The Tamaroa were a Native American people in the central

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

valley of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, and a member of the ''Illiniwek'' or

Illinois Confederation The Illinois Confederation, also referred to as the Illiniwek or Illini, were made up of a loosely organized group of 12 or 13 tribes who lived in the Mississippi River Valley. Eventually, member tribes occupied an area reaching from Lake Mich ...

of 12 or 13 tribes. The name "Tamaroa" is a derivative of the word ''tamarowa'' meaning "cut tail" in Illiniwek and relates to a totemic animal such as bear or wildcat.Simpson, Linda. "The Tribes of the Illinois Confederacy." May 6, 2006.
Accessed November 27, 2016. An Algonquian-speaking group, like the rest of the Illiniwek, they lived on both sides of the Mississippi River in the area of the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...

with the

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

and

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

s. Tamaroan culture is presumed to be similar to that of the Kaskaskia, Peoria, and other Illinois tribes.May, Jon D., "Tamaroa," ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''.
Accessed November 26, 2016,

History

An estimated 3000 Tamaroa lived along the Mississippi River, near the confluences with the Missouri and Illinois Rivers, but soon moved to a site near present-day

Cahokia, Illinois Cahokia is a settlement and former village in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States, founded as a colonial French mission in 1689. Located on the east side of the Mississippi River in the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area, as of the Unite ...

. In 1682, their village, also called Tamaroa, had about 600 lodges. A Catholic mission was founded near Tamaroa in 1689, which attracted the

Cahokia Cahokia Mounds ( 11 MS 2) is the site of a Native American city (which existed 1050–1350 CE) directly across the Mississippi River from present-day St. Louis. The state archaeology park lies in south-western Illinois between East St. L ...

, another Illinois tribe, who settled among the Tamaroa. After they combined, the two tribes had only 90 dwellings, indicating a rapid decline of the Tamaroas. The Tamaroas united with the

Kaskaskia The Kaskaskia were a historical Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. They were one of about a dozen cognate tribes that made up the Illiniwek Confederation, also called the Illinois Confederation. Their longstanding homeland was in ...

tribe in 1703 at the mouth of the

Kaskaskia River The Kaskaskia River is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 13, 2011 in central and southern Illinois in the U ...

, where the French had already established a community of the same name. The tribe was further reduced by its exposure to "...European diseases and liquor and by warfare with the Chickasaw and Shawnee." In 1803, the U. S. government recognized the surviving Tamaroas as members of the Kaskaskia tribe. Five leaders of the Tamaroa were among those who signed the Treaty of Edwardsville (1818), by which the various groups of the Illiniwek ceded about half of the present state of

to the United States. Descendants of the Tamaroa later merged with other, larger tribes of the Illiniwek, such as the Peoria. As a consequence of the forced Indian removal in the 1830s, their descendants are to be found mostly in

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

, as the

Confederated Peoria Tribe The Peoria are a Native American people. They are enrolled in the federally recognized Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma headquartered in Miami, Oklahoma. The Peoria people are the remnants of the nations which constituted the Illinois Confe ...

. The group later joined the Peoria tribe and moved to what would become the

Kansas Territory The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the United States, Union as the Slave and ...

. The consolidated Peoria were given land in Indian Territory. Thus, an unknown number of Tamaroa descendants were included in the Peoria reservation residents who were allotted land, beginning in 1889. The reservation was in present-day

Ottawa County, Oklahoma Ottawa County is a county located in the northeastern corner of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 30,285. Its county seat is Miami. The county was named for the Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma. It is also the locat ...

References

External links

"Tribes of the Illinois/Missouri Region at First Contact (1673)
" US GenNet

RootswebUS GenNet/Ancestry.com. May 6, 2006. Accessed November 27, 2016

Parkland College, 2005 {{authority control Algonquian peoples Illinois Confederation Native American history of Illinois Native American history of Oklahoma Native American tribes in Illinois Native American tribes in Oklahoma Algonquian ethnonyms

History

See also

References

External links