Joseph's and Chicago; also the country lying south of the Des Moines,
down perhaps, to the Mississippi, was inhabited by a numerous nation of
Indians, who called themselves Linneway, and were called by others,
Minneway, signifying "men." This great nation was divided into several
bands, and inhabited different parts of this extensive region, as
follows: The Michigamies, the country south of the Des Moines; the
Cohakias that east of the present village of Cohokia in Illinois; the
Kaskaskias that east of the town of that name; the Tamarois had their
village nearly central between Cahokia and Kaskaskia; the Piankeshaws
near Vincennes; the Weas up the Wabash; the Miamies on the head waters
of the Miami of the Lakes, on St. Joseph's river and at Chicago. The
Piankeshaws, Weas and Miamies, must at this time have hunted south
towards and on the Ohio. The Peorias, another band of the same nation,
lived and hunted on the Illinois river: The Mascos or Mascontins, called
by the French _gens des prairies_, lived and hunted on the great
prairies, between the Wabash and Illinois rivers. All these different
bands of the Minneway nation, spoke the language of the present Miamies,
and the whole considered themselves as one and the same people; yet from
their local situation, and having no standard to go by, their language
became broken up into different dialects. These Indians, the Minneways,
were attacked by a general confederacy of other nations, such as the
Sauks and Foxes, resident at Green Bay and on the Ouisconsin; the Sioux,
whose frontiers extended south to the river des Moines: the Chippeways,
Ottoways, and Potawatimies from the lakes, and also the Cherokees and
Choctaws from the south. The war continued for a great many years and
until that great nation the Minneways were destroyed, except a few
Miamies and Weas on the Wabash, and a few who are scattered among
strangers. Of the Kaskaskias, owing to their wars and their fondness for
spiritous liquors, there now (1826) remain but thirty or forty
souls;--of the Peorias near St. Genevieve ten or fifteen; of the