Cahokia people

The Cahokia (Miami-Illinois: kahokiaki) were an Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe and member of the Illinois Confederation; their territory was in what is now the Midwestern United States in North America.[1]

This article is about the former Native American tribe. For the site named after the tribe, see Cahokia.

Cahokia
kahokiaki
Total population
extinct as a tribe, descendants may have merged into the Peoria people[1]
Regions with significant populations
present-day United States (Illinois}[1]
Languages
Miami-Illinois language
Religion
Indigenous religion

At the time of European contact with the Illini, the peoples were located in what would later be organized as the states of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansas. In the 17th-century, the Cahokia lived near the massive precontact earthwork complex that Americans named the Cahokia Mounds.[1] By then, Cahokia Mounds had been abandoned for centuries. The Cahokia people were not related to the residents of Cahokia Mounds, who were most likely Dhegiha Siouan-speaking peoples.[2]

17th century

French missionaries built missions in an attempt to convert the Cahokia. They build the Tamaroa/Cahokia mission in 1699 CE.[3]

18th century

In 1735, the French built the River L’Abbė mission.[3][4] These multiple missions imply the Cahokia was a large enough tribe for the French Seminary of Foreign Missions to justify their construction and operation.

In 1752, Shawnee and Meskwaki allies of the British destroyed the primary Cahokia settlement.[1][5] Survivors joined the neighboring Michigamea.[5]

The Cahokia declined in number in the 18th century, due likely to mortality from warfare with other tribes, new infectious diseases, and cultural changes, such as Christianization, which further disrupted their society.[6]

The remnant Cahokia, along with the Michigamea, were absorbed by the Kaskaskia and finally the Peoria people. The Tamaroa were closely related to the Cahokia.

19th century

Five Cahokia chiefs and headmen joined those of other Illinois tribes at the 1818 Treaty of Edwardsville (Illinois); they ceded to the United States territory of theirs that equaled half of the present state of Illinois.[7]

After the U.S. government implemented its Indian Removal policy in the early 19th century, the descendants were forcefully relocated to Kansas Territory and finally to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma).

Legacy

Although the Cahokia tribe is no longer a distinct polity, its cultural traditions continue through the federally recognized Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma.[7][8]

See also

Further reading
  • Cahokia Indian Tribe History at Access Genealogy
  • Malinowski, Sharon; Sheets, Anna (1998). Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes, Volume 1. Gale. ISBN 0-7876-1086-0.

References
  1. May, Jon D. "Cahokia". The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Retrieved August 26, 2023.
  2. Emerson, Thomas E.; Pauketat, Timothy R. (2000). Cahokia: Domination and Ideology in the Mississippian World. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. p. 24. ISBN 9780803287655.
  3. Morgan, M.J. (2010). Land of Big Rivers: French and Indian Illinois, 1699-1778. Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0-8093-8564-5. OCLC 649913983.
  4. Walthall, John A. The River L'Abbe Mission: A French colonial church for the Cahokia Illini on Monks Mound. OCLC 1107697896.
  5. Santella, Andrew (2007). Illinois Native Peoples. Heinemann Library. p. 13. ISBN 9781432902766.
  6. White, A.J.; Munoz, Samuel E.; Schroeder, Sissel; Stevens, Lora R. (January 24, 2020). "After Cahokia: Indigenous Repopulation and Depopulation of the Horseshoe Lake Watershed AD 1400–1900". American Antiquity. 85 (2): 263–278. doi:10.1017/aaq.2019.103. ISSN 0002-7316.
  7. Simpson, Linda. "The Tribes of the Illinois Confederacy." May 6, 2006. Accessed November 27, 2016.
  8. "About | Peoria Tribe Of Indians of Oklahoma". Retrieved March 26, 2020.
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