Biography from the City of Du Quoin, http://www.duquoin.org/history/ 

Our city’s namesake, Jean Baptiste Du Quoin (sometimes written “Ducoigne”), was born on January 21, 1750. The son of a Frenchman and a Tamaroa Indian woman, his life was characterized by contrasts and conflicts. He was baptized at the Church of St. Anne outside Fort de Chartres, yet was made chief of the Tamaroa Indians in 1767. His very first year as chief saw the dissolution of the Illinois Confederacy of the Tamaroa, Kaskaskia, Michigan, Peoria and Cahokia tribes (organized in defense against the Iroquois) when Chief Pontiac was murdered in Kaskaskia by Michigan Indians. The others responded with force, driving the Michigan tribe onto Starved Rock and ultimately starving them out completely by 1769.

In 1800, Chief Du Quoin merged the Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Tamaroa tribes into a new confederacy which went to war against the Shawnees in 1802. Their battle with the Shawnees in the prairies east of the Big Muddy River ended with both sides nearly annihilated. Most of the survivors were Kaskaskias, so Chief Du Quoin is often referred to as Chief of the Kaskaskias. He died in 1811 and his son, Louis Jefferson Du Quoin, became chief.

Du Quoin’s tribe had a winter camp on the present site of the Old Du Quoin, hunting and trapping along Little Muddy and the nearby creeks. The camp was located on the main trail from Shawneetown to Kaskaskia and it offered shelter and hospitality to travelers, since the chief was himself half white. Jarrold Jackson stopped there in 1803 and staked out property on the Little Muddy, becoming the encampment’s first settler and beginning the gradual growth of Old Du Quoin out of the seasonal camps which the Indian hunters had established.

Du Quoin High School is proud to represent our city with its namesake as our High School's Mascot and, with respect and dignity, impersonate this historical figure as a symbol of community pride.

The honor of impersonating Chief Jean Baptistque Ducoigne is given to worthy students by application and audition regardless of sex, gender, or race.