Early References to Piankashaw Locations (1682 - ca. 1708)
The French explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle was probably the first European to write about the Piankashaws as a separate native group in his enumeration, written about 1682, of the various Indian peoples he had gathered around Fort St. Louis, which he had established at present-day Starved Rock on the upper part of Illinois River, Illinois, or groups he expected to settle there. Included in his list was a statement that:
a party of Emissourites, the Peanghichia [Piankashaws], Kelatica, Megancockia, [Mengakokia], Melomelinoia, making together a village of from two to three hundred fires have made their fields four leagues [ca. 10 miles] from the fort. (La Salle, Dft. Ex. A-260, p. 204). [see Footnote 1]
/pg. 3/
largely based on La Salle's information for the Mississippi and Illinois areas.[see Footnote 2] The Illinois portion of this map shows the "Peanghichia" (Piankashaws) on the north bank of the Illinois River Just below the mouth of the Des Plaines River to the east of the Fox River, with a population of 150 (men?), indicating a village population of about 600 persons. [see Footnote 3]Franquelin's 1688 map was largely based on his map of 1684 and hence, for the Illinois area at least, on La Salle's earlier information. (Tucker, D M . Ex. A-106, pls. XIA and XIB, and text for these plates) Some changes and corrections were made on it, and population figures for villages in the Illinois area were omitted. The Piankashaws on this map are shown located in the prairies to the west of Fox River, indicating a movement of this village.
By combining the information of Jean Francois Buisson de St. Cosme, a Priest of the seminary of Quebec (see quotation on p. 9 below), and of Charles Henry Delietto de Tonty, who lived in the Illinois country for a number of years and was a nephew of Sieur Henry Tonty who was
/pg. 4/
La Salle's lieutenant in his explorations and at the Illinois colony (see quotation of pp. 10-11 below), 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. (La Potherie, DSt. Ex. A-ll, pp. 16-17) 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." (Deliette, Dft. Ex. A-46, p. 392).
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." (La Potherie, Dft. Ex. A-ll, p. 66) 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,"
The Tchiduakouingoues [Atchatchakangouen], the Ouaouiartanons [Weas], the Pepikokia, the Mangakekis, the Pouankikias [Piankashaws], and the Kilatiks," (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-ll, p. 67)
assembled at Perrott's post. They agreed to go in small groups against the Iroquois, but intended instead to join the Fox and Mascouten
/pg. 5/
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. (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-ll, pp. 81-88). [see Footnote 4]
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. (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-ll, p. 102)
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:
/pg. 6/
an opinion of his avarice to attract them to a union with him." (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-ll, p. 103). [see Footnote 5]
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. (Ibid., D M . Ex. A-l1, p. 112). [see Footnote 6]
Perrot then went on to visit the Sioux who were on the war path 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" (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-ll, p. 114).
/pg. 7/
The Sioux did attack the "Miamis" and killed many of them. The "Miamis" fled, abandoning many supplies (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-ll, p. 117-119). 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. (Ibid., D M . Ex. A 11, p. 119) Perrot brought Fox and Kickapoo Indians to these "Miamis" as allies to help them avenge themselves -against the Sioux (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-ll, pp. 118 -119). The mixed war party then did attack the Sioux, with Piankashaws as one of the participating groups (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-ll, pp. 121-129).
Next we find the River of Saint Joseph. There was a fort there, with a French garrinon, 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" (Cadillac, Dft. Ex. A-262, p. 310). [See footnote 7]
/pg. 8/
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. (St. Cosme, Dft. Ex. A-65, pp. 349-350)
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.
/pg. 9/
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 11687], 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],
/pg. 10/
Aouciatenons [Weas], Anghichia [Piankeshaws], formerly Marineoueia, Kiratikias [Kilaticas], Minghakokias, and Pepikokia. (Deliette, Dft. Ex. A-46, pp. 392-393)
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 (see e.ffi., pp. 17-18, 19-20 below), 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,
/pg. 11/
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(Marest, Dft. Ex. A-263, pp. 93-94).
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
/pg. 12/
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 beavertrade 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 (D'Iberville, Dft. Ex. A-261, pp. 661-662)
/pg. 13/
By September of 1706 at least some Piankashaws were involved with more eastern affairs. Cadillac that year, in trying
to prevent Indians of the Detroit area from-fighting other Indians, certified among other items that he had spent moneys in the King's service to prevent the tribe of the Pchanguiaas [Piankashaws] from going to attack the Iroquois. (Cadillac, Dft. Ex. A-84, p 296)
Still, a Piankashaw group may have been on the Mississippi at this time, since Antoine Denis Raudot, an Intendant of Canada, who wrote a series of letters constituting a general memoir on the "Indian Nations" of North America in 1710, describes the Piankashaws as living on the "Malamee River or the Barbu River, which Flows into the Mississippy. " (Raudot, Dft. Ex. A-69, p. 383) That river this was is not known. Raudot's information, of course, was not first-hand, and although he did have access to official sources of the information available at the time, these may have been out of date. It is apparent that he relied heavily on Deliette's information for his statements on the culture of the "Miamis."
Footnote 1: In this report a league has been considered to be approximately 2 1/2 miles.[return to text]
Footnote 2: The original 1684 Franquelin map of Louisiana has been lost. Before this happened, however, the American historian Francis Parkman had had a ms. copy made of it. This copy was reproduced reduced in size in Jesuit Relations, vol. 63, frontispiece (Dft. Ex. A60). A larger reproduction of the Illinois portion of the copy was printed in Parkman; La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West (Boston, 1899), facing p. 315 (see map). See ibid., Dft. Ex. A-94, pp. xi-xiii, 482-485, and Tucker, Dft. Ex. A-106, text to pls. XIA and XIB, for discussion of this map.[return to text]
Footnote 3: Population estimates in this report are made on the assumption that each man or warrior represented 3 persons in addition to himself. See map. [return to text]
Footnote 4: The location of Maramek has been disputed. Franquelin's 1684 and 1688 maps indicate a village of this name on the east side of the middle part of the Fox River which is a tributary of the Illinois River. They also show a Maramek River on the east shore of Lake Michigan which seems to be the present day Grand River (see Parkman, copy of portion of 1684 Franquelin map facing p. 3 above, Jesuit Relations, Dft. Ex. A-60, and Tucker, Dft. Ex. A-106, pls. XIA and XIB). In the context of La Potherie's text it seems more likely to have been the village location on Fox River that was meant here.[return to text]
Footnote 5: St. Joseph River flows into the southeastern part of Lake Michigan.[return to text]
Footnote 6: The first bracketed comment is the author's; the second bracket is in the printed text. See also Callieres, Dft. Ex. A-262, p. 261.[return to text]
Footnote 7: The punctuation in the translation is as reproduced in the printed French text.[return to text]
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