The Illinois Confederation,[1] sometimes referred to as the Illiniwek or Illini, were a group of twelve to thirteen Native American tribes in the upper Mississippi River valley of North America. The tribes were the Kaskaskia, the Cahokia, the Peoria, the Tamaroa, Moingwena, Michigamea, Albiui, Amonokoa, Chepoussa, Chinkoa, Coiracoentanon, Espeminkia, Maroa, Matchinkoa, Michibousa, Negawichi, and Tapouara. At the time of European contact in the 17th century, they were believed to number several thousand people.
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History
When French explorers first journeyed to the region from Canada in the early 17th century, they found the area inhabited by a vigorous, populous Algonquian-speaking nation. What we know today about the Illinois is based on the historical account Jesuit Relations, written by French Jesuit priests. The Relations were the reports which missionaries who lived among the various native nations sent back to their superiors in France.
The Illinois spoke various dialects of the Miami-Illinois language., a member of the Algonquian language family.
Among the earliest renditions of the modernized, Anglicized term "Illiniwek" were "Liniouek" (1656), "Aliniouek" (1658), "Alimiwec" (1660), "irini8ak" (1662), and "Ilinioüek" (1667). In 1670 Claude Allouez referred to a band of natives as "IlimoucK" (the editor added an alternative spelling "Iliniouek") in one sentence and "Ilinioüetz" in the next. The English translation changed the latter spelling to "Iliniouetz."[2] Allouez, incidently, was also spelled "Alloues," "Alloez," Aloes," "Aloez," "Aloues," and "Daloes" in these early records. Consequently, theorizing great cultural or linguistic significance of minute details of the spellings used in these documents is seen in many circles as an exercise of highly dubious validity. Theorizing based on the modernized, Anglicized spelling is even more suspect. Nevertheless, this kind of theorizing is often done, often to contradict or disparage what is explicitly stated in the document.
The name "Iliniwek" is an old Ojibwe word borrowed into French as "Illinois." The modern Ojibwe word is ininiweg, from /inin/ meaning "regular, ordinary, plain," /we/ meaning "to speak," joined with a connector vowel /i/, and an animate plural suffix /g/, which when combined means "those who speak in the ordinary way, regular way." In turn, this word was borrowed by Ojibwe from the Illinois language, from an original verb irenweewaki, which means "they speak in the regular way" or "they speak Illinois." However, due to a similar sounding word in old Ojibwe—iliniwak (singular as ilini; modern words ininiwag and inini respectively) meaning "men"—the name has been commonly mistranslated as "men," "proud men," "people," etc.
This is according to etymological theory based on spelling.
The historical record presents a different view. A 1864 history states that "Erinouek," "Alimouek," "Ilinimouek," "Liniouek," and "Illinoets" are all synonyms of "Illinois," all mean the men.[3] An oft-cited 1674 quote from Marquette puts it this way:
WHEN one speaks the word “Ilinois,” it is as if one said in their language, “the men,“ — As if the other Savages were looked upon by them merely as animals.[4]
In 1697 Hennepin offered this observation:
The etymology of this word Illinois comes, as we have said, from the term Illini, which in the language of that Nation signifies a man finished or complete,[5]
and later in the same volume
The Lake of the Illinois signifies in the language of these Barbarians, the Lake of the Men. The word Illinois signifies a grown man, who is in the prime of his age and vigor.[6]
The use of "Illinois" to mean "men," "proud men," or "tribe of superor men" is soundly warranted by history. Indeed, an 1871 study offered the Illinois use of "Illinois" as quintessential textbook evidence that the "conviction of personal and tribal excellence stamps itself on every savage language."[7]
One statement widely found on the web is that the Illinois Tribes' name for themselves was Inoka, as documented in the French Jesuit dictionaries of Illinois. But that is incorrect.[8] "Inoka" is a "reconstructed or hypothetical phonemicized form" that a theorist formulated in 2000.[9] It never appeared in any literature until that time. "Illinois," on the other hand, was used by the Illinois people to refer to themselves and by others to refer to the Illinois in hundreds of pages of dozens of volumes published before 1800.[10][11]
In the seventeenth century, the Illinois suffered from a combination of exposure to European infectious diseases, to which they had no immunity, and warfare by the expansion of the Iroquois into the eastern Great Lakes region. The Iroquois had hunted out their traditional lands and sought more productive hunting and trapping areas. They sought furs to purchase European goods in the fur trade.
The 1769 murder of the Ottawa war chief Pontiac by a Peoria warrior resulted in a war of retaliation by northern tribes against the Illiniwek. This added to the decimation of these tribes.
Culture
The Illini lived in a seasonal cycle related to cultivation of domestic plants and hunting, with movement from semi-permanent villages to hunting camps. They planted crops of maize (corn), beans, and squash, known as the "Three Sisters". They prepared dishes such as sagamite. They also gathered wild foods such as nuts, fruit, roots and tubers. In the hunting season, the men hunted bison, deer, elk, bear, cougar, lynx, turkey, geese and duck. Women prepared the meat for preservation and the hides for equipment and clothing. They tapped maple trees made the sap into a drink or boiled it for syrup and sugar. [12]
Present day
As a consequence of the Indian Removal Act, the descendants of the Illinois were relocated from where they had migrated in eastern Kansas to northeastern Indian Territory in the early 1830s. They chiefly reside in Ottawa County, Oklahoma, as the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma.
Popular culture
The Illinois Confederacy's name inspired the nickname for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the "Fighting Illini", and the school's mascot "Chief Illiniwek". Due to the Native American mascot controversy, the university retired this mascot on February 21, 2007.
References
- ^ The Indian Tribes of North America, by John R. Swanton. Bulletin (Smithsonian Institution; Bureau of American Ethnology), 145.
- ^ Thwaites, R.G. (1899) The Jesuit relations and allied documents travels and explorations of the Jesuit missionaries in New France, 1610-1791, 236. The English translation is on the next page.
- ^ Perrot, N. (1864). Mémoire sur les moeurs, coustumes, et relligion des sauvages de l'Amérique Septentrionale, 220.
- ^ Marquette, J. (1674). Travel and discovery of some countries and nations of North America, 20.
- ^ Hennepin, L. (1697). New Discovery of a Vast Country situated in America, between New Mexico and the Frozen Ocean, 196.
- ^ Hennepin, Discovery, 53.
- ^ Trumbull, J. Hammod (1871). On Algonkin Names for Man], 2 142.
- ^ Fay, J. (2009) Inoka. Retrieved October 21, 2009 from http://www.illinoisprairie.info/inoka.htm.
- ^ Costa, David J. 2000. "Miami-Illinois Tribe Names". In the Papers of the 31st Algonquian Conference, University of Manitoba Press, p. 46.
- ^ Early Canada Online Search Results: 511 pages in 54 documents. (n.d.). Retrieved October 21, 2002 from http://www.canadiana.org/ECO/SearchResults?id=7b37a89949b590f9&query=illinois&range=text&bool=all&subset=all&pubfrom=1600&pubto=1800
- ^ Fay, J. (2009) Eriniouaj. Retrieved October 21, 2009 from http://www.illinoisprairie.info/Eriniouaj.htm.
- ^ "The Illiniwek", The Lewis and Clark Journey of Discovery, National Park Service, accessed 29 Sep 2009
Costa, David J. 2000. "Miami-Illinois Tribe Names". In John Nichols, ed., Papers of the Thirty-first Algonquian Conference 30-53. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba.
External links
- NPS Site on the Illiniwek
- Illinois Confederacy
- The Illinois
- Tribes of the Illinois/Missouri Region at First
- The Tribes of The Illinois Confederacy
- Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma
- "Eye Witness Descriptions of the Contact Generation, 1667 - 1700", Inoca Ethnohistory Project, Parkland College
- Catholic Encyclopedia, "Illinois Indians"
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