Essay On Illinois Indians

The Illinois were first from Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri. In the 1700’s they were flushed away and the Indians that survived the war migrated to Kansas and Oklahoma. The peoria tribe located in Oklahoma is formed by mostly by the original illinois indians. Their land which is actually the midwest was one hundred thousand square miles of prairies, forests, and wetlands in the central mississippi valley.

Wild foods, crops in the fields, fish, wild game. The Illinois also grew and ate squash, pumpkins, and watermelon. The women buried large amounts of dried maize in the ground to be consumed in the future cold winter months. Green maize was preserved by scraping the kernels of the cobs using some kind of mussel shells from the river. The Illini women wore skirts with leggings, and the men wore breechclouts. During the cool weather the illini wore skirts, but even in the winter time, Illini men didn’t wear pants. Illinois Indians also wore moccasins on their feet. In some tribes the clothing for men were fur trousers instead of a breechcloth. Indian warriors in the plains wore special buckskin war skirts detailed with ermine tails, hair, and beadwork. Native American women always wore tunics and mantles in public. And occasionally in some tribes native american women

One form of housing was a summer village located near the river. The summer villages were pretty huge. The Illinois built summer time hunting camps in the prairies. The materials they used to build these huts were short term bark. After the fall harvest the whole tribe would get together and split up and build Winter Villages. They constructed these villages in river bottoms because it was said to be abundant hunting there. One of the largest Houses ever built by the Illinois Indians was the longhouse. It was a long rectangular shaped house. It’s measurements were fifty eight feet long by twenty four feet