Who were the Michigamea?

Marquette’s recording of this ethnonym on his map of the Mississippi represents, as far as I know, the first time that the French had heard of this tribe. 

His map’s METCHIGAMEA, with its first -E-, is a slightly better representation of way the name was pronounced in Illinois than the spelling Mitchigamea that appears in Dablon’s re-write of Marquette’s journal. However, both spellings display an Ottawa-Algonquin “bias,” in Dablon’s first -i- of Mitchigamea and in both Dablon’s and Marquette’s second -i-. Of course, this is what one would expect since Ottawa-Algonquin is the Algonquian language that both Marquette and Dablon spoke fluently and knew best. 

Largillier’s Illinois-French dictionary reveals that the actual form of the tribe name in the Illinois language was phonemic meehčaakamia,” as Largillier consistently spells the name Metchagamia several times in his book. (Note that here č represents the sound written “tch” in French and “ch” in English, as in the English word “chip”. Largillier’s -g- could also be an Ottawa-Algonquin bias itself, but it is probably just the voicing of k to [g] in Illinois under the influence of the following -m-.)   

The Metchagamia spelling by Largillier, who spoke Illinois fluently, is authoritative. 

The tribe name means “big-water-person,” and is composed of meehč- ‘big’  +  -aakami ‘water’  +  -a, the animate noun suffix implying “person”. 

Marquette’s METCH- is in truth meehč-. 

First, Frenchmen did not hear or care to note vowel length, i.e., in this term, the long Illinois vowel is ee rather than the short Illinois vowel e. Both vowels are pronounced the same except the first is pronounced with a longer duration. In other words, Illinois has both long vowels and short vowels, and using one or the other changes the meaning of words. For example nipi is the inanimate noun meaning “water” but niipi is the possessed noun meaning “my arrow”. In the case of ee and e, the first would sound somewhat like the vowel in English “mail” or the first vowel in “mayor,” stretched out so to speak, while the second would sound somewhat like the vowel in “maple”. 

Second, Frenchmen did not hear or note the h in consonant clusters such as hč, which explains why neither Marquette nor Largillier wrote the first syllable of the tribe name *MEHTCH-. 

Third, Frenchmen also sometimes could not distinguish Illinois i, as in English “eat” from e as in English “ate,” which is not unusual since i is pronounced with the tongue just slightly higher in the mouth than e.

Explaining the linguistic aspect of the “Michigamea,” as the name appears most often in the literature, is a simple matter compared to figuring out who these people were and where they originally came from.

The “big water” is probably none other than the Mississippi and/or the Ohio.

In Marquette’s journal of his Mississippi voyage, he refers to these people twice:

“We had gone down to near the 33rd degree of latitude having proceeded nearly all the time in a southerly direction, when we perceived a village on The water’s edge called Mitchigamea.We had recourse to our Patroness and guide, The Blessed Virgin Immaculate; and we greatly needed her assistance, For we heard from afar The savages who were inciting one another to the Fray by their Continual yells. They were armed with bows, arrows, hatchets, clubs, and shields. They prepared to attack us, on both land and water; part of them embarked in great wooden canoes — some to ascend, others to descend the river, in order to Intercept us and surround us on all sides. Those who were on land came and went, as if to commence The attack. In fact, some Young men threw themselves into The water, to come and seize my Canoe; but the current compelled Them to return to land. One of them then hurled his club, which passed over without striking us. In vain I showed The calumet, and made them signs that we were not coming to war against them. The alarm continued, and they were already preparing to pierce us with arrows from all sides, when God suddenly touched the hearts of the old men, who were standing at the water’s edge. This no doubt happened through the sight of our Calumet, which they had not clearly distinguished from afar; but as I did not cease displaying it, they were influenced by it, and checked the ardor of their Young men. Two of these elders even, — after casting into our canoe, as if at our feet, Their bows and quivers, to reassure us — entered the canoe, and made us approach the shore, whereon we landed, not without fear on our part. At first, we had to [Page 151] speak by signs, because none of them understood the six languages which I spoke. At last, we found an old man who could speak a little Ilinois.

Marquette continues:

“WE embarked early on the following day, with our interpreter; a canoe containing ten savages went a short distance ahead of us. When we arrived within half a league of the Akamsea, we saw two canoes coming to meet us. He who commanded stood upright, holding in his hand The calumet, with Which he made various signs, according to the custom of the country. He joined us, singing very agreeably, and gave us tobacco to smoke; after that, he offered us sagamité, and bread made of indian corn, of which we ate a little. He then preceded us, after making us a sign to follow Him slowly. A place had been prepared for us under The scaffolding of the chief of the warriors; it was [Page 153] clean, and carpeted with fine rush mats. Upon These we were made to sit, having around us the elders, who were nearest to us; after them, The warriors; and, finally, all The common people in a crowd. We fortunately found there a Young man who understood Ilinois much better than did The Interpreter whom we had brought from Mitchigamea. Through him, I spoke at first to the whole assembly by The usual presents. They admired what I said to Them about God and the mysteries of our holy faith. They manifested a great desire to retain me among them, that I might instruct Them.” (Thwaites, Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, vol. 59).

Now, this was the summer of 1673. Only a few years later, the late 1680s and1690s, Largillier noted in his dictionary a few meehčaakamia dialect terms, and all are pure Algonquian, i.e., all are Illinois. It is therefore baffling that the meehčaakamia just a few years earlier would not have been Illinois speakers. 

We know that the Akansea were Ohio Valley Siouan speakers, and thus the people that Marquette found at the village identified in his journal as “Mitchigamea” were very likely Siouan speakers as well.

So, what gives? Perhaps, the Peoria, whom Marquette met on the Des Moines River around the summer solstice and who gave Marquette many other tribe names that we find on his map, had indicated to him and his French companions where they could expect to find the meehčaakamia, and that Marquette therefore termed the site he found along the Mississippi “Mitchigamea”. Maybe he thought the people he had found there were the meehčaakamia.

Interestingly, Largillier also says in his dictionary that the Akansea called the meehčaakamia “8arakia”.  (Here 8 is a shorthand form of French ou and represents the sound w.) As I noted in my book, this is not a Siouan term. However, it is an excellent spelling for Illinois waarahkia ‘cave country person’, from waar- ‘cave’, -ahki ‘country’ and -a, the animate noun suffix again. Thus, waarahkia could be an original name in Illinois for the meehčaakamia which the Siouan-speaking Akansea borrowed. 

Illinois archaeologist Duane Esarey has suggested to me that the cave country in question might be southeastern Missouri. Of course, this does not imply, necessarily, that southeastern Missouri was the original, prehistoric estate of the meehčaakamia; it could simply refer to this tribe as inhabitants of that area and to the association that the Akansea made of the meehčaakamia with that area. In light of the fact that in 1673 the summer villages of the Illinois tribe known as the Peoria were in present Iowa, the summer village of the Illinois tribe known as the Kaskaskia was on the upper Illinois River in present Illinois, the summer village of the meehčaakamia could have been quite south along the Mississippi, in present southeastern Missouri or further south, as implied by Marquette’s map.

The Quebec-based French mapmaker Jean-Baptiste Louis Franquelin may offer a hint regarding the original location of the meehčaakamia, on a map he drew in 1697. He locates the Ancien Pays des Matsagami in what is now southern Illinois. (Raymond Wood, Atlas of Early Maps of the American Midwest: Part II, Plate III.)

It is not impossible that the meehčaakamia were originally a group of Ohio Valley Siouan speakers who allied themselves in the early 1600s with the Illinois upon the latters’ arrival in what in time would be known as the “Illinois Country". There is a possibility that the meehčaakamia were a Sioiuan-speaking band, located perhaps in southeastern Missouri, that very soon after the arrival of the Illinois in the Illinois valley, say around 1620, became allied with the Illinois and adopted the Illinois language. The language shift could have happened in the intervening 60 odd years. That is not impossible. 

Or the meehčaakamia could simply be one of the original bands of Miami-Illinois speakers who left the western Lake Erie watershed early in the 1600s a few decades before the Iroquoian catastrophe of 1640 that drove their Algonquian linguistic cousins the Sauk, the Fox, the Kickapoo, the Mascouten, and the Potawatomi out of that area and indeed out of the lower peninsula of Michigan over into Wisconsin. In other words, the meehčaakamia might have been originally a part of the Miami-Illinois-speaking people that was, because of established peaceful relations with Ohio Valley Siouans, the most southerly of this linguistic group. 

We do not have an answer, and probably will never have an answer for who the meehčaakamia originally were, unless a long lost document surfaces that gives us the answer.

Michael McCafferty

©2015