The Peoria Nation
Many people may have heard of the small city that sits about 45 minutes away from Galesburg known as Peoria, but perhaps not that this name was stolen from the Peoria Nation on whose land the city was built. In many of the settler histories written about the Peoria (and Native people in general), they are characterized as war-like and aggressive, and as savages who were simply out to destroy the Europeans who were claiming the land as theirs. When enough time is taken to examine their culture, lifestyle, and circumstances, it is clear that the Peoria nation was only trying to keep the land that was rightfully theirs.
The Peoria were a strong group of people who inhabited the land that is currently Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, and Michigan and who represented a subgroup of a larger group of Native people known as the Illinois (also known as the Illinois Confederacy by European settlers).1 In the early 1700s, the Peoria were constantly battling the Meskwaki Nation, which drastically shrunk the size of the Peoria population, and reduced the hold they had over the land that they once occupied.2 According to N. Matson, the village of Peoria was settled by the French from Canada between 1680 and 1760 with evidence that it “commenced at an earlier time.”3 With a settlement and a large, complex community already in place when English settlers began to move into the area, we can see that the Peoria were very reasonably defending their home and life from being destroyed.
Pah-mee-ców-ee-tah, Man Who Tracks, a Chief
As the adaptable group they were, the Peoria nation and other groups belonging to the Illinois Confederacy were quick to accept and adopt Christianity into their lives. One of their first contacts with foreign people was with a Jesuit priest named Father Marest in 1711 from Canada who was brought in by Chief Kolet.4 Matson writes that “ many [of the people]... embraced Christianity, and their names afterward enrolled in the church book.”5 A more recent look at the Illinois nation as a whole claims that “the Illinois were extraordinarily opportunistic [people] and willing to experiment with the Jesuits’ idea.”6 The Peoria saw opportunities for growth in power and wealth in a changing world by adopting Christian practices. Had the Peoria not been involved in the gruesome war with the Meskwaki, they would have been one of the most successful nations on the prairies and plains.
Unfortunately, this was not the case. The war significantly diminished the number of members of the Illinois nation and specifically the Peoria. In 1803, the remaining members of the Illinois confederacy except for the Peoria signed a treaty with the United States giving up their land in Illinois in exchange for protection from other Native nations that were growing in strength at the time.7 The Peoria held out on this treaty for 15 years before adding their name. They gave up their land in exchange for protection from the United States and a plot of land in Missouri.8
By Kyra Smith
1 https://peoriatribe.com/history/
2 Harry L .Spooner, "THE HISTORIC INDIAN VILLAGES OF THE PEORIA LAKE AREA," Journal of the Illinois State Archaeological Society 1, no. 3 (1944): 15-18, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43579198.
3 N. Matson, Pioneers of Illinois, containing a series of sketches relating to events that occurred previous to 1813; also narratives of many thrilling incidents connected with the early settlement of the West, drawn from history, tradition and personal reminiscences, Knight & Leonard: Chicago (1882), 219, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433081814547.
4 Matson, Pioneers of Illinois, 219-220.
5 Matson, Pioneers of Illinois, 221.
6 Robert Michael Morrissey, Daniel K. Richter, Kathleen M. Brown, Max Cavitch, and David Waldstreicher, "Opportunists in the Borderlands." In Empire by Collaboration: Indians, Colonists, and Governments in Colonial Illinois Country, 36, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt13x1p8t.5.
7 http://resources.utulsa.edu/law/classes/rice/Treaties/07_Stat_078_KASKASKIA.htm
8 https://digital.lib.niu.edu/islandora/object/niu-lincoln%3A36615
9 George Catlin, "Pah-mee-ców-ee-tah, Man Who Tracks, a Chief," 1830. Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Accessed May 26, 2021. http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk795834cbb-ab7a-49f9-bdf1-6a2c3357b701