# Mitchigamea

The Mitchigamea, Michigamea, or Michigamie were a tribe in the Illinois Confederation. The Mitchigamea are thought to have been part of the Sioan language family, and historic accounts describe them as not being fluent in the Illinois language. Little is known of them today. Originally they were said to be from Lake Michigan, perhaps the Chicago area. Mitchie Precinct, Monroe County in Southwestern Illinois takes its name from their transient presence nearby, north of the French Fort de Chartres in the American Bottom along the Mississippi. One of their villages in the American Bottom, inhabited from 1730 until 1752, is one of the region's premier archaeological sites; it is known as the "Kolmer Site". Other sites which have been proposed as being associated with the Mitchigamea include the Waterman Site and Grigsby Site.
The Mitchigamea are believed to have wintered in Illinois near the Tamaroas and summered in Arkansas near the Quapaw. This is based on archeological evidence, historic accounts, and historic maps. It is theorized that this pattern was designed to take advantage of a good location to conduct summer hunting and trading with the Quapaw which produced hides and meat, while then maximizing trade advantages with the French during the winter.
It is suggested that the people later moved to Arkansas under pressure from the Iroquois. Their best-known chief was Agapit Chicagou. Benjamin Drake, writing about the incident decades later in 1848, records that the Michigamie, along with the other bands in the Illinois Confederation, had been attacked by a general confederation of the Sauk, Fox, Sioux, Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatamies, along with the Cherokee and Choctawa from the south. The war continued for a great many years until the Illinois Confederation was destroyed. First hand accounts from the time period indicate that after being reduced, some of the Mitchigamea were absorbed by the Kaskaskia and the majority were absorbed by the Quapaw.
Drake records that by 1826 only about 500 members of the Confederation remained. Drake implies that the war came about due to the cruelty of the Illini towards their prisoners, frequently burning them, and even feasting on their flesh when killed.
The Jesuit Relations say: "At 5 miles from the village, I found the Tamaroa, who have taken up their winter quarters in a fine Bay, where they await the Mitchigamea, -- who are to come more than 60 leagues to winter there, and to form but one village with them."

## Language

Their language was the Mitchigamea language. Due to the early detriment of this tribe, very little sources are recorded compared to other tribal groups from the region. In 1673, Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet used a Mitchigamea man, who only spoke Illinois poorly, as a translator between the Illinois-speaking French, and the Siouan-speaking Quapaw. Jean Bernard Bossu provided two sentences from the mid-18th century which, according to John Koontz, indicate that Michigamea was a Siouan language of the Mississippi Valley branch.

## Modern Descendants

The Mitchigamea do not exist as a social or ethnic group and do not have a living federally recognized tribal government. Despite this the remnants of the Illinois Confederacy which they belonged to exists today as the federally recognized Peoria Tribe of Indians, and many of them were noted for being absorbed by the Quapaw, which also still exist today as a federally recognized tribe.