Moingwena

The Moingwena were a people of the Illinois confederacy, known to French travellers in the Mississippi valley. In 1673 Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet encountered Illinois people west of the Mississippi near the mouth of the Des Moines River. Marquette learned of the Moingwena living farther up a river in the interior, and their name appeared on subsequent maps. French mapmakers applied it to the river itself, contributing to the name Des Moines. Their villages formed part of a wider Illinois world linked by language, kinship and exchange.