Historical and Philological Evidence regarding the Identification of the Mascouten

Contrary to some published assertions, various historical and philological data make it abundantly clear that the so-called Mascouten were a separate Algonquian group who lived in the Upper Great Lakes area until the beginning of the 19th century. Mascouten were a semi-sedentary Algonquian tribe that lived in the Old Northwest in the early historic period. They moved from southern Michigan to the southern Wisconsin-northern Illinois area, and eventually to northwestern Indiana where they amalgamated with the Kickapoo after 1800. Their obscurity and relatively early disappearance as a separate entity have given rise to a series of attempts to identify them with some other group or groups. As a result, the question of the identity of the mysterious Mascouten(s) has been a recurring theme in ethnohistorical accounts of the Upper Great Lakes area. However, a reconsideration of the evidence seems to leave little doubt that the Mascouten were a separate central Algonquian group and not to be explained away as really somebody else. This conclusion parallels the assumption of, for example, J. G. Shea (in Schoolcraft 1851-57:IV:294-5), Louise Phelps Kellogg (1925) and Wayne Temple (1958:156-72), and no particular novelty can be claimed for it. But since opposing views continue to appear (e.g. Brose 1971), a rehearsal of the case might be helpful. first firm unmistakable attestation of the existence of the Mascouten derives from a map (here referred to as The Lost Huron Map) which is known directly only from a list of the tribal names appearing on it that was entered in the Jesuit Relation for 1640 (Thwaites 18961901:XVIII:230-4). A comparison of these names and their sequence with the Sanson maps (Sanson 1650, 1656, 1657) makes it clear that the Lost 123 ETHNOHSTORY 19/2 (Spring 1972) This content downloaded from 207.46.13.129 on Tue, 28 Jun 2016 05:52:41 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

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