SUMMARY OF ILLINOIS PREHISTORY
The [archaeology] of Illinois in its present position seems to indicate that the state did not at any time form a distinct single [culture] or [subculture] but that it was rather the meeting place of many, due possibly to the rivers that enclose, lead to and intersect its territory. It was at one and the same time a part of one or more widespread patterns or phases and a patchwork of subcultures that [extended] into neighboring states. There was a tendency for the cultures of the northern four-fifths of the state (roughly north of a line joining East St. Louis with Evansville, Indiana) to be more like the adjacent regions, while those of the remaining counties were more closely related to those of Kentucky, Tennessee, southern Indiana and Missouri and rather readily distinguishable from those of their northern neighbors.
There are few instances when it appears probable that a part of the state was invaded by a [people] of a distinctly differing [culture]. The Paleo-Indian Big Game Hunters presumably found in Illinois virgin country without previous human occupants. The Baumerians probably entered Illinois from south of the Ohio and expelled or absorbed the conservative Terminal Archaics. Possibly Mortonians intruded into the Black Sand-Red Ocre culture of Illinois from the northwest. Less plausibly, the [Stone Vault Grave] people may have pushed their way into Adams County from the Gasconade River region of Missouri.
The emphasis in this paper has been placed perhaps on the change of cultures. To keep one from getting an erroneous impression of cultural stability, it should be said that, in the writer’s opinion, a [culture] and [subculture] contained in greater or smaller areas change gradually through a process of invention here and there and through interchanges of improvements back and forth over a long time. When the change is sufficient to be noted as a “new” culture, the various cultural elements or features are apt to be widely distributed over much the same area. Thus, Baumer seems to have existed for a time alongside Terminal [Archaic] but finally spread through the southern counties; Hopewellian may have persisted in Calhoun County for a century or more after its collapse to the north and east; and the [Final phase] may have lingered on in remote portions of the state until Cahokia was past the height of its glory. In general, perhaps it could be said that the southern fifth and the remaining four-fifths of the state were out of step with each other most of the time.
As previously noted, some of the Paleo-Indian families, upon the retreat of the last glacier, settled in Illinois as they did in the neighboring states, adapted themselves to the changed surroundings, and in so doing developed the [Archaic] [culture] or way of life. This [phase] developed through a series of subcultures though not necessarily identical sequences in all the states or even within Illinois. In southern Illinois, Terminal Archaic seems to have persisted until about 2000 B.C. while in the north, it apparently had developed into Initial (early) [Woodland] a few centuries earlier. The Baumer [subculture], probably arising from the Archaic of Tennessee, appears to have been carried by its bearers into southeastern Illinois along the Tennessee and [Cumberland] rivers. Although widespread in the [Mississippi] Valley, the Archaic population was thinly scattered.
In northern Illinois and in Wisconsin the Black Sand-Red Ochre [culture] seems to have developed from the native Terminal [Archaic] (and Old Copper) possibly around 2500 B.C. The Morton (Central Basin) [people] appear to have had their cultural roots outside the state and to have combined with the native groups (Black Sand-Red Ochre) they found in the northern counties. Average populational distribution was still low with the small settlements perhaps somewhat more numerous though no more populous than during Archaic times. The early [Woodland] peoples differed from their predecessors mainly in being pottery-makers. In southern Illinois only they practiced storage of acorns and hickory nuts extensively.
About 500 B.C. in northern Illinois the Morton [people] more or less contemporaneously with similarly advanced peoples in Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, passed into the Hopewellian [civilization] which was erected on the cultivation of maize, beans, squash and tobacco, and the technologies of the earlier [Woodland] [period]. In southern Illinois Baumer developed into the [Crab Orchard] [culture] whose people traded with the more northern Hopewellians, intermarried with them and finally adopted the Hopewellian way of life about 100 B.C.
A century or two later, Hopewellian in the north of Illinois began to deteriorate and eventually broke up into a number of small subcultures, obviously closely related but still distinguishable archaeologically. The same disintegration of Hopewellian took place in southern Illinois a few centuries later, and by 400 or 450 B.C. Hopewellian had disappeared from all Illinois except possibly in Calhoun County in the west, while south of the Ohio River it still continued to spread and flourish in [Mississippi] and Louisiana for some centuries.
In Illinois a [period] of decadence set in for the next few centuries (possibly 250 to 1000 A.D.). The larger settlements or settlement clusters dwindled to mere hamlets, whose remains are scarcely distinguishable from the early [Woodland] [artifacts] except that the tobacco pipe is present. Though they must still have retained a tradition of [plant-raising], they seem to have avoided it and reverted to a pure hunting-collecting [economy]. Even in southern Illinois the storage of food seems to have played an insignificant role. Nevertheless throughout this cultural recession, certain trends occur in all the six Final Woodland subcultures which foreshadow later developments in the Middle ([Mississippi]) [Phase].
Fig. 38. The Stream of [Culture]. The archaeological cultures within Illinois are included within the two heavy lines, openings in which indicate cultural extensions beyond or intrusions into the state. Vertical positions indicate sequences in a general way. (Drawing by Jeanne McCarty.)
About 1000 A.D. or possibly a little earlier, the Final [Woodland] developed into an early Protomississippi ([Protomiss]) and, at last, (possibly 1000 to 1100 A.D.) into the full-blown [Middle Phase] [civilization]. The Cahokia [subculture] appears to be primarily, though not exclusively, Illinoisian while the [Cumberland] development in the southeast of the state was shared more generously with adjacent Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. Judging by the distribution of [stone] box (cist) graves, the Cumberland subculture seems to have expanded westward at the expense of the Cahokia peoples to envelope most of the southern counties from Monroe to White. (Another interpretation might be that the grave type of their eastern Cumberland neighbors was adopted by the Cahokians.) The Crable Village, possibly a late Cahokian settlement, yields [artifacts] suggesting cultural influences brought in from Iowa, Missouri and possibly Arkansas. It is probable that the [culture] came to an end in Illinois by 1500 or 1550. This fact coupled with the pottery evidence makes it highly probable (though possibly not conclusive) that the disorganized Illini Confederacy embraced the tribes whose members were the descendants of the [people] of the great Middle Phase civilization in Illinois.
More or less contemporaneous with the [Middle Phase] [culture] were the so-called Upper [Phase] peoples of Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. These were represented in Illinois by the Fisher peoples of the Langford [subculture] known chiefly from sites along the Illinois, Kankakee and Des Plaines rivers in northeastern Illinois and (chiefly on a pottery basis) in northwestern Indiana and southern Michigan.
Beset by enemies on the east, south, north and northwest, with their traditions of former greatness fading, the demoralized Illini tribes welcomed the protection of French soldiers. Their own resourcefulness, courage, pride, and confidence in themselves and their [culture] continued to deteriorate, their numbers to diminish under the softening influence of alcohol and the persistent assaults of the ruder more aggressive Winnebago, Sauk, Fox, Potawatomi and Kickapoo tribes invading Illinois from the north until they were reduced by 1833 to a mere handful of a hundred odd men, women and children. The demands on the part of citizens of the United States for Illinois lands was brought to a head by the scare of the Black Hawk [War], and the Illini, their traditional Indian friends and enemies, were transferred to new territory west of the [Mississippi]. Thus ended the aboriginal occupation of Illinois that had endured for at least 10,000 years.