Mascouten

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Mascouten
Total population
descendants are part of the
Piankashaw and Kickapoo

The Mascouten (also Mascoutin, Mathkoutench, Muscoden, or Musketoon) were a tribe of Algonquian-speaking Native Americans located in the Midwest. They are believed to have dwelt on both sides of the Mississippi River, adjacent to the present-day Wisconsin-Illinois border, after being driven out of Michigan by the Odawa.

The accounts of the

Jesuit Relations frequently refer to the Mascouten as the "Fire Nation" or "Nation of Fire".[1][2] One Jesuit wrote, "The Fire Nation is erroneously so called, its correct name being Maskoutench, which means 'a treeless country,' like that inhabited by these people; but as, by changing a few letters, this Word is made to signify 'fire,' therefore the people have come to be called the Fire Nation."[3]

Their name apparently comes either from a Fox word meaning "Little Prairie People" or from the Sauk term Mashkotêwi ("

autonym).[5] The Huron knew them also as Atsistaeronnon ("people of the fire").[6]

They are first mentioned in historic records by

Fox, after almost being exterminated by the French and the Potawatomi
.

The survivors migrated westward. The Mascouten are last referred to as a band in historic records in 1779, when they were living on the

Kickapoo Prairie Band
.

The city of Mascoutah, Illinois, was named in 1839 after the Mascouten tribe.[8]

The village of Moscow, Iowa County, Wisconsin, is said to have been named after the Mascouten tribe.

References

Notes
  1. .
  2. ^ Sturtevant, William C. (1978-01-01). Handbook of North American Indians. Government Printing Office.
  3. ^ "The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents Volume 55". puffin.creighton.edu. Archived from the original on 2016-03-21. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  4. ^ Gordon Whittaker: A Concise Dictionary of the Sauk Language
  5. ^ Lee Sultzman, "Mascouten History", Dickshovel, accessed 5 July 2010
  6. ^ The Early Map "Novvelle France": An Linguistic Analysis
  7. ^ "the Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents Volume 27". puffin.creighton.edu. 11 August 2014. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  8. ^ Illinois (1839). Laws of the State of Illinois Enacted by the ... General Assembly at the Extra Session ... Illinois State Journal Company, State Printers.
Bibliography

External links