs involving justice and land tenure, especially when confronted by the invasions of lead miners. 

The 1825 council at Prairie du Chien at which William Clark and Lewis Cass presented the treaty establishing intertribal boundaries for eleven Michigan Territory tribes. Artist James Otto Lewis, who attended the council, painted this scene.

In 1825 the United States imposed the first regional intertribal boundary treaty. In 1827, the so-called "Winnebago War" was declared by whites in reaction to a raid similar to the Fort Armstrong affair. The treaty ending that conflict gave the government the opportunity to impose the first actual cession of Winnebago lands in Illinois and Wisconsin.

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, 1980.

Edited by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The Kickapoo and Meskwaki (Fox) Tribes History in the Illinois County.

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In historical writing and analysis, PRESENTISM introduces present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. Presentism is a form of cultural bias that creates a distorted understanding of the subject matter. Reading modern notions of morality into the past is committing the error of presentism. Historical accounts are written by people and can be slanted, so I try my hardest to present fact-based and well-researched articles.

Facts don't require one's approval or acceptance.

I present [PG-13] articles without regard to race, color, political party, or religious beliefs, including Atheism, national origin, citizenship status, gender, LGBTQ+ status, disability, military status, or educational level. What I present are facts — NOT Alternative Facts — about the subject. You won't find articles or readers' comments that spread rumors, lies, hateful statements, and people instigating arguments or fights.

FOR HISTORICAL CLARITY

When I write about the INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, I follow this historical terminology:

• The use of old commonly used terms, disrespectful today, i.e., REDMAN or REDMEN, SAVAGES, and HALF-BREED are explained in this article.

Writing about AFRICAN-AMERICAN history, I follow these race terms:

• "NEGRO" was the term used until the mid-1960s.
• "BLACK" started being used in the mid-1960s.
• "AFRICAN-AMERICAN" [Afro-American] began usage in the late 1980s.

— PLEASE PRACTICE HISTORICISM —

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST IN ITS OWN CONTEXT.

 

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According to the statements of a Kickapoo band now living in Mexico, their name in English translation means "Walking Indian." The Kickapoo is of Algonquian stock, and their language is very similar to Sac (Sauk) and Meskwaki (Fox) but slightly different from Shawnee. Several Miami Indians told one investigator that the Kickapoo were originally a part of the Shawnee group until they separated and then associated, to some degree, with the Miami. Chief Wah-bal-Io, a Fox Indian, related in 1820 that the Kickapoo were related to the Sauk and Fox by language and that the manners and customs of the three nations were alike.

The Mascouten has long been a problem to historians, anthropologists, and ethnologists because the early explorers or missionaries misunderstood their name; they frequently lived or associated with other tribes, and they signed no treaties with the United States where a study of their names and language could be made. One Jesuit reported in 1669 that the Mascoutens' name meant "Nation of Fire," but the following year, another priest corrected this report and translated the word as meaning "a treeless country." He explained that "Mascouten" had been misunderstood and confused with another word, fire. Later, a Miami confirmed the second priest's translation and declared that in the Mascouten tongue, "m'skoataa" is a prairie while "skoataa" is fire. The Mascouten said this Miami informant was a division of the Kickapoo and were known as the "People of the Prairie." However, Alanson Skinner, who based his conclusion on the translation of "Mascouten" like fire, insisted that the Mascouten were merely the Prairie Potawatomi since the latter name also meant "Nation of Fire." Some time ago, Indiana University completed a study of this problem and reported that the language of the Mascouten was understood by the Sauk-Fox-Kickapoo group.

In contrast, Potawatomi is much different from these three dialects. Therefore, they conclude, "If the Mascouten were linked with anyone during their known history, they were linked with the Kickapoo." It was said by the early Jesuits that the Mascouten also understood The Illinois tongue, probably because of their association with Miami while in Wisconsin. 

Jean Nicolet referred to the Mascouten in 1634 and located them near what is thought to be the present town of Berlin, Wisconsin, in the Fox River Valley. About 1657, the Jesuits said that the Mascouten were a three-day journey by water from Green Bay, and in 1669, they were placed near the Miami Tribe. At this same time, the Kickapoo lived within 4 leagues of the Fox Indians and in the same general area. By 1670, the Jesuits had discovered that the Mascouten and the Miami lived together in a palisaded village numbered 3,000 people, of whom 400 were warriors. Thus, the Mascouten obtained a working knowledge of the Miami language, nearly the same as that of The Illinois. Probably because of the close connection between the Mascouten and Miami at this time, confusion arose in one instance concerning the identity of a chief named Monso. He came to Lake Peoria in January of 1680, and René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (or René-Robert de La Salle), said that he was a Miami chief while Father Membre called him a Mascouten chief. La Salle also declared on August 22, 1682, that The Illinois had previously forced the Miami north into the country of the Mascouten.

A 1670-1671 Jesuit map showed the Mascouten on the Fox River southwest of Lake Winnebago, and Father Allouez, who was at the Saint Jacques mission in August of 1672, said that there were fifty large lodges (longhouses) of Mascouten, thirty of Kickapoo, and numerous Miami as well as some Illinois near his chapel. Marquette is said to have found the Mascouten, Kickapoo, and Miami at this exact location the following year. Near the southern tip of Lake Michigan in 1674, eight or nine Mascouten lodges were hunting in this area.13 Soon after this time, it would appear that the Mascouten were breaking up into various groups and living with their allies. In 1679, La Salle and Hennepin visited a group of Mascouten, Miami, and Wea near the portage from the St. Joseph to the Kankakee and in the same year, there were Mascouten and Fox villages in the vicinity of Lake Winnebago or Green Bay.

Longhouses of many Farming Indian Tribes. Hunters and Warriors would use Wigwams when traveling.

Although the Kickapoo were said to be a small nation and living in the neighborhood of the Winnebago, they were migrating down into the Illinois Country to hunt game or enemies in 1680. In October of that year, some Kickapoo killed Father Gabriel below the junction of the Illinois and Kankakee rivers, and La Salle discovered during the following month that a party of 200 had camped at the mouth of the Iroquois River. Upon reaching Starved Rock in December, La Salle observed that this same party of Kickapoo had moved into The Illinois village (which had been destroyed by the Iroquois in September) and rebuilt the houses after their own manner of construction. Some Mascouten had also moved south in 1680 and were seen near the Chicagou portage and at the Milwaukee River with a band of Fox. The area along the Chicago River was pointed out two years later as being the country of the Mascouten.

Mascouten Indian Tribe Wigwams.

About the year 1683, the Iroquois made an attack upon the Mascouten who were in the Lake Michigan area and carried off a number of them as prisoners. The remainder of the Mascouten and Kickapoo fled to escape further slaughter, although the Iroquois induced the Fox to remain where they were. Perhaps this attack marks the beginning of their migration into Illinois since the Franquelin map of 1684 shows the Rock River of Illinois as the "River of the Kickapoo." Minet's map of 1685 also places the Kickapoo here, and Homan's map of 1687 shows the Mascouten between the Rock and Wisconsin Rivers. Coronelli's map, drawn the following year, indicates that the Mascouten were living south of the Wisconsin River and gives a clue to the identity of this elusive nation. They were, said Coronelli, a group composed of Mascouten, Miami, and Kickapoo.

In French, a portion of the Franquelin map of 1684 shows the Rock River in Illinois as the "River of the Kickapoo."

Henri de Tonti stated that the Kickapoo and Mascouten were 15 leagues inland from the Mississippi River, near the Wisconsin River. In 1690, there were still some Mascouten on the Chicago River. In 1695, Antoine Laumet de la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac (or Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac - sometimes spelled: Motte) reported that the Kickapoo and Mascouten were west of Lake Michigan's southern tip where they were able to hide from the Iroquois. Father Julien Binneteau said in January of 1699 that the Kickapoo had migrated south near the country of The Illinois to raise better corn. Some Kickapoo still lived above the Wisconsin River in 1700, but by this time, they and the Mascouten had become acquainted with the Michigamea and joined them in the war on the Iowa River. Since The Illinois had abandoned their northern lands, the Kickapoo and Mascouten were moving into the vicinity of the Illinois River and its tributaries by 1702. This year, Pierre LeMoyne and Sieur d'Lberville related that the Kickapoo and Mascouten could muster 450 warriors and sometimes attacked French canoes on the Mississippi River. However, their primary purpose was to catch beaver, which they sold at Green Bay or to traders in Illinois. For a time, the Mascouten had a village near the mouth of the Ohio River, but the missionaries could not convert them even though they understood The Illinois Algonquian language.

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The word "Mississippi" comes from the Ojibwe Indian Tribe (Algonquian language family) word "Messipi" or "misi-ziibi," which means "Great River" or "Gathering of Waters." French explorers, hearing the Ojibwe word for the river, recorded it in their own language with a similar pronunciation. The Potawatomi (Algonquian language family) pronounced "Mississippi" as the French said it, "Sinnissippi," which was given the meaning "Rocky Waters."

It seems reasonable to suppose that the Kickapoo and Mascouten used Illinois as a hunting area rather than a permanent habitat since 1703, when these two tribes still had villages on the Fox River near De Pere, Wisconsin. Two years later, they were along the Wisconsin River and numbered approximately 400 braves. Some of these Mascouten seem to have joined the Miami on the Wabash River before 1711, and the following year, a group also joined the Fox at Detroit, where they and the Fox were nearly all destroyed. There was also a settlement of Kickapoo on the mouth of the Maumee River, and thirty Mascouten moved there, probably to defend against the angry French. Soon after 1712, the Kickapoo and Mascouten withdrew to the Illinois Country and again settled upon the Rock River, where they continued their war with The Illinois.

The White Robe is said to have been the principal chief of the Kickapoo in 1720, and their country, as well as that of the Mascouten, was between the Fox and the Illinois rivers. But on September 15, 1720, two Mascouten chiefs appeared at the St. Joseph River and asked permission to live near the Potawatomi, saying they could no longer live peacefully with the Fox. In May of the following year, some Mascouten and a group of Kickapoo led by the White Robe established a village on the St. Joseph. Their hunting grounds seem to have been down the Wabash River, although these tribes wandered about from one region to another, as did most neighboring tribes. On October 11, 1723, Pierre Francois Vaudreuil declared that the Mascouten had been incorporated into the Fox tribe, indicating that the former had moved toward the Mississippi River again. By October 1728, the Kickapoo and Mascouten lived north of The Illinois on the Mississippi River. The center of their activities was the Rock River, where the Kickapoo chiefs Pechicamengoa and White Robe established villages. During 1728, the Fox killed a few Kickapoos, and a rupture occurred between these two tribes, enabling the French to deal severely with the Fox, who were now mainly without allies. The Kickapoo, greatly enraged, sprung upon the Fox, killed two of their great chiefs (Pemoussa and Chichippa), and made peace with The Illinois. It appears that some of the Mascouten had also abandoned the Fox because, by 1729, they were again allies of the Kickapoo and aiding the French, whom they had previously fought against.

The Kickapoo and Mascouten lived between the Illinois and Rock Rivers in 1730. During the winter of 1734-1735, some of the Kickapoo and Mascouten moved back to the Wabash River. They settled within 6 leagues of Ouiatanon (a post near Lafayette, Indiana). However, the Kickapoo and Mascouten did not "harmonize" with the Wea settled there. Nevertheless, the newcomers remained near Ouiatanon, and the French failed to pay them in the mouth of the Tennessee River as a buffer against the Cherokee in 1736. There was a split in the Kickapoo and Mascouten tribes because in 1736 there were eighty Kickapoo braves and sixty Mascouten still on the Fox River - either in Illinois or Wisconsin. But in April of 1741, those Mascouten living in the direction of the Wisconsin River arrived at Ouiatanon and joined the Mascouten chief already there. These new arrivals filled eight lodges, and it appears that all the Mascouten were now together, but no mention is made of the other Kickapoo group participating in this migration.

Although they expressed a desire to leave the Wea and settle in the "meadow of the Maskoutins" in 1742, the Kickapoo remained at Ouiatanon, and two years later, the French again attempted to resolve them on the Ohio River. By 1746, they finally agreed to move to the projected fort on the Ohio River, but no evidence had been found that they had moved there. As the French became more interested in these tribes, mention was made of their chiefs, and in 1746, several were identified. Among the Mascouten were Le Temps Clair (Unclouded Weather); his brother, Pacanne (Pecan); La Noix (Walnut); Le Brave (Brave One); Mirraquoist; and La Mauvais Jambe (Bad Leg). The last two were war chiefs, and La Mauvais Jambe oversaw thirty warriors. Chiefs of the Kickapoo were Deaux Visages Plats (Two Flat Faces), Mainbas (Bad Hand), and Le Petit Bonheur (Little Good Luck).

Envoys from the Kickapoo and Mascouten visited the French at Montreal on April 24, 1748, but it is not stated where their villages were. Unless they were from the Wisconsin River, their homes were on the Wabash River since it is known that the Kickapoo settlements remained along this river for many years. The Wabash Kickapoo had established a village at Terre Haute, Indiana. In 1752, the French called them back to Ouiatanon to make the Wea jealous and secure their return from the British-controlled areas along the Ohio River. Other Kickapoo were allied to the Sauk and Fox, who remained on the Wisconsin River and made raids on the Illinois. As a result of the French and Indian War, the British assumed control of Post Ouiatanon and enumerated the Indians living in the surrounding territory. This census disclosed 180 Kickapoo and 90 Mascouten, all of whom were probably braves since the Europeans were mainly interested in the fighting strength of the Indians. Thomas Hutchins found the same number of Kickapoo and Mascouten at Ouiatanon in 1762 and said his count was only of the warriors, thus confirming the earlier account. Yet all of the Mascouten did not live at Ouiatanon; a village of twenty families was discovered in 1763 up the Kankakee River sixty miles from the confluence of that river with the Des Plaines.

Even though the British controlled the Wabash Country, the Kickapoo and Mascouten professed friendship with the French, who retained control of Fort de Chartres in Illinois. On June 26, 1764, a group of Kickapoo visited the commandant there. The British estimated that the Kickapoo could muster 300 braves at this time, but the military authorities did not mention the Mascouten. They were, however, still united with the Kickapoo and on June 8, 1765, George Croghan was captured by a mixed party of Kickapoo and Mascouten, who were hunting near the mouth of the Wabash River, and taken to Ouiatanon. The following year, these tribes were observed living near Vincennes, Indiana, and by 1767, the Kickapoo had made peace with the Kaskaskia, probably because they, too, favored the French. The Kickapoo and Mascouten continued to kill stray Britishers, and when Fort de Chartres hoisted the British Union Jack, a Kickapoo war party raided the village. Across the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri, the Spanish maintained cordial relations with the Kickapoo and Mascouten, who traveled from the Wabash River to receive presents.

At the time of the American Revolution, there was a Mascouten village of fourteen lodges at the confluence of the Iroquois and Kankakee rivers; the Kickapoo resided mainly about Post Ouiatanon, but in later years, William Henry Harrison (the future 9th U.S. President) recalled that some Kickapoo had moved north at this time to establish a village on the Vermilion River. These tribes sided with the British in the Revolution and remained near Vincennes. The Spanish learned that the Kickapoo had 300 warriors and had for their principal chief a man who had the same name as a previous Mascouten leader, Pacanne (Pecan); within a mile of their village was a Mascouten settlement which could raise 200 warriors and had for their principal chief El Tander. A delegation of Kickapoo, Mascouten, and Wea held a council with the British at Detroit on June 29, 1778, and declared falsely that they never traded with the Spanish at St. Louis. Although no Mascouten chiefs were listed, the Kickapoo war chiefs present at the conference were Egh-kee-too-wa and Miquetto; the village chiefs were Mahinamba and Pi-e-mash-kee-canny. However, when the Kickapoo observed the Americans' success and received a message from George Rogers Clark - delivered by Captain Leonard Helm - they sued for peace.

After the American Revolution, the Mascouten and Kickapoo moved farther up the Wabash River and into the Illinois Country. By 1781, reports placed them south of Lake Michigan, and Tanclel was said to be the principal Mascouten chief, a man who thoroughly hated The Illinois. John Armstrong's map of 1790 calls the Desplaines River the "Kickapoo River." When surveyors moved up the Kaskaskia River to its source, they were attacked by the Kickapoo, who resided in the prairies of north-central Illinois. There also was a Kickapoo village, called "Kikapouguoi," on the Wabash River below the Vermilion River where Chief "Les Jambes Croches" (probably La Mauvais Jambe or Bad Leg) resided. Another of their main villages was in the prairie near the northern part of the Sangamon River. When Gen. Anthony Wayne called the Indians to a treaty council at Greenville, Ohio, on August 3, 1795, the Kickapoos were represented, but no location of their villages was given.

By 1800, the Prairie Band of the Kickapoo lived north and east of Springfield, Illinois, and around Bloomington. This group hunted down the rivers and into southern Illinois, where they sometimes killed the peaceful Kaskaskia. Since they received no annuity payments, these Kickapoo stole horses without fear because they had nothing to lose. As a result, these several hundred Kickapoo committed many depredations against the white settlers living in Illinois. Because there had been difficulty in defining and determining the boundaries of the land purchased from the Indians in 1795, several of the Wabash tribes were called to a council at Fort Wayne on June 7, 1803. The Kickapoo were represented by Nah-mah-to-hah (Standing) and Pas-she-we-hah (Cat). After the Indians had talked the matter over among themselves, another council and treaty resulted on August 7 whereby the Indians agreed to a land cession in Illinois as well as Indiana and granted the government the right to erect stations along the road  [now known as the Buffalo Trace] from Vincennes to Kaskaskia. At this second meeting, the Eel River Miami represented the Kickapoo.

A second large group of Kickapoo lived on the Vermilion River and were called the Vermilion Band. Although they generally kept to themselves, Michael Brouillette obtained a license to trade with them in 1804. Chief Pemwatome (The Swan that Cries) was an influential leader of these Kickapoo. Other little bands seem to have moved west to the Illinois River, and Zebulon Montgomery Pike (Pike was an American brigadier general and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado was renamed) announced in 1805 that some Kickapoo had a summer village on the little peninsula that was formed by the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. This western movement of the Kickapoo alarmed the officials, and an attempt was made in 1807 to remove them to the Wabash River. Yet on December 9, 1809, the United States persuaded the Kickapoo to cede even these lands along the Vermilion River from Danville eastward. Their chiefs and principal braves who agreed to this cession were Joe Renard, Nemahson (Man on His Feet), Knoshania (Otter), Wakoah (Fox Hair), Nonoah (Child at the Breast), and Moquiah (Bear Skin).

As the war clouds gathered just before the War of 1812, the Kickapoo became restless and raided into southern Illinois. Part of the tribe traveled east to join the Shawnee Prophet's band on the Wabash River, but many remained along the Sangamon River as late as November of 1810. Those who had joined the Prophet fought against the forces of Gen. Harrison on November 7, 1811, and Mengoatowa, a Kickapoo, served as one of the war chiefs. Harrison estimated that half of the total Kickapoo strength had aided the Prophet. Soon after this important battle of Tippecanoe, the Kickapoo moved their villages from the Sangamon River to Lake Peoria, where Pemwatome established his band of 100 braves in a village twenty-four miles north of Peoria. Little Deer's group of seventy settled across the lake from Gomo's Potawatomi village, and the third band of Kickapoo - without a chief - took up quarters on the Mackinaw River with some Potawatomi, Chippewa, and Ottawa, making a little village of sixty braves. The rest of the Kickapoo remained with the Shawnee Prophet. To prevent further hostilities, Governor Ninan Edwards [Edwards was Governor of the Illinois Territory from 1809 to 1818] held a council with the Kickapoo and others at Cahokia on April 16, 1812. Still, that autumn, the Kickapoo raided Peoria. Pemwatome explained the action of the Kickapoo by saying that the whites had killed one of their chiefs who was hunting near the Kaskaskia River.

Major Thomas Forsyth, an Indian Agent living at Peoria, informed Gen. Benjamin Howard in September of 1812 that the Kickapoo, formerly living near Portage des Sioux, Missouri, were planning an attack upon the frontier settlements. Without waiting for this to happen, the Americans marched north to the Kickapoo towns on Lake Peoria. They burned them, causing the Kickapoo and Miami to seek protection among the Sauk on Rock River. Just a month or so later, troops also marched north into the stronghold of the Shawnee Prophet in Indiana and destroyed not only his town but also that of the Wabash Kickapoo; the latter numbered 160 houses and was located nearby. Those Kickapoo who joined the Sauk remained with them until the spring of 1813 and established their own village six miles up the Iroquois River from the Kankakee. There were 200 warriors in this settlement, and Thomas Forsyth speculated that the other group of Kickapoo living with the Shawnee Prophet might join them. Little Deer was the most influential Kickapoo chief and fought stubbornly against the Americans, but Pemwatome engaged in the war against his wishes and better judgment.

Although the Mascouten is mentioned in 1812 as a separate tribe, there are no further reports about this little-known tribe, and one observer declared to Thomas Jefferson in 1813 that they had been absorbed into the Kickapoo nation. Other scholars have agreed with this explanation, but more research must be done among the surviving Kickapoo groups before a definite answer can be given.

After the War of 1812, the Kickapoos were said to have 400 braves, but they were widely separated as a result of several American attacks that killed eighty of their warriors. Gomo, the Potawatomi chief, declared to Thomas Forsyth at Peoria that the Kickapoo had asked to camp with him on Lake Peoria. They dispersed instead to different sections of the country. Some had gone to live with the Sauk on Rock River, where the British distributed free gunpowder. Among this group was Pemwatome's band, which had established a village on the Illinois River portion of the Pecatonica River. Little Deer was also encamped somewhere in Illinois, although his location is unknown; perhaps it was his group of 200 braves living on the Vermilion River. In the fall of 1814, some of the Kickapoo assembled at the mouth of Rock River and established their winter hunting village on the Iowa River with a band of Foxes. Another village of Kickapoo took up their winter quarters on the Kankakee with Neshkagenaymain (Bad Sturgeon), a Potawatomi chief.

When the Rock River area Kickapoo learned that the war was terminated with Great Britain, they informed the Americans that their party would leave the Rock and return to their villages in central Illinois. One of these villages was on Kickapoo Creek, near Lincoln, and the Old Kickapoo Town was near the headwaters of the Sangamon River. Those Kickapoo who had joined the Potawatomi on the Vermilion River remained there in 1815. Ninan Edwards confidently informed the secretary of war that all of the Kickapoo were in Illinois. Yet many of the Kickapoo who had fought with the British were still living in Canada as late as October of 1815. However, the two groups did return to their former haunts the following month. One band settled on the Embarrass River and the other on the Sangamon River, but in 1816, there were still 161 Kickapoo in Canada: forty-three men, sixty-seven women, and fifty-one children. Another little group of Kickapoo was found along the Illinois River with the Potawatomi in 1816, and there were several lodges near Skunk River, Iowa, in addition to twenty lodges of Pemwatome's band who were living on the banks of the Mississippi River. Altogether, the Kickapoo nation consisted of 1600 persons, of whom 440 belonged to the Vermilion Band.

On June 4, 1816, Kickapoo chiefs and braves gathered at Fort Harrison in Indiana to confirm the land cession of 1809. Representing the Kickapoo were Sheshepah (Little Duck); Kaanehkaka (Drunkard's Son); Skekonah (Stone); Mahquah or Moquiah (Bear); Penashee (Little Turkey); Mehtahkokeah (Big Tree); Keetahtey (Little Otter); Nepiseeah (Blackberry); Pehsquonatah (Blackberry Flower); and Tecumthena (Track in Prairie). Although it is not stated where the Kickapoo resided, those who signed the treaty were undoubtedly from the Vermilion River. Later that year, a Kickapoo band delegation living among the Potawatomi went to St. Louis, Missouri, where they witnessed "The Council of Three Fires" land cession on August 24. The Kickapoo chiefs who signed this treaty were Katasa, Tapema, Sakappee, Kenapoeso, Pawanaqua, Ancowa, Mackkattaoushick, and Shaquabee.

Since the Kickapoo continued to hunt through the lands along the Sangamon River, Gov. Edwards was determined to remove them immediately. He claimed that these Kickapoos had occupied this section of Illinois only since about 1800 and had formerly lived on the Wabash River until smallpox forced them to leave these villages. After much effort, the Indian agents finally persuaded the Prairie Band of Kickapoo to come down to Edwardsville on July 30, 1819, where they ceded their holdings to all of central Illinois as far west as the Illinois River. In return, the Kickapoo received a land grant upon the Osage River and promised to go there immediately. Among the signers was Pemwatome, the celebrated chief. One month later, the Vermilion Band of Kickapoo agreed to this land cession and to leave Illinois immediately. But much trouble occurred, and some time passed before the Kickapoo was finally removed. When an attempt was made to gather them together for the long journey west, only Waw-pee-ko-ny-a (Blue Eyes) could be found - the remainder were hiding. Pemwatome (The Swan that Cries) and Pacanne (Pecan) quickly moved north with about 200 followers and established a village near the mouth of Rock River. Major Marston observed this group near Rock Island in November of 1820 and declared that Pemwatome was an old man while Pacanne was about forty years old.

Many of the Kickapoo refused to leave Illinois in 1820, but between 1821 and 1822, some did cross the Mississippi River. Among those who remained was Little Duck, who had his permanent village on the Wabash River, one mile above Pine Creek's mouth. His braves caused the Illinois settlers trouble as late as October of 1823. A band of Kickapoo lived near the Rock River, and the Sauk allowed them to hunt on the Iowa River. The Potawatomi had also formed an alliance with the remaining Illinois Kickapoo, who, it was said, numbered 600 persons. Charles Christopher Trowbridge, an explorer, learned in 1823-1824 that there were still Kickapoo living between Terre Haute and the Illinois River. These villages contained approximately 400 persons, and in 1823-1824, the Kickapoo of the Wabash Valley wintered on the Kaskaskia, but during the next two years, some of them moved west to Missouri.54 A few Kickapoo were still living within the boundaries of Illinois in 1824: a group on the headwaters of the Little Wabash River and another on the Vermilion River. Of the latter group, Wagoa and Oquid were the chiefs.

Thomas Forsyth learned in May of 1825 that there was a Kickapoo village thirty or forty miles south of Rock Island, and other informants reported that Maecenas band was on the north fork of the Sangamon River, Pemwatome's on the Embarrass, and Little Thunder's and Kanakuk's (The Kickapoo Prophet) on the Mackinaw River. From 1825 to 1827, about 25 lodges of Kickapoo moved to Missouri, and one group of thirty drew attention when it arrived at St. Louis on June 29, 1826. The destination of this party was the James Fork of the White River. On June 6, 1827, the Black Buffalo led his little family across the Mississippi River and headed for the Osage River reservation, but other small groups of Kickapoo remained in Illinois. The village on the Mississippi River below Rock River was still occupied in 1827, and Macena clung tenaciously to his hunting grounds on the Sangamon River. It was said in November of 1827 that fifty lodges were still in Illinois, but in the spring of 1828, several small parties of Kickapoo left their villages and moved west. Even Wagoa had gone to the White River by the year 1828. Of the prominent chiefs, only Kanakuk (The Kickapoo Prophet) remained at his village on the Mackinaw, and he promised William Clark on May 25, 1828, that he would move out of Illinois by May of the following year. His little village numbered approximately 200 souls.

Those Kickapoo who resided near the Sauk of Rock River agreed with Black Hawk in 1829 and spoke against the white settlers. One Kickapoo band from the Mackinaw River migrated to the Rock River in May 1830 and joined their friends there. This village of 100 warriors and twenty long houses was just south of the Rock River's mouth. The Vermilion Band was encamped near Chicago on their winter hunt in October of that same year. This was undoubtedly the village ruled by Kanakuk. William Clark ordered this chief to leave the state in 1831. Kanakuk replied to the messenger, Augustus Kennerly, on August 4 that "God has not told me to go on the other side of the Mississippi River, but to stay here and mind my Religion." Clark had told him to move out by October 1, when the corn and pumpkins would be harvested at his village on the Vermilion River. The other band of Kickapoo - who were living along the Mississippi - followed the Sauk into Iowa in the fall of 1831 for their winter hunt.

In the spring of 1832, some Kickapoo returned to Illinois from hunting lands west of the Mississippi River. In April, 100 lodges of Kickapoo and Sauk were encamped at the point where the Lewistown road crossed the Rock River (near Prophetstown). Citizens of Pekin reported in May that 380 warriors assembled at the Kickapoo town on "Money Creek, within twenty-five miles of Bloomington," and some of these were Kickapoo. They remained near Mackinaw River, and some joined Black Hawk's hostile band, Sauk and Fox. When his rebellious force was defeated by federal and state troops, one little group of Kickapoo fled to a Potawatomi village near Chicago only to be placed under arrest by the Indian agent there, Thomas J. V. Owen, and delivered to Fort Dearborn. This little band consisted of nine men, eleven women, and seventeen children."

A federal official, on October 11, 1832, instructed the governor of Illinois that he might negotiate a treaty for the final removal of the Kickapoo, and Kanakuk (The Kickapoo Prophet) led his band of about 250 Kickapoo and 150 Potawatomi from the Vermilion River to Castor Hill (near St. Louis) where they signed a treaty with William Clark on October 24 that year. By the 31st, Clark informed the Illinois governor that all the Kickapoo had left his state except those who had been incarcerated by Owen at Fort Dearborn in September."

The Kickapoo reservation was four miles north of Fort Leavenworth. Kanakuk became associated with the Methodist missionaries and was licensed to preach. Others followed the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1836, it was stated that 470 Kickapoo lived on the reservation. By 1865, there were 344 Kickapoo still in Kansas, and an undetermined number were living in Texas near the Mexican border. Shortly after this date, the Kickapoo in Texas migrated across the border. It frequently made raids into the United States until Col. H. M. Atkinson removed them to their reservation in 1875. 

Kickapoos pushed from the Great Lakes into Mexico, then Texas and Oklahoma. The Suke Jimenez family in their longhouse on March 2, 1986.

However, many of these Indians later fled back across the border into Mexico, where they still reside today in their own village, which is approximately 125 miles south of Eagle Pass, Texas (by road), and in the state of Coahuila, Mexico, near the town of Muzquiz. Some settled in Texas, and The remainder of the Kickapoo are mainly in Oklahoma.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.