tribal confederation · North America and Oceania

Illinois Confederation

1600 CE – 1832 CE (approx.)

An alliance of Algonquian peoples of the upper Mississippi valley, close partners of the French, whose name lives on in the state of Illinois.

Origins

The Illinois, or Inoka, were a group of a dozen or more related peoples, among them the Kaskaskia, Peoria, Cahokia, Tamaroa and Michigamea, who lived along the Illinois and middle Mississippi rivers by the 17th century. When Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet visited in 1673, the Grand Village of the Kaskaskia near Starved Rock held thousands of people.

Rule and society

Each tribe had its own village chiefs, with war and peace chiefs, and the confederation shared language, ceremonies and alliances. The Illinois farmed maize and hunted bison on the prairies in seasonal expeditions. Allied with New France, they hosted Jesuit missions and French settlements such as Kaskaskia and Cahokia, and many became Catholic. Iroquois attacks in 1680 and wars with the Fox, Sauk and others reduced their numbers.

Decline and legacy

Epidemics, alcohol and war shrank the Illinois from perhaps 10,000 to a few hundred by 1800. After the killing of the Ottawa leader Pontiac by a Peoria in 1769, enemies attacked them. They ceded their lands in treaties ending in 1832 and moved west; descendants form the Peoria Tribe of Oklahoma.

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Illinois Confederation. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/illinois-confederation
MLA
“Illinois Confederation.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/illinois-confederation. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Illinois Confederation.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/illinois-confederation.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Illinois Confederation’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/illinois-confederation (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻