Editing Illinois (section)

=== Pre-European ===
[[File:Upper Bluff Lake Dancing Figures plate HRoe 2012.jpg|thumb|left|[[Mississippian copper plate]] found at the Saddle Site in [[Union County, Illinois]]]]
[[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|American Indians]] of successive cultures lived along the waterways of the Illinois area for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. The [[Koster Site]] has been excavated and demonstrates 7,000 years of continuous habitation. [[Cahokia]], the largest regional [[chiefdom]] and [[Urban center|Urban Center]] of the [[Pre-Columbian era|Pre-Columbian]] [[Mississippian culture]], was located near present-day [[Collinsville, Illinois]]. They built an urban complex of more than 100 [[platform mound|platform]] and [[burial mound]]s, a {{cvt|50|acre|4=0|adj=on}} [[plaza]] larger than 35 football fields,<ref name="PAUKETATCAHOKIA">{{cite book |author-link=Timothy Pauketat |first=Timothy R. |last=Pauketat |title=Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi |series=Penguin library of American Indian history |publisher=[[Viking Press]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-670-02090-4 |oclc=276819729 |pages=23–34 |quote="Cahokia was so large—covering three to five square miles—that archaeologists have yet to probe many portions of it. Its centerpiece was an open fifty-acre Grand Plaza, surrounded by packed-clay pyramids. The size of thirty-five football fields, the Grand Plaza was at the time the biggest public space ever conceived and executed north of Mexico&nbsp;... a flat public square 1,600-plus feet in length and 900-plus feet in width."}}</ref> and a woodhenge of sacred cedar, all in a planned design expressing the culture's cosmology. [[Monks Mound]], the center of the site, is the largest Pre-Columbian structure north of the [[Valley of Mexico]]. It is {{cvt|100|ft}} high, {{cvt|951|ft}} long, {{cvt|836|ft}} wide, and covers {{cvt|13.8|acre}}.<ref name="SKELE">{{Cite book |last=Skele |first=Mikels |url=https://archive.org/stream/greatknobinterpr00skel#page/102/mode/2up |title=The Great Knob: Interpretations of Monks Mound |series=Studies in Illinois Archaeology |publisher=Illinois Historic Preservation Agency |location= Springfield, IL |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-942579-03-1 |issue=4 |access-date=November 12, 2015}}</ref> It contains about {{cvt|814000|cuyd}} of earth.<ref name="SNOW2010">{{cite book |last=Snow |first=Dean R. |title=Archaeology of Native North Americas |year=2010 |publisher=Prentice Hall |location=Upper Saddle River, NJ |pages=201–203 |isbn=9780136156864 |oclc=223933566}}</ref> It was topped by a structure thought to have measured about {{cvt|105|ft}} in length and {{cvt|48|ft}} in width, covered an area {{cvt|5000|sqft}}, and been as much as {{cvt|50|ft}} high, making its peak {{cvt|150|ft}} above the level of the plaza. The finely crafted ornaments and tools recovered by archaeologists at [[Cahokia]] include elaborate ceramics, finely sculptured stonework, carefully embossed and engraved copper and [[mica]] sheets, and one funeral blanket for an important chief fashioned from 20,000 shell beads. These artifacts indicate that Cahokia was truly an urban center, with clustered housing, markets, and specialists in toolmaking, hide dressing, potting, jewelry making, shell engraving, weaving and salt making.<ref>{{cite book|last=Nash|first=Gary B.|title=Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early North America|publisher=Pearson|isbn=9780205887590|location=Boston|year=2015|edition=7th|page=6}}</ref>

The civilization vanished in the 15th century for unknown reasons, but historians and archeologists have speculated that the people depleted the area of resources. Many indigenous tribes engaged in constant warfare. According to Suzanne Austin Alchon, "At one site in the central [[Illinois River]] valley, one third of all adults died as a result of violent injuries."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Austin Alchon |first=Suzanne |title=A pest in the land: new world epidemics in a global perspective |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YiHHnV08ebkC&pg=PA59 |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |year=2003 |page=59 |isbn=978-0-8263-2871-7 |access-date=June 16, 2015 |archive-date=August 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803102909/https://books.google.com/books?id=YiHHnV08ebkC&pg=PA59 |url-status=live }}</ref> The next major power in the region was the [[Illinois Confederation]] or Illini, a political alliance.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hoxie|first=E.|title=Encyclopedia of North American Indians|year=1996|pages=266–267, 506}}</ref> Around the time of European contact in 1673, the Illinois confederation had an estimated population of over 10,000 people.<ref name="museum.state.il.us">{{Cite web |title=Native Americans:Historic:The Illinois:History:The Illinois Decline |url=https://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/post/htmls/hi_decline.html |access-date=2024-06-20 |website=www.museum.state.il.us}}</ref> As the Illini declined during the [[Beaver Wars]] era, members of the [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]]-speaking [[Potawatomi]], [[Miami people|Miami]], [[Sauk people|Sauk]], and other tribes including the Fox ([[Meskwaki]]), [[Iowa people|Iowa]], [[Kickapoo people|Kickapoo]], [[Mascouten]], [[Piankeshaw]], [[Shawnee]], [[Wea]], and Winnebago ([[Ho-Chunk]]) came into the area from the east and north around the Great Lakes.<ref name="Nelson" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/post/ |title=Native Americans:American Indian Tribes of Illinois |publisher=Illinois State Museum |date=October 2, 2002 |access-date=February 27, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160322071318/http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/post/ |archive-date=March 22, 2016}}</ref>