Peoria tribe

Peoria Tribe of Indians

Ruthe Blalock Jones, Peoria-Shawnee-Delaware artist
Total population
2,861[1]
Regions with significant populations
United States (Oklahoma)
Languages
English, formerly Miami-Illinois
Religion
Christianity (Roman Catholicism), traditional tribal religions
Related ethnic groups
Kaskaskia, Piankesaw, and Wea

The Peoria people are a Native American tribe. Today they are enrolled in the federally recognized Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. Historically, they were part of the Illinois Confederation.

History

Peoria moccasins, ca. 1860, collection of Oklahoma History Center

The Peoria are Algonquian-speaking people, whose ancestors came from what is now Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio.^[2] Once thought to be descendants of the Cahokia Mississippian culture of Moundbuilders, they are now believed to be related to Algonquian-speaking peoples of the Great Lakes and East Coast.^[3] The Peoria were one of the many Illinois tribes encountered by the explorers, Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet. French Jesuit missionaries converted tribal members to Roman Catholicism.^[3] Father Jacques Gravier, superior of the Illinois mission, compiled the most extensive dictionary of Kaskaskia Illinois-French terms, nearly 600 pages and 20,000 entries.^[4]

The Peoria migrated southwest into Missouri Territory after 1763.^[3] In 1818, the Treaty of Edwardsville included the cession of Peoria lands in Illinois to the United States.^[5] By the 1832 Treaty of Lewisville, they ceded Missouri lands in exchange for land in Kansas, near the Osage River.^[3]

Infectious disease, to which they had no natural immunity, and intertribal wars drastically reduced the tribe's numbers. Members of the Kaskaskia, Peoria, Piankeshaw, and Wea tribes formed a confederacy under the Peoria name. After the Civil War, most of the confederated tribe signed the 1867 Omnibus Treaty.^[2] By this means, the US government purchased land from the Quapaw tribe and relocated the majority of the Peoria tribe to Indian Territory, now part of Oklahoma.^[3]

Under the Dawes Act and Curtis Act of 1898, the US government attempted to make individual allotments of land to heads of families, to allow separate ownership and cultivation of land, and break up the common landholdings of the tribes. It was part of an effort to have the tribes assimilate to European-American ways. At the same time, they forced tribal governments to dismantle. In 1939, after passage of the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act, the tribe reorganized and re-established its traditional form of council government.^[2]

During the 1950s, the US government pursued a policy of Indian termination to end its special relationship with tribes. It dissolved the Peoria tribal government, which lost federal recognition in 1959. Tribal members objected and began the process to regain federal recognition, which they achieved in 1978.^[3]

Language

The Peoria spoke a dialect of the Miami-Illinois language. The name "Peoria" derives from their autonym or name for themselves in the Illinois language, peewaareewa (modern pronunciation peewaalia). Originally it meant, "Comes carrying a pack on his back."^[6] No speakers of the Peoria language survive.^[7]

Government

The tribe is based in Miami, Oklahoma, and their tribal jurisdictional area is in Ottawa County. Of the 2,861 enrolled tribal members, only 764 live within the state of Oklahoma. John P. Froman is the tribe's elected Chief, currently serving a four-year term. The tribe issues its own vehicle tags and operates its own housing authority. The Peoria Tribes owns Peoria Ridge Golf Course, and two casinos.^[1] The estimated annual economic impact of the tribe is $50 million.^[1] Tribal businesses, the Peoria Gaming Center, Buffalo Run Casino and Hotel, and Joe's Outback are all located in Miami, Oklahoma.^[8]

Namesakes

• The city of Peoria, Illinois and the surrounding Peoria County are named after the tribe which lived in that area.
• The Peoria War occurred in this area but is named for the town, as the tribe had already left for Missouri before this conflict occurred.
• Peoria, Oklahoma and Paola, Kansas are named directly for the tribe. Many other places named Peoria and US Navy ships were named after the town in Illinois.

Notable Peoria people

• Ruthe Blalock Jones (b. 1939), Delaware-Shawnee-Peoria artist and educator
• Moscelyne Larkin (b. 1925), Peoria-Shawnee ballerina

See also

• Sagamite

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Pocket Pictorial." Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission. 2010: 28. (retrieved 10 June 2010)
2. ^ ^{a b c} History. Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. 2007 (retrieved 8 Feb 2009)
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Vaugh-Roberson, Glen. Peoria. Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture. 2009 (retrieved 8 Feb 2009)
4. ^ http://ijl.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/17/3/325 "Review" of Carl Masthay, Kaskaskia Illinois-to-French Dictionary], Saint Louis: Carl Masthay, 2002, International Journal of Lexicography, 17(3):325–327, accessed 1 Mar 2010
5. ^ Illinois Indian History Timeline, Illinois State Museum
6. ^ Peoria Indian Tribal History. Access Genealogy: Indian Tribal Records. 2009 (retrieved 8 Feb 2009)
7. ^ Anderton, Alice, PhD. "Status of Indian Languages in Oklahoma", Intertribal Wordpath Society. 2009 (retrieved 8 Feb 2009)
8. ^ Oklahoma Indian Casinos: Casinos by Tribes. 500 Nations. 2009 (retrieved 8 Feb 2009)

External links

• Official Website of the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma
• Tribes of the Illinois/Missouri Region at First Contact (1673)
• The Tribes of The Illinois Confederacy
• Inoca Ethnohistory Project: Eye Witness Descriptions of the Contact Generation, 1667–1700
•  "Peoria Indians". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.