Feasts Rene-Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle, being feasted in the Illinois village at Lake Peoria, 1680. (watercolor by George Catlin, 1847-48) enlarge

The Council was followed by a great feast, Consisting of four dishes, which had to be partaken of in accordance with their fashions. (Jacques Marquette, 1674)

The Illinois often hosted feasts on special occasions, including the departure of war parties or the entertainment of French or Indian guests. In 1673, the chief of the Peoria tribe held a feast for two French explorers, Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet, who visited the chief's village on their famous voyage down the Mississippi River. The host served four courses of food. The first, which Marquette called sagamité, was a platter of boiled corn meal seasoned with fat. Then came a platter of fish, a large dog, and servings of bison meat. Dog meat was a great delicacy to the Illinois, but Marquette and Jolliet refused to eat it and it was taken away.