Marquette & Jolliet

Marquette and Jolliet. Europeans Arrive. , In AD 1673, Pere Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit missionary, Louis Jolliet, a mapmaker, and a small party of Frenchmen explore the Mississippi River by canoe. In eastern Missouri they find a village of the Peoria, one of the tribes that speaks the Illinois language. The explorers continue downstream to the mouth of the Arkansas River before returning upstream. When they reach the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, they take the Illinois back to Lake Michigan. On the way they find the Kaskaskia, another Illinois-speaking tribe, near Starved Rock. , Europeans bring brass hatchets, religious medallions, glass beads, muskets, metal containers, and more. Native Americans trade furs and other things to obtain these new objects. , When Europeans arrive, they pose the most formidable challenge faced by Native Americans in 12,000 years. Some aspects of change such as new materials and tools are beneficial. But new diseases and conflict mean a struggle to survive and bring an end to some groups when they merge with other tribes. As European and American colonies expand, many Native Americans leave traditional homelands, Illinois is a temporary home for eastern tribes such as the Sac, Fox, Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Miami, Mascouten, and others.