HEN the early French explorers arrived in the "Illinois Country" they

found it occupied by a number of tribes of Indians, the most numerous being the "Illinois," which consisted

of several families or bands that spread themselves over the country on both sides of the

Illinois River, extending even west of the Miss

issippi; the Piankashaws on the east, extending beyond the present western boundary of Indiana, and the Miamis in the northeast, with whom a weaker tribe called the Weas were allied. The Illinois confederation included the Kaskaskias, Peorias, Cahokias, Tamaroas and Mitchigamies-the last being the tribe from which Lake Michigan took its name. There seems to have tribes toward the

been a general drift of some of the stronger

south and east about this time, as Allouez represents that he found the Miamis and their neighbors, the Mascoutins, about Green Bay when he arrived there in 1670. At the same time, there is evidence that the Pottawatomies were located along the southern shore of Lake Superior and about the Sault St. Marie (now known as "The Soo"), though within the next fifty years they had advanced southward along the western shore of Lake

Michigan until they reached where Chicago now stands. Other tribes from the north were the Kickapoos, Sacs and Foxes, and Winnebagoes, while the Shawnees were a branch of a stronger tribe from the southeast. Charlevoix, who wrote an account of his visit to the "Illinois Country" in 1721, says: "Fifty years ago the Miamis were settled on the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, in a place called Chicago from the name of a small river which runs into the lake, the source of which is not far distant from that of the River Illinois." It does not follow necessarily that this was the Chicago River of to-day, as the name appears to have been applied somewhat indefinitely, by the early explorers, both to a region of country between the head of the lake and the Illinois River, and to more than one stream emptying into the lake in that vicinity. It has been conjectured that the river meant by Charlevoix was the Calumet, as his description would apply as well to that as to the Chicago, and there is other evidence that the Miamis who were found about the mouth of the St. Joseph River during the eighteenth century, occupied a portion of Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana, extending as far east as the Scioto River in Ohio.

All of these tribes (except the Winnebagoes) are assigned to the Algonquin, or Canadian family, who were generally friendly to the French. On the other hand, the Iroquois, who were located south of the lakes and about the headwaters of the Ohio, were the deadly foes of the French and of their aboriginal friends, the Algonquins, as shown by their attacks upon the Illinois Indians about "Starved Rock," as recited in the last chapter. From the first, the Illinois seem to have conceived a strong liking for the French, and being pressed by the Iroquois on the east, the Sacs and Foxes, Pottawatomies and Kickapoos on the north and the Sioux on the west, by the beginning of the eighteenth century we find them much reduced in numbers gathered about the French settlements near the mouth of the Kaskaskia (or Okaw) river, in the western part of the present counties of Randolph, Monroe and St. Clair. In spite of the zealous efforts

of the missionaries, the contact of these tribes with the whites was attended with the usual results-demoralization, degradation and gradual extermination. The latter result was hastened by the frequent attacks to which they were exposed from their more warlike enemies, so that by the latter part of the eighteenth century, they were reduced to a few hundred dissolute and depraved survivors of a once vigorous and warlike race.

During the early part of the French occupation, there arose a chief named Chicagou (from whom the city of Chicago received its name) who appears, like Red Jacket, Tecumseh and Logan, to have been a man of unusual intelligence and vigor of character, and to have exercised great influence with his people. In 1725 he was sent to Paris, where he received the attentions. due to a foreign potentate, and on his return was given a command in an expedition against the Chickasaws, who had been making incursions from the South.

Such was the general distribution of the Indians in the northern and central portions of the State, within the first fifty years after the arrival of the French. At a later period the Kickapoos advanced farther south and occupied a considerable share of the central portion of the State, and even extended to the mouth of the Wabash. The southern part was roamed over by bands from beyond the Ohio and the Mississippi, including the Cherokees and Chickasaws, and the Arkansas tribes, some of whom were very powerful and ranged over a vast extent of country.*

*A native leader who exerted a powerful influence over the Illinois Indians, as well as those of the Northwest generally, nearly a hundred years after Marquette's and La Salle's visits to the country, was Pontiac, the famous chief of the Ottawas. He was a zealous friend of the French, and between 1759 and 1765 made a desperate effort to recover what the French had lost at Quebec in the former year. He organized the Indians of the Northwest into a confederation and succeeded in capturing nearly all the posts held by the English, except Detroit and Fort Pitt, where he was compelled to accept defeat. This ended what was known as "Pontiac's War." Coming to Illinois some years later, he remained about the French settlements in the vicinity of St. Louis. In the spring of 1769, according to a French authority, while participating with other Indians in a carousal at Cahokia (opposite St. Louis), he was treacherously assassinated by a Kaskaskia Indian, said to have been hired with a barrel of whisky by an Englishman named Williamson, to commit the deed. This act, according to Indian tradition, was fearfully avenged a few months later in an attack by the Pottawattomies upon the ancient village of La Vantum and "Starved Rock," the latter then receiving its name from the fate of the attacked party, all of whom are said to have perished except a half-breed.

The Pottawatomies, with their relatives, the Ottawas and the Chippewas, together with a remnant of the Shawnees, ultimately became dominant in Northern Illinois, until they were defeated by Gen. Anthony Wayne at Presque Isle, in 1794, when the treaty of Greenville with them and other tribes the following year, curbed their influence. The Illinois Indians were described by their friends, the early missionaries, as "tall of stature, strong, robust, the swiftest runners in the world and good archers, proud yet affable," and yet it was added, they were "idle, revengeful, jealous, cunning, dissolute and thievish."

The earliest civilized dwellings in Illinois, after the forts erected for purposes of defense, were undoubtedly the posts of the fur-traders and the missionary stations. Fort Miami, the first military post, established by La Salle in the winter of 1679-80, was at the month of the St. Joseph River within the boundaries of what is now the State of Michigan. Fort CreveCaur, partially erected a few months later on the east side of the Illinois a few miles below where the city of Peoria now stands, was never occupied. Mr. Charles Ballance, the historian of Peoria, locates this fort at the present village of Wesley, in Tazewell County, nearly opposite Lower Peoria. Fort St. Louis, built by Tonty on the summit of "Starved Rock," in the fall and winter of 1682, was the second erected in the "Illinois Country," but the first occupied. It has been claimed that Marquette established a mission among the Kaskaskias, opposite "The Rock" on the occasion of his first visit in September, 1673, and that he renewed it in the spring of 1675 when he visited it for the last time. It is doubtful if this mission was more than a season of preaching to the natives, celebrating mass, administering baptism, etc.; at least the story of an established mission has been denied. That this devoted and zealous propagandist regarded it as a mission, however, is evident from his own journal. He gave to it the name of the "Mission of the Immaculate Conception," and although he was compelled by failing health to abandon it almost immediately, it