In 1680, the Indian population of an Indian village near Starved Rock was estimated at 7,000 or 8,000 souls.
The building of Fort St. Louis upon the heights of Starved Rock by La Salle, in 1682, gave confidence to the Illinois who had again returned to their favorite village. They were followed by hands of Teas, Piankashaws, and Miamis, near kinsmen of the Illinois, and by the Shawnees and other tribes of remoter affinity; and soon a cordon of populous towns arose about the fort. The military forces of these villages at the colony of La Salle, in 1684, was estimated at 3,680 fighting men, the Illinois furnishing more than one-third of this number. (If the population were four times the number of warriors the Starved Rock region, according to this estimate, contained nearly 15,000 Indians.) In an enumeration of Indian tribes made in 1730, the number of warriors of the Illinois Indians arc set down as follows: \Ietchigamis, 250; Kaskaskias, 100; Peorias, 50; Cahokias and Tamaroas, 200. This gives a total of 600 warriors and a population of 2,400.
General William Henry Harrison reported that when he was made governor of Indiana in 1800 that the once powerful Illinois were reduced to 30 warriors, of whom 25 were Kaskaskias, 4 Peorias and a single Itletchigamian.
The Indian population of Illinois, when admitted as a state in 1813, is set forth in Illinois in 1818, as follows: The best available evidence as to the population of Indian tribes living in Illinois in 1818 is an estimate made by the secretary of war in 1815, but unfortunately the figures refer to the tribes as a whole and not merely to the groups living in Illinois. According to this estimate the Potawatomi were the most numerous, having 4,800 souls. The Sauk numbered 3,200 and the Fox 1,200, making a total of 4,400 for the two tribes. The Winnebago were credited with 2,400 souls but only a few of these lived south of the boundary line. Nearly all of the 1.600 Kickapoo, on the other hand, were within the limits of Illinois. The Kaskaskia tribe had been reduced to 60 souls and the Peoria were not included in the count at all. In each instance it was estimated that about one-fourth of the members of the tribe were warriors.
These numbers give a total of 13,260. After deducting those outside the state, the Indian population of Illinois in 1818 was somewhat less than 12,000, a density of about 1 person to 5 square miles, or one family to 25 square miles for the state as a whole. This population, however, was almost entirely in central and northern Illinois which had not yet been opened for settlement. Southern Illinois, from Madison
County southward, had been surveyed and opened to settlement before 1818, and in this area 40,000 white settlers were counted at the time that Illinois was organized as a state.
Life of the Indian.—The Indian, like all other inhabitants of the earth, spent the greater part of his time and energy in securing food, clothing, and shelter for himself and his family. He was a child of nature, adapting himself to his natural environment in such a manner as to be very largely dependent on nature's supplies, developing a crude agriculture by the labor of the women only as a supplement to the fruits of the chase.
The following from Illinois in 1818 gives a clear picture of the ordinary activities of the Indians of Illinois : All these tribes belonged to the Algonkin linguistic group with the exception of the Winnebago, who were of Dakota stock. The material culture, social organization, and religious beliefs of the different were fairly uniform. They were people neither of the forest nor the plain, but lived along the water courses much as did the first white settlers. Their Lime was divided about equally between hunting and agricultural life. "They leave their villages," says Marston, "as soon as their corn, beans, Mc., are ripe and taken care of, and their traders arrive and give out their :redits and go to their wintering grounds; it being previously determined sn in council what particular ground each party can hunt on. The old men, women, and children embark in canoes, and the young men go by and with their horses; on their arrival they immediately commence their winter's hunt, which lasts about three months. They return to their villages in the month of April, and after putting their lodges in order, com mence preparing the ground to receive the seed." The principal crop was Indian corn, of which they had extensive fields. Speaking of the Sauk and Fox near Rock Island, Major Marston says: `The number of acres cultivated by that part of the two nations who reside it their villages in this vicinity is supposed to be upwards of three hundred. they usually raise from seven to eight thousand bushels of corn, besides Jeans, pumpkins, melons, etc. The labor of agriculture is confined princi pally to the women, and this is done altogether with the hoe." While torn formed the staple of the Indians' diet, they made some use of wild vegetables and roots. They ate meat of many varieties, preference being liven to venison and bear's meat. They cared little for fish, but ate it when >tiler food was scarce.