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Illinois Indian Tribes

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The Illinois Indian tribes in archaic times had been mainly of the Kentucky Indian Knoll type. They remained there through the slow development of early Woodland and on into middle Woodland times, with few changes. They were probably hunters and fishermen, spending most of the year wandering in small camps; but they had developed some villages, were making pottery, and possibly were learning to grow little crops of maize and vegetables. Then the Mound Builder faith and ceremonial practices came among them and startled them into wakefulness. It was like a revolution.

In Fulton County, on the north side of the Illinois River, the crude and poky little villages in the stream valleys sprang to life, as from a dream. The peoples took up the new Ohio religion. While they did not attempt to build the huge earth-walled enclosures that were the spectacular features of the great Ohio centers, they did begin to bury their dead with all the pomp and ceremony of the new faith. They imported from Ohio, or made among themselves, the necessary ceremonial equipment. Here in Illinois, along with the religious upsurge, came agriculture, to become a definite feature of daily life; and villages increased in size and number.12

In Southern Illinois the Indians were apparently of a somewhat different type from those along the Illinois River. They were originally of the same stock; but they were conservative and their relatives were not with the Ohio Indians, but more often with the people in Kentucky and Tennessee. The Indians in southern Illinois did take up the Mound Builder faith, but they apparently obtained their knowledge of it from the Illinois River people, and they still clung to many of their old ways.3

The following tribes at one time are recorded in history as having resided within the present state of Illinois. If the tribe name is in bold, then Indiana is the primary location known for this tribe, otherwise we provide the tribes specifics as it pertains to Illinois and then provide a link to the main tribal page.




Illinois Indians.











  1. Martin Quimby and Collier, Indians Before Columbus, 293-294. 

  2. Griffin, Archaeology of the Eastern United States, p. 118, 153-154. 

  3. Hyde, George E. Indians of the Woodlands, From Prehistoric Times to 1725. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. 1977. p. 39-40. 

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