ILLINOIS INDIANS (Iliniwek, men), a confederacy of Algonquian tribes, formerly occupying southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois and sections of Iowa and Missouri. It comprised the Cahokia, Kaskaskia, Michigamea, Moing wena, Peoria and Tamaroa. Early explorers dif fer greatly in their estimates of the number of the confederation. They were almost continually at war with the Sioux, Foxes and other north ern tribes. A struggle with the Iroquois about 1675 greatly weakened them and liquor obtained from the French well-nigh destroyed their morale. By 1750 they numbered about 2,000, which was greatly reduced in the war of ex termination by the Lake tribes in revenge for the murder of Pontiac. In 1778 the Kaskaskia still numbered over 200 souls, while the Peoria and Michigamea together numbered 170. In 1800 there were only 150 left. In 1883 the survivors represented by the Kaskaskia and Peoria, sold their lands in Illinois and removed west of the Mississippi, and are now in the northeast corner of Oklahoma, consolidated with the Wea and Piankashaw. In 1905 their number was 195. The Illinois were tall and robust, with pleasant visages. They appear to
have been timid, easily driven from their homes by their enemies, fickle and treacherous. They were excellent archers, and used also in war a kind of lance and a wooden club. Polygamy was practised and unfaithfulness in a wife was punished by cutting off the nose of the offender. It was not the custom of the Illinois, at the time the whites first became acquainted with them, to bury their dead. The body was wrapped in skins and attached by the feet and head to trees. It is supposed, however, that the skeletons were later placed in the earth. Prisoners of war were usually sold to other tribes. The huts of the northern tribes were made like long arbors and covered with double mats of flat flags or rushes sewed tightly to gether. There were four or five fires to each cabin and two families to each fire. The towns were not inclosed. Cabolcia, Kaskaskia, Match inkoa, Moingwena and Peoria are among the villages of these tribes which were known to the white pioneers. Consult 'Handbook of Amer ican Indiana' (Vol. I, pp. 597-599, Washington 1907).