Illinois Humanities Council presents Kaskaskia and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union, Part 1. 

    On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence. Exactly two years later – on July 4, 1778 – one of the westernmost actions in the war that was waged to secure the independence proclaimed by that document took place in the village of Kaskaskia in the Illinois
Country. Virginia militiamen, led by Colonel George Rogers Clark, effectively claimed Kaskaskia for the American cause without encountering any armed resistance. The French residents of the village,which had been under British rule for the past thirteen years, announced the momentous occasion
by ringing the bell that King Louis XV of France had gifted to them in 1741. Consequently, it became known as the “Liberty Bell of the West.” 
 
     The process of national formation that encompassed both of those July 4 events led to the ratification in 1788 of the Constitution of the United States. A stated goal of that Constitution was the achievement of “a more perfect Union.” That phrase – “a more perfect Union” – has held a variety of meanings for different people in different times, places, and circumstances. What might it have meant then to residents of Kaskaskia, who represented various ethnicities, cultural orientations, and socio-economic statuses? What does it mean for us now? What’s your conception of “a more perfect Union,” and what traits would characterize it? To what extent does our society today resemble it or not resemble it? As we consider these important questions, the complex history of the place where the Liberty Bell of the West resounded and the experiences of people who’ve lived there give us much to contemplate. 
 
     “Kaskaskia and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union, Part 1,” will feature an overview of Kaskaskia’s history from its founding by Kaskaskia Indians and French Jesuits near the confluence of the Kaskaskia and Mississippi rivers in 1703 to the present, including its designation as Illinois’s territorial capital (1809) and first state capital (1818). The historical narrative will also describe Kaskaskia’s disintegration following the Mississippi River’s erosion-induced change of course in
1881, as well as the formation of latter-day Kaskaskia in the center of the resulting island. Now accessible only by way of Missouri, it persists as one of Illinois’s smallest, yet most historic, municipalities, thanks to its residents’ dedication. 
 
     Additionally, the video production will discuss the experiences of the Kaskaskia Tribe. Members of that tribe initially comprised the majority of Kaskaskia’s residents and remained integral to the community’s social fabric for much of its history. Their population later declined, however, and in 1832, the Kaskaskia Indians remaining in Illinois ceded most of their land to the federal government and departed for Missouri, beginning a series of coerced westward migrations. In 1854, they joined the Peoria, Piankashaw, and Wea tribes in establishing the confederated Peoria Tribe of Indians, now based in Oklahoma. Logan Pappenfort, formerly Second Chief of the Peoria Tribe of Indians, now interim director of Dickson Mounds State Museum near Lewistown, will discuss the
significance of Kaskaskia in the tribe’s historical memory, as well as the tribe’s current cultural sustainability initiatives. The video presentation will also feature commentary by historians Emily Lyons, Margaret Kimball Brown, and David MacDonald.