MASCOUTEN (from .1/ashkodainsttg, little prairie people). An Algonquian people of the Illinois River concerning whom there has heen 11111d1 e0111 Ioversy. F1'0111 a of their Algonquian Italia` they were known to the 'Hurons, and hence to the French, as the 'Fire Nation' (.\ ation du Feu). of the confu sion in relation to the name arises from the fact that it was apparently used in a general as well as a speeitic ,en,,e and applied without warrant to more than one rN12eDMin11 band of the Illinois and Wabash prairies. Aceording to the tradi tions of the Ojibwa and Ottawa they drove the Alaseouten from the neighborhood of what is now Alackittaw, and forted them to retire to the southern end of Lake Michigan. The 1-oiliest French missionaries heard of them as a strong tribe living in southern Alit-hi:gait, with whom the Neutrals and ottawa were constantly at war. About 1675 the French explorer- tumid them in southern Wisconsin in close alliance with the Miami and Kickapon, 111 1712 they joined the Foxes and I?ickatino against the T'ent'h, but suf fered terrible reverses, losing 150 in a single eneminter. In the same year the Potawatomi
and tither Northern tribes inade a eoneerted de scent upon the Mascouten and Foxes and killed or took captive one thousand of them, pursuing the survivors as far as Detroit. The power of the Foxes was completely broken by this war with the Freneh and their allies• and the Mas eouten were so far reduced that. in 1736 they were said to number but 60 warriors, living then with the kickapoo in southern Wisoinsi». In 1765 they are again mentioned with the Kieka pl, this time near the Wabash River. They are last definitely mentioned in 1779. living upon the Wabash River in alliance with the I?ickapoo and Piankkhaw. The 'Prairie band' of Potawa .. •, now residing in Kansas, is known to the tribe a1 largo- under the name of liash kodnillSlIff.