An Anthropological Report on the Indians of the Kankakee River

Between 1673 and 1679 Father Allouez "retired to a village composed partly of Miami and partly of Mascouten and Wea" who had "abandoned their old village" on the Fox-Wisconsin portage and had moved southeastward to settle on the St. Joseph River of Michigan, near the St. Joseph-Kankakee portage. According to the French explorer, Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle, and his chaplain, Father Membré, this move was instigated by French Jesuit priests and only "some of [the Miamis]" moved to St. Joseph. However later, in 1681, Membré refers to "the twelve or fifteen hundred men composing the Miami tribe" who were then, by context, on the St. Joseph River of Michigan. In spite of being pro-Iroquois, "two huts of the Miamis," probably from St. Joseph River were filled or captured by the Iroquois while hunting near the mouth of the Ohio River during the winter of 1680-1681. The next year, due to La Salle's influence and to fear of rumored Iroquois attack, "eight or nine hundred families" of the Wea, the Pepicokea, the Crane hand and the Kilatika moved from St. Joseph River of Michigan to La Salle's recently built post, Fort St. Louis, on the upper Illinois River at Starved Rock, Illinois. According to the 1688 Franquelin map, which was based on pre-1684 data furnished by La Salle, each of the above-mentioned groups lived in a separate village in the vicinity of Fort St. Louis. The Kilatica village is mapped near the Junction of the Des Plaines and Kankakee rivers, the Wea village is on the north bank of the Illinois River directly opposite the Fort, while the Piankashaw and Mengakonkia villages are shown in the prairie region between Bureau Creek and Fox, Illinois, and Rock rivers, north of the Wea village. Contemporary documentation substantiates Franquelin's location of the Wea who, we learn, occupied 120 cabins and amounted to ca. 1950 souls. By 1687 and early 1688, however, there was only one "village of the Miamis" near Fort St. Louis, some 2.5 to 3.75 miles up the Illinois River from the Fort.

As stated above, not all the "Miami" who were living on Fox River of Wisconsin in the 1670's migrated to St. Joseph River of Michigan. In 1683 a group of "Miamis" requested permission to settle near the French trader, Nicolas Perrot, at his new fort on the Mississippi River at the mouth of the Wisconsin River. We conclude that they did so, because in ca. 1686 Perrot visited them on the Mississippi and persuaded them to participate in a French-led, French-instigated pan-Indian raid against the Iroquois, conducted in 1687.

In 1688 all those "Miami" who were in the Illinois River valley abandoned this location. Some went to St. Joseph River of Michigan and settled 30 leagues (75 miles) from the mouth of the Kankakee River; others went to the mouth of Root River in eastern Wisconsin, and a third group went to the 22 upper reaches of the Mississippi River. As a result, in ca. 1690 there were at least four distinct villages. Three of these stemmed from the Illinois River Valley group and were at the mouth of Root River, on St. Joseph River of Michigan, and on the upper Mississippi River while one group was located near Perrot's fort on the Mississippi below the mouth of Wisconsin River.

The so-called "Miami" group which went to the upper Mississippi was, we conclude, the Piankashaw. We know that this group formerly resided on Illinois River, and in the writings of Jean François Buisson de St. Cosme, a Seminary priest, it was stated in 1699 that the Piankashaw had "formerly dwelt at the falls" of the Mississippi. St. Cosme probably meant the rapids near the mouth of Rock River; the Falls of St. Anthony at present St. Paul, Minnesota, were too far north for any "Miami" group during this historic period.

The "Miami" group that lived on the west bank of the Mississippi River and was mentioned by Perrot in ca. 1690-1695 was also this same Piankashaw group. This group, according to Perrot, had promised to remove to Marameg, in order to provide more adequate support of the French in the latter's conflict with the Iroquois. Prior to making this promise the Piankashaw had been invited to settle on the St. Joseph River of Michigan where another group of "Miami" lived, but they had refused to do so because the French commander of the St. Joseph River post had refused their request for powder and lead.²⁴ Whether these Piankashaw went to Marameg or not is unknown.

By combining various statements made by Perrot with comments of St. Cosme, we learn that there were two distinct groups of Piankashaws in Wisconsin during the last decade of the 17th century. One, as we have seen, lived at the falls of the Mississippi, probably on the west bank of the river; another village of Piankashaws, Pepicokeas and Mengakonkias was located at the portage of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers.

 In 1702, there still was a "Miami" village "at Wisconsin [River] on the Mississippi."

In 1695 it became part of official French policy to draw the "Miami" (Wea) then living in the west, farther eastward, to serve as a bulwark against possible Iroquois raids. Within a year this removal of the Wea seemingly was effected, for in 1695 Father Francois Pinet, a Jesuit Missionary, established the Mission of the Guardian Angel at Chicago. The "Miami" who lived in the immediate vicinity of this Mission had formerly come from the Mississippi and were Wea.

The Wea continued in the vicinity of Chicago. In the fall of 1698 St. Cosme visited the Mission of the Guardian Angel and saw two Wea villages. One, containing over 150 cabins (ca. 2400 souls) was near the Mission; the other, almost as large as the first, was a league (ca. 2.5 miles) up the Chicago River. A third village,of Piankashaws,was at that time on the Illinois River, a short distance below the Junction of the Des Plaines and Kankakee. None of the villages were occupied in the fall of 1698, all the Indians being away on their winter hunt. Where they were hunting is not stated, but we learn that two years later a party of Weas passed the winter of 1700-1701 in the vicinity of Chicago.

According to a memorandum dated June 20, 1702 and written by Pierre Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, Governor of Louisiana, there were at that time five distinct locations for "the Miamis:" Chicago, St. Joseph River of Michigan, forks of the Illinois River, "at Wisconsin on the Mississippi," and "Atihipe-Catouy [?]." From previous information it is possible to identify the groups at two of these locations. The Weas we know were at Chicago, and the Piankashaws at the junction of the Des Plaines and Kankakee rivers. We also conclude that some Piankashaws, Pepicokias and Mengakonkias were then "at Wisconsin on the Mississippi.'' This identification is borne out by the fact that prior to 1702 the Piankashaws had been raided by the Sioux and Iowa Indians and in 1700, in conjunction with other Central Algonquian groups, the Piankashaws set out to wreak their vengeance upon the Iowa or Osage. However, it is apparent that this Piankashaw, Pepicokia, Mengakonkia village was not located on the banks of the Mississippi River. A Louisiana trader, Pierre Charles Le Sueur, did not mention any sign of an Indian village on the Mississippi near the mouth of the Wisconsin when he went up

The French in that same year (1718) sent to the post at Ouiatenon the younger Sieur de Vincennes, Francois Margane de la Valterie, who had taken over his uncle's role of being the chief intermediary between official French policies and the "Miamis," and who later became identified especially with the Piankashaws.

Philippe de Rigault, marquis de Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada in reporting to the Council of the Marine in France in October 1720 French troubles with the Fox Indians and the success of French policy of withdrawing "Miamis" and "Ouyatanons" from their locations which were too close to English and Iroquois influences, says

According to advices received from St. Joseph River and the Ouyatanons post, some savages of that nation, to the number of forty or 50, have gone to settle at the Teatiky (Kankakee), and it was hoped that the rest would follow Them this autumn. It is, however, to be feared that the Pianginchias, who are more numerous than all the rest, may decide to remain where they are; for they have been solicited by the Canadians who have fled to Caskakias; Who have told the savages that they would take care to bring them merchandise, and that the officer who was in command in the country of the Ilinois, claiming that they were his dependents, was on the point of having their post occupied by an officer with a garrison. This, according to my views, is wholly prejudicial to the welfare of this colony and to the union which ought to exist between the Ouyatanons and the Miamis; for they are one and the same nation, having separated into two bodies on account of the jealousy of the chiefs who formerly governed them. Besides, that nation has never been considered as belonging either to the Illinois country or to Louisiana.

Vaudreuil concludes his letter by saying that every effort will be; made to move the Miamis to St. Joseph and to persuade all of the "Ouyatanons" to remove to the Kankakee. In this report Vaudreuil divides the "Miami" into Miamis and Ouyatanons, lumping in the second category at least the Piankashaws in addition to the Weas, with his statement that the Piankashaws were the most numerous of the Ouyatanon groups. Whether any of the Piankashaws were among the 40-50 Indians who did move to the Kankakee in response to French solicitations is not known. Apparently the majority, at least, intended to remain on the Wabash.

Vaudreuil's report reflects, also, in addition to French concern with English encroachments, another factor which influenced French relations with Indian groups in the Illinois-Indiana area--the squabbling over Jurisdiction and the rivalry that existed between the several French governmental divisions in the New World. The Kankakee River to which the French wanted them to move was the site of one of the Piankashaw's earlier villages.

Vaudreuil's fears about the non-cooperation of the Wea's groups in moving to the Kankakee River were realized by the fall of 1721. The "Weas" refused to move to the Kankakee village "en masse," and those few "Weas" who had gone there abandoned the location "on finding that the rest of the nation would not come".

Piankashaws may have been located on the Wabash River as early as 1708, and were certainly living in a village in the vicinity of Ouiatenon, near the location of the present-day city of Lafayette, Indiana, by 1718. An effort was made by the French to attract the Piankashaws to settle on the Kankakee River in 1720 and 1721, but only a few of them moved there and these stayed only a short time. La Salle's lieutenant in his explorations and at the Illinois colony, it is apparent that the Piankashaws who had a village a short distance downstream from the juncture of the Kankakee and Des Plaines rivers in 1698 had moved there a few years before from some place on the Mississippi River. Hence any mention of a "Miami" village or chief located on the Mississippi in the 1690's and early 1690's possibly could have been a reference to a Piankashaw village or chief. Some references to Miami being on the Mississippi follow. In about 1686 Perrot went to a "Miami" village located on the Mississippi River to induce the warriors to join in a French-inspired war against the Iroquois Indians. By the end of 1688 all the "Miami" groups around Fort St. Louis had dispersed, and a part of them had gone "to the upper Mississippi."

About 1690 a "great chief of the Miamis" who visited Perrot at a trading establishment located on the Mississippi River below the mouth of the Wisconsin River said his village was "four leagues [ca. 10 miles] farther down." During this winter Perrot again tried to enlist the "Miamis" of the area in the French war against the Iroquois. In response, all of the "Miamis," assembled at Perrott's post. They agreed to go in small groups against the Iroquois, but intended instead to join the Fox and Mascouten Indians in an attack on the Sioux. Perrot stopped this dereliction with some difficulty.

About the same time [ea. 1690-91] the French were also trying to arouse, with success this time, the ''Miamis" of "Maramek" (see map) to make war on the Iroquois.

Some time later the "Miamist" and Sioux renewed their friendship at a French post opposite a lead mine on the Mississippi River. From here they sent word to a village of Miamis, established on the other side of the Mississippi to come to the post for a council. When the "Miamis" arrived at the post they were informed that they would be of more use to the French in their war against the Iroquois if they moved and were told that they would receive no more war supplies unless they aided the French in this way. (Idem) This "Miami" group promised: to locate their fires at Maramek. They would have done so at the Saint Joseph River at the solicitation of the chief of that district; but his refusal to furnish them gunpowder and balls gave them too unfavorable an opinion of his avarice to attract them to a union with him."

Whether this group did move there to join the other "Miamis" of that location is not known. Some time later Perrot visited the "Miamis" at Maramek

On his arrival he announced to them that Onontio [i.e., the Governor of Canada] gave positive orders that they should quit their [present] fires, and light them at Saint Joseph River.

Perrot then went on to visit the Sioux who were on the warpath because of a recent disastrous attack on them by the Mascouten and Fox Indians. And although the "Miamis" sent back to the Sioux some prisoners taken by the Mascoutens and declared, through Perrot, their sympathy, and the Sioux expressed a willingness to renew their friendship Perrot apparently still felt they were not to be trusted. In consequence, he advised the "Miamis" not to rely on the Nadouaissoux, and they [i.e., the "Miamis" were more than ever attracted to the idea of abandoning Maramek in order to settle on Saint Joseph River, as Onontio had commanded them. They were given two hundred pounds of gunpowder in order to procure subsistence for their families while on the journey, and -to kill any Iroquois whom they might meet"

The Sioux did attack the "Miamis" and killed many of them. The "Miamis" fled, abandoning many supplies. Immediately after this attack a mixed village of "Miamis" consisting of "the Pepikokis, the Mangikokis, and the Peouanguichias [Piankashaws]" is mentioned, located near the Fox Winsonsin River portage Perrot brought Fox and Kickapoo Indians to these "Miamis" as allies to help them avenge themselves -against the Sioux. The mixed war party then did attack the Sioux, with Piankashaws as one of the participating groups.

In a memoir written in 1695, Antoine de la Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac, who was for a time commandant at Michillimackinac and later founded Detroit, describes the country and peoples, especially in the vicinity of Michillimackinac. He mentions the Piankashaws briefly, giving as their location some indefinite place west and north of the 'Miami" village on the St. Joseph River at the southeast end of Lake Michigan. He writes:

Next we find the River of Saint Joseph. There was a fort there, with a French garrison, and there is a village of the same tribe, the Miamis. This post is the key of all the tribes bordering the north of Lake Michigan, for there are no villages on the southern part, on account of the raids of the Iroquois; but up country to the north, and towards the west, there are several including the Mascoutens,.... Peanguiseins? [Piankashaws], Peaourias [Peorias], Kickapoux, Ayouez, Sioux and Tintons"

It seems probable that the Piankashaws settled on the Illinois River near the mouth of the Des Plaines River, where St. Cosme found them in 1698 (see below), not long after the attack on the Sioux, but, to Judge from Cadillac's statement (quoted above), possibly this was not before 1695.

St. Cosme, writing in January of 1699 about a trip he had Just made from Michillimackinac to "Arkancasn country in the Mississippi valley, described the location of a Piankashaw village as somewhere in the meadows along the Illinois River not far from the juncture of the Des Plaines and Kankakee rivers. On the 11th of November 1698 his party came to the river Teatiki (Kankakee River), which is the true river of the Illinois, that which we descended being only a distant branch. We put all our baggage in the canoe, which two men paddled, while Monsieur de Tonty and ourselves, with the remainder of our men, proceeded by land, walking all the time through fire prairies. We came to the village of the Peangichias, Miamis who formerly dwelt at the falls of the Micipi [Mississippi] and who have for some years been settled at this place. There was no one in the village, for all had gone hunting. That day we slept near Massane [Mazon Creek in Grundy County, Illinois, a small river which falls into the River of the Illinois.

What St. Cosme meant by the "falls" of the Mississippi is uncertain. He could have been referring to the rapids in the Mississippi near the mouth of Rock River. Deliette, in a memoir written in the early 18th century, discussed his experiences and conditions in the Illinois country from 1687. In speaking of the Weas of La Salle's colony he says: During four consecutive years that I remained with the Wea at Chicago, which is the most considerable village of the Miami, who have been settled there for ten or twelve years, I have found no difference between their manners and those of the Illinois, nor in their language either. The only difference is that they remain settled in one place only a very short time.

The year that I first came from France 1687, they were settled on this side of the old fort [Fort St. Louis]. A year later they separated, part to go to the upper Mississippi, and the others to the St. Joseph River and to the mouth of the Root River) which empties into Lake Michigan twenty leagues on this side of Chicago, toward the north. These latter remained only a very short time, as well as those who went to the Mississippi. They went to form a village at the river Grand Calumet which also empties into this lake twelve leagues from the Chicago toward the south and at the fork of the Kankakee River. Three years later part of them left to go to the banks of the Wabash, where they still remained when I came down in obedience to the orders which Monsieur the Marquis de Vaudreuil had sent me. Those who went to the St. Joseph River remained there up to the time when Monsieur de la Mothe invited them to come nearer to the Strait [i.e., Detroit]. This nation was not useless to us at the time when we had war with the Iroquois. This is especially true of those on the St. Joseph River, owing to the frequence with which parties of these savages went among them, who rarely returned without making a successful attack.

This nation, I believe is as populous as the Illinois. It is composed of six villages, which are Chachakingoya [Atchatchakangouens], Aouciatenons [Weas], Anghichia [Piankeshaws], formerly Marineoueia, Kiratikias [Kilaticas], Minghakokias, and Pepikokia.

This version of early "Wea" movements in general agrees with other information available on those groups. To judge from the last paragraph quoted above Deliette was using the term Wea generically here, as was done by other French writers in the early 18th century, as well as in reference to a particular Miami group. The name "Marlneoueia," said by Deliette to be an earlier name for the Piankashaws, has not been round in other sources. With respect to Piankashaw movements, Deliette describes the "Miami" dispersal from the Illinois country by the end of 1698, one group of whom went to the "upper Mississippi," stayed there a short time, and then formed a village at the fork of the Kankakee River" (the Juncture of the Des Pleines and Kankekee rivers)--the location where St. Cosme found a Piankashaw- village in 1698. The "upper Mississippi" may be the same as St. Cosme's "falls" of the Mississippi. Part of this village then went "to the Wabash" where they stayed for a number of years. This last statement agrees with the location of Piankashaw and Wea villages on the Wabash River by 1718, as described below.

It seems possible that not all of the Piankashaws were located in the village near the Juncture of the Des Plaines and Kankakee rivers by 1698, and that they may have also been somewhere west or north of that village. Jesuit Father Pierre Gabriel Merest, for example, who was assigned to the mission in the Illinois country, in a letter to Pierre Charles La Sueur, a French trader who was going on an exploring and trading expedition into Sioux country to the west of the Mississippi, wrote the following in July of 1700

I have the honor of writing to warn you that the Peanquichas have been routed by the Sioux and the Ayavois. They have combined with the Quicapous and some Mascoutins, Renards [Fox] and Metesigamias and are going to wreak their vengeance, - not upon the Sioux, for they are too much in fear o! them, - but perhaps on the Ayavois or on the Paoutes, or, more probably, on the Ozages, for these last suspect nothing, while the others are on their guard. As you may fall in with the allied tribes, you should take precautions against any attack from them) and prevent them from approaching you, for they are treacherous and not to be trusted.

In 1702, Pierre le Moyne, Sieur d' Iberville, Governor Of Louisiana, in a memorandum, which included a statement of what he thought, ought to be done about controlling the Indians in the Illinois-Lake Michigan area, mentions "a hundred" (families? men? persons?) "Miamis" who were "still at Wisconsin on the Mississippi." Another "hundred families [ca. 400 persons] "were settled "at the fork of the Illinois River [Juncture of the Kankakee and Des Plaines rivers]." These locations could equate with Deliette's village at the "upper Mississippi and "at the fork of the Kankakee River," or with the village of Piankashaws which, St. Cosme mentioned in 1698 located near the juncture of the Kankakee and Des Plaines rivers who had come there a short time before the "falls of the Micipi [Mississippi, especially if the Piankashaw were not all in a single village unit and some families had not moved to the Juncture of the Kankakee and Des Plaines rivers. From what is known of later Piankashaw Indian movements (e.g., their establishment of two villages on the Wabash River, discussed below) it is obvious that they did not always move as a unit.

D'Ibervillels statement is as follows: The Miamis, who hate withdrawn from the banks of the Mississippi and gone to Chicago for the convenience of beaver-hunting, and those at Atehipi-Catouy and St. Joseph's River, would come readily and gladly to the Illinois River, where they would be united with a hundred of their own tribe who are still at Wisconsin on the Mississippi, and another hundred families who are settled at the fork of the Illinois River. That would make another 450 men [ca. 1,800 souls], armed with guns, who would be taken from the beaver trade and be set to hunt for ox-hides and skins of roebucks, stags, hinds and small animals; and the King would no longer have to keep a garrison at the fort of the Miamis, 30 leagues up a river, where it has been supposed to be necessary for protecting the wives of sixty Miamis and thirty Hurons who went and settled there. The expense, what with sending canoes and the cost of presents, amounts to over 1000 livres a year. We need only cease to keep a garrison and a French commandant there, they will then move nearer to Detroit or the Mississippi, - if not, we should abandon them, and not trouble about it. In speaking of the Miamis, I do so after arguing the matter out with Father [Jacques] Gravier, the Superior of those missions, who knows them well.

By taking these Miamis, Maskoutens and Kikapous, formerly on the Mississippi, from their present stations and placing them on the Illinois River or lower down, the beavertrade of Canada will be relieved of fifteen thousand skins a year

A decade or so after they were found in south central Wisconsin representatives of four of the six related groups moved to the St. Joseph River region in extreme southwestern Michigan and northern Indiana. From there, in 1682, they moved to the upper Illinois River in northern Illinois, where they stayed some six years, until 1688.

Iroquois raids during the last quarter of the seventeenth century were a disturbing factor for all the Central Algonquian-speaking peoples, including the six groups we are particularly interested in. In order to escape these raids, the Piankashaws and Weas moved as far west as the Mississippi River. The French, however, soon drew the Weas back to Chicago, where in 1696 the Jesuits established a Mission for them. By 1698 the Piankashaws were also in northern Illinois, below the junction of Des Plaines and Kankakee rivers. In 1702 there were Weas at Chicago, Piankashaws near the Des Plaines-Kankakee junction; other Piankashaws, with Pepicokias and Mengakonkias on Wisconsin River; unspecified "Miamis" (probably members of the Crane band) on St. Joseph River of Michigan; and other unspecified "Miamis" (Weas?) on the Wabash River in northwestern Indiana. At this date efforts were being made to persuade the Crane band on St. Joseph River of Michigan to remove to Cadillac's newly established post at Detroit. These efforts were only partly successful, but by 1707 Cadillac was able to induce 400 "Miami" warriors, and their families, probably from the Crane band in the St. Joseph River region, to settle on the Maumee in northern Ohio ca. 30 miles southwest of Detroit.

In the fall of 1719 the Wea promised the Governor of Canada that they would remove to the Kankakee River and a year later 50 Wea did move to this river. However the majority of the Wea refused to leave their Wabash River village, and by the following year (1721) the few who had moved to the Kankakee "abandoned the place on finding that the rest of the [Wea] nation would not come."

For several years officialdom discussed the project of moving the Wea and the Miami back to the Lake Michigan area, but small success followed. In 1720 the governor dispatched Ensign Dumont and Simon Reaume to pacify these tribes and to keep them from being deceived by their pro-English chiefs. Should the two nations decide to migrate, traders were to go to them at St. Joseph. Although from forty to fifty Wea did move to the Kankakee, they refused to remain there when the majority of the tribe did not follow. Likewise most of the Miami remained at the headwaters of the Maumee, where the elder Vincennes had died in 1719.

[In margin: They are settled on the Wabash River toward the English] Because the Ouiatanon are too close to the English of Carolina and exposed to their practices, and the latter spare neither solicitations nor presents to detach these savages from our interests and to attract them to their side, he [Vaudreuil] had contemplated sending a captain, a subaltern, a sergeant and ten soldiers among them to establish a post there to disrupt these practices and to keep them at peace with the Illinois. But since the region where they are at present is too far from the colony to take there easily what is necessary to support a post and a garrison, he believed that it was more appropriate to begin by urging them to return to Chicago or else to the upper Kankakee, where they formerly lived and where they would no longer be tempted to have connections with the English.

From this viewpoint and in order to satisfy the eagerness of this nation, which for a long time has been asking for an officer to govern them, a missionary to instruct them, and a blacksmith, he sent them the Sieur de Bellestre, ensign, with four soldiers and three other Frenchmen whom he permitted him to take, and the Sieur de Sabrevois sent a blacksmith from Detroit. Because this nation two years ago lost two chiefs, who died at Detroit, he had some goods of the king delivered to the said Sieur de Bellestre to cover these dead men. He also had other goods delivered to him to give to this nation, or rather to its chiefs, to urge them to work effectively so that it might leave the country where it is.

Furthermore it seems to me to be very necessary for the Sieur Dubuisson to continue to serve in this country, since he is more capable than any other officer of governing the Ouiatanon and the Miami, who know and esteem him and among whom he is held in high repute since the defeat of the Fox at Detroit, where he was commanding in the absence of the Sieur de la Forest and where the Miami and the Ouiatanon came to trade, their village at that time being not very far from this post. These two nations have not yet made any move to go, one to the Rivière St. Joseph, the other to the Kankakee. They promised me by speeches which I received from them last summer that they would not fail to go there this autumn, but they have changed their sentiment since then, for I learn by the last letters which came to me from the Miami that, since the Sieur de Vincennes died in their village, these savages had resolved not to go to the Rivière St. Joseph but to remain where they are.

The Ouiatanon have also refused to go to the Kankakee, and the little band, which had settled there, abandoned it when they saw that the remainder of the nation was not moving there. Thus the hopes he had of attracting the Miami to the Rivière St. Joseph and the Ouiatanon to the banks of the Kankakee have entirely vanished; but since it is very important not to abandon these nations, he had the Sieur Dubuisson, captain, leave last August to go establish a post among the Miami and to command there as well as at that of the Ouiatanon. He will reside at the Miami, since it is necessary that he remain there to impede the effect of the practices of the English, who continue to speak to them by means of some Iroquois who go almost every year to the Miami under pretext of visiting them as friends. Those emissaries who spent the winter this year in the village of the latter chose the time that the Sieur Dumont was at the Ouiatanon to take away eight or ten canoes of Miami savages to Albany to trade. He hopes that the Sieur Dubuisson will find means to have these practices cease by means of the influence he has on the spirit of these savages.

The Piankashaw were formerly a subtribe of the Miami, but later a separate people. La Salle induced some of them to come to his fort in Illinois; Cadillac mentions them (1695) as being "west of the Miami village on St. Joseph's River, Mich., with the Mascoutens, Kickapoo, and other tribes;" and a little later they had a village on Kankakee River. Their ancient village was on the Wabash, at the junction of the Vermillion; later they formed another village, at the present site of Vincennes, Ind. In the beginning of the nineteenth century they and the Wea began to remove to Missouri, and in 1832 both tribes sold their lands to the government and went to a reservation in Kansas, in 1867 again removing to Oklahoma with the Peoria (with whom they had united about 1854). "The Piankashaw probably never numbered

THE ST. JOSEPH MISSION- part 1 of 6 (manuscript pgs. 24-29)
The Mississippi Valley Historical Review:

Volume XVII, June 1930- March 1931By

George Pare

The Huron Mission, founded by Brebeuf in 1634, was the beginning of Jesuit missionary activity in the region of the Great Lakes. During the furious westward raids of the Iroquois beginning in 1648, it was utterly destroyed. No tribe could withstand the onslaughts of the fierce warriors from central New York. The Huron fled from Ontario to Mackinac, and then to northern Wisconsin. They were followed by the Sauk from the Saginaw Valley, and the Miami and Potawatomi from southern Michigan. Within ten years the southern peninsula was a "No Man's Land," a depopulated barrier between the fury of the Iroquois and the swarming tribes that had sought refuge beyond the western shore of Lake Michigan.

The renewal of missionary activity, primarily a search for the dispersed Huron, brought Menard and Allouez through the Ottawa River route into Lake Superior, and then westerly along its southern shore. But De Tracy and De Courcelles had scotched the Iroquois in 1666, and the refugees were gradually drifting back to their old haunts. They congregated along the St. Mary's River, teeming with whitefish, and in the curve of Green Bay where miles of wild rice soughed over the shallows. The two strategic mission sites became St. Ignace, and St. Francis Xavier at Green Bay. From these two centers the missionaries first worked southward, but always west of Lake Michigan, to develop what they called the Illinois mission field. When the tribes that had been expelled from southwestern Michigan felt that it was safe to return, the missionaries followed them and established the first Jesuit mission in the Lower Peninsula, the St. Joseph Mission.

Unfortunately, the history of this mission is only imperfectly known. The Jesuit Relations as a series were discontinued in 1672, and from that time we can only piece together such bits of information concerning the mission as lie scattered about among contemporary writings. For its later history, we are fortunate in being able to draw upon the extant baptismal register.

The origin of the St. Joseph Mission must be sought in the return of the Miami and Potawatomi to southwestern Michigan. The first of these tribes in its flight from the Iroquois had apparently gone as far west as Iowa. Later the Miami removed to the upper Fox River in Wisconsin. (Louis Phelps Kellogg, The French Regime in Wisconsin and the Northwest (Madison, 1925), 99). Here they were visited by Allouez, to whose preaching they listened with eager interest (Relation of 1671). By 1679, a number of them had already been for some time in the vicinity of the upper St. Joseph River, for La Salle encountered them there while searching for the portage to the Kankakee on his first journey to the Mississippi (Pierre Margry, Decouverters et Etablissements des Francais Paris, 1871, I, 463, hereafter cited as Decouvetes).

The Potawatomi, we are told in the Relation of 1671, "had been driven by fear of the Iroquois from the lands which lay between the lake of the Hurons and that of the Illinois [Lake Michigan]." They had settled first on some islands at the entrance to Green Bay, and later on the Wisconsin mainland, where Allouez came in contact with them as early as 1667. About the year 1680, they began moving southward around the end of Lake Michigan and into the valley of the St. Joseph River (Kellogg, op. cit., 271).

There is no reason for doubting that there had been converts among these two tribes during their stay in Wisconsin, and that the missionaries kept in touch with them after their migration. But the identity of the first missionary to visit them in Michigan is as much a matter for conjecture as the time from which we can date a permanent establishment. That a resident mission has contemplated as early as 1686 is disclosed by the following land grant on the St. Joseph River made to the Jesuits by the Government in Quebec, and confirmed by the French King.

The concession made to Father Dablon, and the other missionaries of the Society of Jesus established in the said region on October 1, 1686, by the Sieur Marquis de Denonville and of Champigny, of a stretch of land of twenty arpents fronting on the River St. Joseph, heretofore called of the Miamis, which falls into the south of the lake of the Illinois and of the Outagamis, by twenty arpents in depth at the place they shall find the most suitable for the erection of a chapel and residence, and for the planting of grain and vegetables, to be held by Father Dablon and other missionaries above mentioned, their successors and assigns in perpetuity as their own property as is stated in the said concession.

Versailles, May 24, 1689 (Margry, Decouvertes,V, 35).

Today the St. Joseph River winds through the fertile farms and orchards of Berrien County. The natural advantages which the early American settlers were quick to perceive had been no less apparent to the Indians, and to the missionaries. Some unknown French scout reporting to the officials in Quebec, in 1718, was enthusiastic in his praise of the lands watered by the river.

'Tis a spot the best adapted of any to be seen for purposes of living and as regards the soil. There are pheasants as in France; quail, and perroquets; the finest vines in the world, which produce a vast quantity of very excellent grapes, both white and black, the berry very large and juicy, and the bunch very long. It is the richest district in all that country (E.B. O'Callaghan (ed.), Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York (Albany, 1855), IX, 890).

Somewhere in this earthly paradise the missionaries selected a spot for their house and chapel. We have no reason for believing that the location was other than the one visited by Charlevoix in 1721. According to his reckoning, it was twenty leagues, about sixty miles, from the mouth of the St. Joseph to the mission. This must be understood as the actual distance traveled by his canoe in following the tortuous course of the river. Upon leaving the mission, he gives the distance to the portage by which the Kankakee may be reached as six leagues, about eighteen miles. The portage, first used by La Salle, began about two and three-quarters miles northwest of the center of South Bend (For a description of the portage, see George A. Baker, The St. Joseph-Kankakee Portage (South Bend, 1899).

From these data we must conclude that the mission was situated on the river anywhere from one to three miles south of the present city of Niles, Michigan. Even though the locality has been carefully gone over, the site of the mission has not yet been accurately determined. From Charlevoix's account, we gather that the Miami had a village on one side of the river, and the Potawatomi one on the other, and that the chapel and residence of the missionary were in the Potawatomi village. At the time of his visit in 1721, Fort St. Joseph had been in existence for many years, and this too, he tells us, was on the Potawatomi side. (For details regarding Fort St. Joseph, see Michigan Pioneer Collections, XXVIII, 179 ff.; XXXV, 545ff.; XXXIX, 280ff. The site of the fort is marked by a huge granite boulder, unveiled July 4, 1913. It may be well to remind the reader that this fort must not be confused with the one built by La Salle at the mouth of the river. This was called the Fort of the Miami, and was destroyed a few months after its erection). In Bellin's map of 1744, which accompanies the first edition of Charlevoix's works, the fort is located on the southern bank of the river. (Charlevoix's writings relating to New France were first published in Paris in 1744.)

When did the Jesuits begin their establishment on the St. Joseph? Who was the first priest to labor in this new field? It is impossible to give a satisfactory answer to these questions in the present state of our knowledge. Much has been written upon the matter so fanciful and unreliable as to be useless. It is commonly stated that Father Allouez was the founder of the St. Joseph Mission, but the statement rests more upon inference than upon evidence.

Father Claude Allouez left Three Rivers in 1665 to begin his missionary career in the West. Four years were spent along the southern shore of Lake Superior, and his first visit to Green Bay occurred in December, 1669. Meanwhile, Dablon and Marquette had come into the field; and the next year saw the beginnings of the establishment at St. Ignace. Father Allouez was now definitely assigned to the Indians of Wisconsin, where he remained for six years with headquarters at another mission, which he founded in the neighborhood of Lake Winnebago. In 1676, he was ordered to the promising field which had been opened by Marquette's journey to the Mississippi, but which had been left vacant since his death. He spent a few months with the Kaskasia and Illinois Indians, and then returned to Wisconsin. A second visit to the Illinois country, in 1678, was prolonged until 1680, and followed by a return to the northern missions. (See sketch of Allouez in John G. Shea, Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley New York, 1853, 67.)Here we lose sight of Father Allouez until 1683.

In that year, the Jesuit Superior in Quebec, Father Beschefer, forwarded to his provincial in France a report upon the Jesuit missions. The Ottawa mission is thus described. "In The Outaouc missions we include not only the outaouacs or upper Algonquins.... We also include the hurons who reside at st. Ignace . . . the Pouteouatamis along the bay des Puants: . . the Makoutens and the ouiamis; the Kischigamins, along Lake Ilinois; and The Ilinois themselves, as we more nearly approach the south. We have houses with chapels at sault de ste Marie, at st. Ignace, at st. francois de Borgia, and at st. francois Xavier. . . . The missionaries frequently go on journeys among the surrounding nations...." (Reuben Gold Thwaites (ed.), Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (Cleveland, 1896-1901), LXII, 193. The St. Francis Borgia Mission was situated a short distance from the Huron Mission at St. Ignace.) Speaking of Father Allouez the report continues: ". . . his special mission is among the Miami and the Illinois where he labors with as much ardor as if he were in the prime of life." He follows the Indians into the woods on their hunting trips, is deterred by no hardships, and has succeeded in erecting a chapel. But Father Allouez is soon to be withdrawn for, "we shall be obliged to discontinue that mission because the Iroquois have gone to continue the war with more ardor...."

The report, dated October 21, was written with evident knowledge of what was taking place in the West. La Salle and his faithful lieutenant, Tonty, hearing rumors of an Iroquois invasion, had begun in December, 1682, the building of Fort St. Louis near the present town of Utica, Illinois. (See Francis Parkman, La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West Boston 1880, Appendix to chap. xvi.) The fort was completed in March of the following year, and Tonty was left in command while La Salle returned to France. A year later the Iroquois advanced as Father Beschefer had predicted, besieged the fort for six days, and then withdrew. From Tonty's memoir we gather that Father Allouez had meanwhile been recalled to Mackinac.

...The winter passed, and on March 20, 1684, being informed that the Iroquois were about to attack us, we prepared to receive them and dispatched a canoe to M. de la Durantaye, Governor of Missilimakinak for assistance in case the enemy should hold out against us a long time . . . M. de la Durantaye, with Father Daloy, a Jesuit, arrived at the fort with about sixty Frenchmen whom they brought to our assistance, and to inform me of the orders of M. de la Barre to leave the place.... (The Memoire or Relation is in Margry, Relations et Memoires Inedits Paris, 1867, 1-36).

The next mention of Father Allouez comes three years later. After the death of La Salle, a remnant of his followers succeeded in finding the Mississippi and returned to Quebec. From March 19, 1687, the date of the assassination, the little party slowly struggled northwards and it was not until September that they reached Fort St. Louis. Joutel, who wrote the journal of their wanderings, thus describes their entry.

. . . On Sunday, the 14th, having resumed our journey . . . about two in the afternoon we arrived at Fort St. Louis where we greatly surprised those who were there, since they were not expecting us.... After the usual greetings, we went up to the fort, where we found the Frenchmen under arms, and they fired several volleys on our arrival to show their delight. As soon as we entered the fort M. Cavelier asked the location of the chapel in order to render thanks to God for having so happily conducted us.... (Journal of Henri Joutel in Margry, III, Decouvertes, 91-535. For this passage see pp. 477-79. The M. Cavelier referred to was the Sulpician brother of La Salle. The other priest in the party was Father Anastasius Douay, a Recollect who left France with La Salle on his ill fated expedition.)

The Band Affiliation of Potawatomi Treaty Signatories

by Dr. David A. Baerreis

Me-chee-pee-nai-she-insh- We learn from the minutes of the Treaty of Greenville that Mash-i-pi-wish was a Chippewa chief and that he requested that a trader be furnished him and his people at Kalamazoo where they were going to spend the winter. Mat-che-pee-na-che-wish signed the Treaty of August 29, 1821 as an Ottawa and "one tract at the village of Match-e-be-nash-she-wish, at the head of the Kekalamazoo River" was reserved for him as a provision of Article 2 of this treaty. (7 Stat. 218, 219, 221.) As "Mitch-e-pe-nain-she-wish, or bad bird" he signed the Treaty of September 19, 1827 with the Potawatomi and ceded to the United States the tract of land previously mentioned. (7 Stat. 305-306.) Where he was located at the time of the 1828 treaty cessions is not known.

Unidentified Signers. A total of 21 names (see list giving summary of band affiliation on following page) remain unidentified as to band affiliation. Some of these names strongly suggest family names common among the French in this region and may represent mixed-blood descendants of marriages between the Potawatomi and French. Included in this category would be Pack-quin which may be regarded as the equivalent of Pacquin and Sans-gen-ai which is similar to Sans Gêne. The name Le Boeuf is both a French family name and used as the translation of Buffalo, at least in the designation of a prominent Chippewa chief in the La Pointe, Wisconsin area. An article of the Treaty of Oct. 20, 1832, paid damages to Pe.She.Ka. or Le Beouf for the loss of a horse

Since this treaty was concluded with the Potawatomi Band of the Prairie and Kankakee, it may imply that the Le Boeuf under consideration was a member of that band.

Summary, Treaty of Sept. 20, 1828:

In the preceding pages the following band affiliations were suggested:

Other Bands

A-bee-tai-que-zuck
Me-chee-pee-nai-she-insh

Thus a total of 13 were identified with the St. Joseph Band, 15 with the Wabash Band, and 17 with the Kankakee and Prairie Band. A-bee-tai-que-zuck may well be a member of the Fox River Band and Me-chee-pee-nai-she-insh is either an Ottawa or Chippewa rather than a Potawatomi. The following 21 individuals remain unidentified:

C. Treaty with the Potawatomi held on the Tippecanoe, Oct. 26, 1832

1. Signers from the St. Joseph River Band:

The following individuals have been previously identified as members of this band in connection with the Treaty of Oct. 16, 1826 or that of Sept. 20, 1828 and no evidence was found to indicate that they had substantially shifted their location and consequently their band affiliation:

The equating of Banack and Shaauquebe in the above list may arouse a question concerning their identity although the earlier discussion indicated that these names were applied to the same person. Article 3 of the Treaty of August 29, 1821, provided, in part, for a grant of half a section of land to "O-she-ak-ke-be or Benac" on the north side of the Elkheart River where the road from Chicago to Fort Wayne first crosses this river (7 Stat. 218-221). However, "Benac, a Potawatomi," also received one section of land by provision of Article 3 of the Treaty of September 20, 1828 (7 Stat. 317-318). This grant was subsequently located near Clunette, Kosciusko Co., in section 4, town 32 north, range 10 east. A moderate southward movement by Benac and his group could be implied by this shift in location which would be bringing him closer into the orbit of the Wabash Band.

Considering that the addition of Banack to the list of signers from the St. Joseph River Band is close to being in a doubtful category and that no further signers from the band can be identified, this group clearly comprises a very small section of those participating in the Treaty. This is perhaps to be expected in the light of the tract of land involved in the treaty session.
____________________

204. Letter of John Tipton to Robert Breckenridge, dated September 13, 1830. Indiana Historical Collections, XXV, pp. 335-337.

2. Signers from the Wabash Band:

The following individuals have been previously identified as members of this band in connection with the Treaty of Oct. 16, 1826 or that of Sept. 20, 1828 and no evidence was found to indicate that they had substantially shifted their location and consequently their band affiliation:

The individuals listed below may also be identified with the Wabash Band:

Bee-yaw-yo- Inspection of a copy of the original treaty document indicates that this name should perhaps be transcribed as "Bee-zaw-yo" which would then be identical to the signature on the Treaty of October 27, 1833. Bee-zaw-yon was identified on John Tipton's payroll as residing on the Eel River.

Miee-kiss- It is to be noted that this name follows immediately that of Kawk in the list of signatures and that inspection of a copy of the original treaty indicates that the name might actually have been written as Mee-kiss. The name of Mee-kiss appears on a subsequent document, the Treaty of Sept. 20, 1836, where the person is identified as Kawk's widow. Her residence would obviously be the same as that of her husband, with the Wabash Band.

O-kitch-chee- His name is alternatively transcribed as O-ketch-chee in the Treaty of Oct. 27, 1832 (7 Stat. 399). Very likely this is the same person designated O-ka-chee on the 1829 Potawatomi pay roll whose location is given as "near Awb-ba-naw-bay."²⁰⁶ An 0-ket-chee signed the Treaty of April 11, 1836 as a member of the band of Pau-koo-shuck who is identified as Aub-ba-naub-ba's oldest son (7 Stat. 499). Both references would suggest an affiliation with the Wabash Band.

O-ka-mause- The individual represented is probably the person also known as "O-ka-mawns" or "The Blind Chief." His residence was indicated as "Mta-mo-naung" on the 1829 Potawatomi pay roll. This location could have reference either to a creek which is a northern tributary of the Tippecanoe River or to "a trading post at Motomonong on the Tippecanoe." Obviously these two locations probably refer to the same general area and the placement on the Tippecanoe would suggest affiliation with the Wabash Band.

0-kah-maus also signed the treaty of Aug. 5, 1836 under a title, "Proper chiefs of the Wabash Patawattamies." 

If we assume this group of "proper chiefs of the Wabash" refers to our defined Wabash Band, the following signers of the Oct. 26, 1832 Treaty are also thereby identified:

We are provided with additional information on the location of several of the treaty signers through the provision of reservations for their bands, it being the normal practice to locate the reservation to include their village and farm lands.

Kin-kosh- Four sections were provided for the band of Kin-kash by the Treaty of Oct. 26, 1832. This area (designated Royce 222, Plate CXXVII) is located on the Tippecanoe River.

Mah-zick- It is suggested that this person is that designated Ma-sac in the Treaty of Oct. 27, 1832 and for whom a reserve of four sections was set aside. This area (Royce 221) is also located on the Tippecanoe River.

3. Signers from the Prairie and Kankakee Band:

The following individuals have been previously identified as members of this band in connection with the Treaty of Oct. 16, 1826 or that of Sept. 20, 1828 and no evidence was found to indicate that they had substantially shifted their location and consequently their band affiliation: