The Moingona or Moingwena () were a historic Miami-Illinois tribe. They may have been close allies of or perhaps part of the Peoria. They were assimilated by that tribe and lost their separate identity about 1700. Today their descendants are enrolled in the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, a federally-recognized tribe.

History

17th-century

French missionary

Jacques Marquette Jacques Marquette, Society of Jesus, S.J. (; June 1, 1637 – May 18, 1675), sometimes known as Père Marquette or James Marquette, was a French Society of Jesus, Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste. M ...

documented in 1672 that the Peolualen (the modern Peoria). and the Mengakonkia (Moingona) were among the Ilinoue (

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 ...

) tribes who all "speak the same language." In 1673 Marquette and

Louis Jolliet Louis Jolliet (; September 21, 1645after May 1700) was a French-Canadian explorer known for his discoveries in North America. In 1673, Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit Catholic priest and missionary, were the first non-Natives to explore ...

left their canoes and followed a beaten path away from the river out onto the prairie to three Illinois villages within about a mile and a half of each other. Marquette identified only one of the villages at the time, the ''peouarea,'' but a later map apparently by him identified another as the ''Moingwena.'' He said of the 1673 meeting that there was "some difference in their language," but that "we easily understood each other." Father Jacques Gravier reports helping the close allies "Peouaroua and Mouingoueña" deal with a common adversary in 1700.

18th-century history

Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, S.J. (; ; 24 or 29 October 1682 – 1 February 1761) was a French Jesuit priest, traveller, and historian, often considered the first historian of New France. Name Charlevoix's name also appears as Pier ...

, a missionary who explored the region in 1721, recorded that "le ''Moingona''" was "an immense and magnificent Prairie, all covered with Beef and other Hoofed Animals." He italicized the term to indicate it was a geographical term and noted that "one of the tribes bears that name." Charlevoix was a professor or belles lettres, and his spelling has come to be a preferred spelling in general and scholarly discussions.

Name

The name ''Moingona'' was probably the basis for the name of the city of

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...

, the Des Moines River, and Des Moines County, Iowa.Vogel, Virgil (1983) ''Iowa Place Names of Indian Origin'' University of Iowa Press, Iowa City. Other names for them mentioned in 1672–73 records were "Mengakoukia," and "Mangekekis." The meaning of "Moingona" has been debated. Historic accounts suggest that ''Moingona'' was a term referring to people who lived by or encountered near the portage around the Des Moines Rapids. The noted cartographer Joseph Nicollet supported this interpretation, as did the Algonquian linguist

Henry Schoolcraft Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (March 28, 1793 – December 10, 1864) was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his 1832 expedition to the source of the Mississippi ...

. Schoolcraft and Nicollet's report says that ''Moingona'': An alternative interpretation is that Moingona is derived from the Algonquian clan name "Loon"; the Miami language term for loon is ''maankwa'', and many Algonquian villages took their names from tribal clans. A controversial theory is that the root of the expression means "filth" or "excrement," and the expression means "excrement face." In this theory, the name "Moingona", or, especially in its older French spelling, "Moinguena", is from Illinois ''mooyiinkweena'' "one who has shit on his face". This etymology is supported by Gravier's word "m8ing8eta", which he translates as "visage plein d'ordure, metaphor sale, vilain. injure". This verb, phonetically ''mooyiinkweeta'', morphologically consists of ''mooy''- "shit", -''iinkwee''- "face", and the third person singular intransitive suffix -''ta'', for a meaning "he who has shit on his face". The form "Moinguena", phonetically ''mooyiinkweena'', is the same verb but with the independent indefinite subject ending -''na'', for a more precise meaning "one who has shit on his face". The spelling "Moinguena" is exactly how the French spelling of the time would render the Illinois verb ''mooyiinkweena''. Perhaps this name arose as an insult given to the Moinguena by some neighboring tribe, as thus it is not known what the Moinguena called themselves.Costa, David J. 2000. Miami-Illinois Tribe Names. In John Nichols, ed., Papers of the Thirty-first Algonquian Conference 30–53. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba. This scenario is rejected by the historian Jim Fay, who confirmed that no historical record documents the term being used and Algonquian linguists do not support its use. Missionaries likely misinterpreted terms.

References

External links

Lenville J. Stelle, ''Inoca Ethnohistory Project: Eye Witness Descriptions of the Contact Generation, 1667–1700''
{{authority control Illinois Confederation Algonquian peoples Extinct Native American tribes Great Lakes tribes Native American history of Iowa Native American tribes in Iowa Peoria tribe