We have no idea what they called themselves. Mascouten apparently comes from a Fox word meaning "little prairie people." In its various forms: Mascoutin, Mathkoutench, Musketoon, Meadow Indians (George Rogers Clark's journal), and possibly Rasaouakoueton (Nicollet). Aside from Nicollet, the earliest mention of the Mascouten was by the French which used their Huron name, Assistaeronon (Assitaehronon, Assitagueronon, Attistae) which translates as Fire Nation (Nation of Fire).

Mascouten Location

Linguistic affiliation and early French accounts indicate that, prior to contact, the Mascouten occupied the southwestern part of Lower Michigan. Attacked by the Ottawa and Neutrals in the 1640s and the Iroquois during the decade following, the Mascouten by 1660 had abandoned their Michigan homeland and joined other refugee Algonquin tribes in Wisconsin. The refugee villages which formed in Wisconsin during this time usually had mixed populations. Intermarriage became fairly common, and in the chaotic conditions which prevailed, tribal affiliation disintegrated. It did not re-assert itself until after 1680. The Mascouten apparently arrived in Wisconsin in two groups: a northern, or upper, band settled with the Wea (Miami) near the south end of Lake Winnebago (Fox River portage); while a southern (lower) band mixed with the Fox and Kickapoo on the Milwaukee River. By 1710 the northern and southern Mascouten groups had switched geographical locations relative to each other.

Beginning about 1680, the northern band followed the Wea relocation to the south. These Mascouten settled first on the Ohio River in southern Illinois but soon moved north to the middle Wabash River. For the remainder of the 18th century, they were a member of what has been called the Wabash Tribes - Mascouten, Wea and Piankashaw of the Miami, and the Vermillion Band of the Kickapoo. The Mascouten along the Wabash would ultimately be absorbed by these neighboring tribes. The other Mascouten (southern or lower) band, actually remained farther to the north during the 1700s and became associated with the Fox and Prairie Band of the Kickapoo. By 1712 all three of these allied tribes had moved east to the vicinity of the new French trading post at Detroit. Although this was most likely their homeland before contact, it was already occupied by other French allies. The crowded condition erupted into the Fox Wars (1712-16 and 1728-37). These conflicts pretty well decimated the southern band of Mascouten (now living in the north) and forced them back west into northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. By 1770 the survivors had been absorbed by the Prairie Bands of the Kickapoo and Potawatomi.

Population

Before contact the Mascouten may have numbered as many as 6,000, but by 1670 the French estimated them at less than two thousand. There were few estimates of the Mascouten population in the years which followed, most listing only a few hundred for each of the two groups. When the British took control of the region after the French and Indian War, Sir William Johnson gave no mention of the Mascouten in 1764. However, another British officer that year reported 500 Mascouten located just west of Lake Michigan. The Wabash Mascouten went largely unnoticed until 1779 when 800 of them were listed as living along the Wabash with Piankashaw and Vermilion Kickapoo. American records from 1813 and 1825 only mention the Mascouten as having been absorbed by the Kickapoo.

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