Some More Kickapoo Stories

•March 18, 2026•

by Janet Roney

I’m not quite done telling you about the local Native Americans who were living in the Moultrie-Shelby area when the first early settlers arrived. Several more stories about their interactions with the whites before they were forced to leave in 1833 can be found in the general introduction and individual township histories in the 1881 History of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, Illinois.

The history says that the Native Americans were numerous when the Wakefield family, the first settlers in Cold Spring Township (southwest of Shelbyville), came in 1818. The two groups had friendly relations, and the Indians often provided game to the settlers and “did other acts of kindness”.

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