Illinois (people)

Illinois (people), confederacy of native North American tribes of the Algonquian linguistic group, originally occupying the region comprising the present state of Illinois and parts of Missouri, Iowa, and Arkansas. The entire group consisted of the related tribes of the Cahokia, Kaskaskia, Michigamea, Moingwena, Peoria, and Tamaroa. Illinois place-names reflect the existence of these groups.

Very little is known about the culture of the Illinois, which seems to have resembled that of the Miami and Shawnee. Polygamy was apparently practiced. The Illinois were often unsuccessful in intertribal warfare; they were easily driven from their villages by invading tribes such as the Sioux, Fox, and Iroquois. At the time of their earliest contact with white people, their dead were not buried, but wrapped instead in skins and fastened to trees; the skeletons, however, were apparently buried later.

The Illinois were loyal to the French in the French wars, first against neighboring tribes and later against the English. After the American Revolution ended in 1783, the United States government had difficulty in subduing the Illinois, although the tribes had already been greatly weakened by struggles with the Iroquois in the 17th century and with the tribes around the Great Lakes in the 18th century. By 1809, when survivors of only the Kaskaskia and Peoria tribes remained, the Illinois moved west of the Mississippi River. In recent times there were a few hundred Illinois concentrated in the northeastern section of Oklahoma. In the 2000 U.S. census about 100 people identified themselves as Illinois only; an additional 100 people reported being part Illinois.

See also Native Americans of North America: Northeast.