THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 139 



These are wild Indians. 



For an interesting history of the Kickapoo Indians see No. 27, Fergus' 

 Historical Series. Chicago, 1884. 



KAS-KAS-KIA. 



[Kaskaskia: Laws of the United States. Kaskaskia: Indian Bureau, June, 1885.] 

 Once famed, numerous, and warlike, on the frontier, but now reduced to a few in- 

 dividuals by small-pox and whisky. 



Mr. Catlin saw them at Fort Leavenworth in 1832-'33. 



246. Kee mdn-saw, the Little Chief; Chief; semi-civilized. Painted in 1832^33. 



(Plate No. 191, Page 100, Vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



247. Wah-pe-seh-see, ; a very aged woman, mother of the above. Painted 



in J 831. 



(Plate No. 192, Page 100, Vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 

 Of this tribe I painted Kee-mon-saw (the Little Chief), half-civilized, and, I should 

 think, half-breed (Plate 191), and Wah-peseh-sce (Plate 192), a very aged woman, 

 mother of the same. This young man is chief of the tribe, and I was told by one of 

 the traders that his mother and his son were his only subjects! Whether this be true 

 or not I cannot positively say, though I can assert with safety that there are but few 

 of them left, and that those, like all of the last of tribes, will soon die of dissipation 

 or broken hearts. — G. C. 



ALGONKIN— KAS-KAS-KI-AS. 

 MR. CATLIN'S NOTES ON THE KAS-KAS-KIA INDIANS. 



This is the name of a tribe that formerly occupied, and of course owned, a vast 

 tract of country lying on the east of the Mississippi, and between its banks and the 

 Ohio, and now forming a considerable portion of the great and populous State of Illi- 

 nois. History furnishes us a full and extraordinary account of the once warlike char- 

 acter and number of this tribe, and also of the disastrous career that they have led 

 from their first acquaintance with civilized neighbors, whose rapacious avarice in 

 grasping for their fine lands, with the banes of whiskey and small-pox, added to the 

 uuexampled cruelty of neighboring hostile tribes, who have struck at them in the 

 days of their adversity, and helped to erase them from existence. 



Perhaps there has been no other tribe on the continent of equal power with the 

 Kas-kas-ki-as that have so suddenly sank down to complete annihilation and disap- 

 peared. The remnant of this tribe have long since merged into the tribe of Peorias 

 of Illinois, and it is doubtful whether one dozen of them are now existing. With the 

 very few remnants of this tribe will die in a few years a beautiful language, entirely 

 distinct from all others about it, unless some enthusiastic person may preserve it from 

 the lips of those few who are yet able to speak it. — G. C. 



PRESENT LOCATION AND NUMBERS. 



Kaskaskias, confederated with the Peorias, Piankeshaws, and Weas, 

 at the Quapaw Agency, Indian Territory, August, 1884, and in 1885. 

 All civilized, and with schools. In 1884 the Miamis about 60, and the 

 other four 140; total, about 200. In 1885, August, Miamis 57, the 

 other four 149; total, in 1885, 20G. 



The Kaskaskias as a tribe are extinct, and not one individual of that 

 tribe of pure blood is now living. 



