Captain de La Nation des Illinois
Captain of the Nation
Credited to Father Louis Nicolas, 1701. Courtesy of the Gilcrease Museum of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Public Domain.
The complete French title translates to “Captain of the Nation of the Illinois, armed with a pipe and a dart.”
Historically, the Illinois confederacy had up to twelve tribes but at the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, there were only three: the Cahokia, Kaskaskia, and Peoria. The captains refer to the Illinois only one time, in an entry describing the Sauks and Foxes:
These people [Sauk and Fox] are extremely friendly to the whites, and seldom injure their traders; but they are the most implacable enemies to the Indian nations with whom they are at war. To them is justly attributable the almost entire destruction of the Missourias, the Illinois, Cahokias, Kaskaskias, and Piorias.
The captains’ census reports a population of 50 “Piories & Illinois” souls.[1]Moulton, Journals, 3:407. Despite spending the winter of 1803–04 near Cahokia and Kaskaskia Illinois, the mention of these tribes in the “Estimate of the Eastern Indians” is the only time they use those names to denote peoples instead of places.
After the expedition, the Cahokia merged with the Peoria and eventually all the Illinois were known as Peoria. In 1854, the Peoria joined with the Wea and Piankashaw and in 1873, that confederation joined with the Miami. Today, the Peoria are a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Miami, Oklahoma. Most of the Illinois culture and language has been lost.[2]Charles Callender, Handbook of North American Indians: Northeast Vol. 15, Bruce G. Trigger, Ed. (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1978), 673, 681.
Encounters
February 27, 1803
No ordinary botanist
In Washington City, Thomas Jefferson asks Benjamin Smith Barton to train Lewis in natural history. In another letter, he asks the Illinois governor to treat with several Illinois tribes to obtain land.
February 7, 1804
Rising 'River a Dubois'
At Wood River across from the mouth of the Missouri, River Dubois—present Wood River in Illinois— fills with mud, and the rising water takes away an Indian’s canoe. Sgt. Ordway returns to camp.
Notes
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Discover More
- The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
- The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
- The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.
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Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).