Mascouten Tribe
Mascouten Indians (‘little prairie people,’ from muskuta (Fox) or mashcodé, (Chippewa), prairie’; ens, diminutive ending. By the Hurons they were called Assistaeronon, ‘Fire people,’ and by the French ‘Nation do Fen.’ These last names seem to have arisen from a mistranslation of the Algonquian term. In the Chippewa dialect ‘fire’ is ishkote, and might easily be substituted for mashkodé, ‘prairie’ ). A term used by some early writers in a collective and indefinite sense to designate the Algonquian tribes living on the prairies of Wisconsin and Illinois; LaSalle even includes some bands of Sioux under the name. The name (Mashkótens) … Read more