Note 251 — APPENDIX

The same apparently with Kaskaskia, spelled Kaskasquia by Father Charlevoix, and Caskaquia by Du Pratz. This band, as well as the Kahoquias, Tamaroas, Peorias, and Pimeteois, formed part of the Illinois nation, now nearly all extinct, though they could once enumerate as many as twenty thousand souls. They were found inhabiting the rivers which still retain their name, and have fallen before the Iroquois, and the Chicasa nations, with whom they waged war. Their name of Illinois, or Illinese of La Hontan, so much like Leni-Lenape, or that of the Delawares, and signifying, in common with that appellation, the original or genuine men, besides the tradition of their having come in company with the Miamies from the borders of Hudson’s bay or the North Pacific, and their speaking nearly the same language, as related by Charlevoix,⁠[A] appear as so many proofs of the common origin of these two people. It is also related by the same author (before their arrival in the country, which they so extensively occupied in the time of Soto’s incursion, and in which they lived till the period of their approaching extinction), they had settled along the borders of the river des Moins, or Moingona, of the Mississippi, which gave name to one of their tribes. The friendship which they cultivated, about a century ago, with the Osages, and the Arkansas, who are the same people, and some incidental resemblances between them, lead us to believe them also commonly related by language and descent.—Nuttall.