Peoria people

ThePeoriaare aNative Americanpeople. They are enrolled in thefederally recognizedPeoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahomaheadquartered inMiami, Oklahoma.
The Peoria people are the remnants of the nations which constituted theIllinois Confederation. The Peoria Tribe were located east of theMississippi Riverand north of theOhio River.In the colonial period, they traded with French colonists in that territory.
After 1763, when the British took over those lands following victory in theSeven Years' War, the Peoria were moved west across the Mississippi.In 1867 their descendants moved toIndian Territorywith remnants of related tribes and were assigned land in present-dayOttawa County, Oklahoma. The land which they were assigned belonged to theQuapaw, who were made to cede this land for the Peoria and Miami.
The Peoria speak a dialect of theMiami–Illinois language, a CentralAlgonquian languagein which these two dialects are mutually intelligible.
The namePeoria, also Peouaroua, derives from theirautonym, or name for themselves in the Illinois language,peewaareewa(modern pronunciationpeewaalia). Originally it meant, "Comes carrying a pack on his back."No native speakers of the Peoria language survive. Revitalization efforts for the Peoria Language were initiated in August 2022 by a 10-week online course offered by the tribe.Along with the Miami language, a smaller number of historic members of the Peoria tribe of Oklahoma once spoke related Algonquian languages of Cahokia, Moingwea, and Tamaroa.
The Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma is headquartered inMiami, Oklahoma.Their tribal jurisdictional area is inOttawa County, in the northeast corner of the state. Of the 3,713 enrolled tribal members, some 777 live within the state of Oklahoma.
The Peoria issue their owntribal vehicle tagsand operate their own housing authority. The tribe owns one casino and the Peoria Ridge Golf Course. The estimated annual economic impact of the tribe in the area is $60 million.Tribal businesses, the Peoria Gaming Center, Buffalo Run Casino and Hotel, and Joe's Outback are all located inMiami, Oklahoma, their tribal lands.
The Peoria areAlgonquian-speaking people. Their ancestors traditionally lived in what are now the state jurisdictions ofIllinois,Ohio,Michigan, andMissouri.The Peoria are related to, and partially descended from, theCahokia people, not to be confused withCahokia Mounds.
The Peoria were one of the manyIllinoistribes encountered by early French explorers, FatherJacques MarquetteandLouis Jolliet. FrenchJesuitmissionariesconverted tribal members toRoman Catholicism.FatherJacques Gravier, superior of the Illinois mission, compiled the most extensive bilingualdictionaryof KaskaskiaIllinoisand corresponding French terms, nearly 600 pages and 20,000 entries.
After 1763 France ceded its Illinois Country and other territories east of the Mississippi River to the British, who had defeated them in theSeven Years' War. Like many of the French colonists in villages in this area, the Peoria migrated southwest intoMissouri Territory.For instance,Ste. GenevieveandSt. Louiswere founded in that era by French colonists from east of the river who did not want to live under British Protestant rule.
In 1818, after the United States (US) had taken over former British territory east of the Mississippi following their gaining independence, they pressed the Peoria to sign the Treaty of Edwardsville, which provided for the cession of Peoria lands in Illinois to the US.The US pressed forIndian Removalfrom areas desired by European-American settlers, who kept pushing west, and President Andrew Jackson signed the act of that name in 1830. By the 1832 Treaty of Lewisville, the Peoria cededMissourilands in exchange for land inKansasnear theOsage River, which was then part of Indian Territory.
The tribe suffered from introduced newinfectious diseasesand intertribal wars in new areas of resource competition. In 1849, remnant members of theKaskaskia, Peoria,Piankeshaw, andWeatribes formed a confederacy under the Peoria name.The confederation included the last members and descendants of theCahokia,Moingwena,MichigameaandTamaroatribes, who had assimilated with the Peoria many year before. ThePepikokiaalso joined, having merged with the Wea and Piankashaw in the later part of the 18th century.
In 1851, an Indian agent reported that the Peoria and the Kaskaskia, along with their allies, had intermarried among themselves and among white people to such an extent that they had practically lost their tribal identities. An 1854 treaty recognized this as a factual union and classified these groups as theConfederated Peoria. The treaty also provided for opening the Peoria-Kaskaskia and the Wea-Piankashaw reserves in Kansas to settlement by non-Indians.
After theCivil War, most of the confederated tribe signed the 1867 Omnibus Treaty.By this means, the US federally government purchased land from theQuapawtribe and relocated the majority of the Confederated Peoria tribe onto a 72,000 acres (290 km) reservation inIndian Territory, part of present-dayOttawa County, Oklahoma.Congress enacted a law to unite the Miami tribe, then also in Kansas, and assign them to lands with the Confederated Peoria.
In 1893, under theDawes Act, the US broke up communal lands in Indian Territory to speed assimilation and make more land available for sale to non-Indians. Allotments were made to enrolled heads of households over the next few years, to extinguish Indian claims and enable the territories to be admitted as a state. In 1907, after admission of Oklahoma, any "surplus" land as determined by the US in former Confederated Peoria territory was transferred to Ottawa County, which could sell it.
Under theDawes ActandCurtis Act of 1898, the US government conducted registration of tribal members in order to make individual allotments of land to heads of families. They believed that encouraging subsistence agriculture was the way to bring the tribal members into European-American practices. It also enabled them to break up the communal culture and make land available for sale to whites. At the same time, they forced tribal governments to dismantle before Oklahoma was admitted as a state. The Peoria lost much of their land in these transactions and suffered with the pressure to give up their culture. For decades, theBureau of Indian Affairsappointed tribal chiefs, who previously had been selected by hereditary roles.
The federal government changed its approach during the President Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, after realizing the adverse effects of those actions. In 1934 it passed a law encouraging federally recognized tribes (generally those who had been on reservations) to reorganize their governments, encouraging a constitutional, representative model similar to that of the US and states. Similarly, theOklahoma Indian Welfare Actwas passed in 1939. Under that, the Confederated Peoria reorganized and re-established its historical form of council government.
During the 1950s, the US government changed policies again, promotingIndian terminationto end its special relationship with tribes that it believed were ready to be independent. It terminated the Peoria tribal government, which lost federal recognition in 1959. Tribal members objected and began the process to regain federal recognition, because it provided important education and welfare benefits. They regained federal recognition in 1978.The Miami tribe was never 'terminated'.
Descendants of thePiankeshaw,Kaskaskia, andWea, who were all members of theIllinois Confederacy, are also enrolled in the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma.