by Michael Wiant (former Director of Dickson Mounds Museum and former Interim Director of the Illinois State Museum)

The floodplain north of Fort de Chartres served as the main homeland for the Michigamea Tribe of the Illinois Nation for many generations. Archaeological evidence shows their presence as early as the late 1600s, and written records confirm that the Michigamea had been living there by at least 1721.

The Kolmer and Waterman archaeological sites offer physical proof of Michigamea villages.

Kolmer was the main summer village of the Michigamea in the early eighteenth century. Here, they grew corn and traded furs with the French. French priests started a mission among the Michigamea in the early 1720s. At its peak, the village had as many as 1,000 residents. The French left the mission around 1740, and the village’s population declined.

In 1752, tribes from the north attacked the village, causing heavy losses to the Michigamea. Indigenous violence and warfare were linked to the westward expansion of the fur trade and increased competition for resources.

Soon after the attack, the tribe rebuilt their town slightly to the south, on a ridge. The new settlement, today known as the Waterman Site, was protected by a vertical log stockade wall. Its population had decreased to less than 500. In the early 1760s, the Michigamea were joined by members of the Peoria Tribe of Illinois, and for a short time, the village grew back to its former size. However, the arrival of the British at Fort de Chartres in 1765 marked the beginning of the decline of the Indigenous community there. Unlike the French, the British did not seek Native accommodation, kinship, or alliance as the French had. The Michigamea and Peoria soon dispersed, leaving their ancestral villages before 1775.

The Peoria Indian Tribe of Oklahoma, who live in Miami, OK, are the descendants of residents from these Michigamea communities.