UNDER-DEVELOPED NEIGHBORS—THE UPPER MISSISSIPPIANS (1100?-1600 A.D.)
Less advanced [Mississippi] tribes with customs showing some admixture of [Woodland] cultural elements living contemporaneously in Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio, encircled the [Middle phase] peoples on the east, north and west. Known generally now as the Upper [phase] peoples their sole representative in Illinois was the [people] of the Langford [subculture], who dwelt around the southern end of Lake Michigan as well as in adjacent parts of Indiana and Michigan. The [type station] is the Fisher Village and Mounds near Joliet which were ably investigated by Mr. George Langford, Sr. some years ago.[16]
They built no flat-topped pyramids and left little, if any, evidence of their religious practices. Their [art], as exhibited by pottery, personal ornaments or weapons was not of a high order. There is no evidence that they played the chunkey game. Some copper hatchets and ornaments were in use, but these appear to be of Middle [Mississippi] workmanship and may have been trade articles.
On the positive side, they buried their dead in dome-shaped earthen mounds, usually in the [extended] position, frequently with food (in clay pots with shell spoons), weapons (arrows and tomahawks or hafted celts), personal ornaments and various utilitarian implements. Dwellings had subsurface circular floors and were doubtless dome-shaped (hemispherical). The bow and arrow were in common use with [arrowheads] primarily of slender simple triangular shape, very rarely with side notches. Implements, weapons and ornaments were chiefly of chipped [flint], ground or polished [stone], river clam [shells], bone and animal teeth. Copper was rarely employed.
Fig. 30. Characteristic pottery from the Langford [subculture], Upper [Mississippi] [phase], (Fisher Site near Channahon, Illinois). (Photograph by George Langford, Chicago Natural History Museum.)
Pots were generally of the globular or flattened globular shape (olla or jar), tempered with grit (early) and shell (later), and decorated with geometric designs in broad lines and dots, drawn (“trailed”) or impressed on the shoulder region with a blunt tool (such as an antler tine). Lips of vessels were usually pressure-notched and surfaces cord-roughened. Loop handles on the jars were common.
Numerous examples of flat [stone] tablets associated with a number of short solid antler cylinders lead one to suspect that a game of chance of some sort was played and that gambling was probably indulged in.
Other than pottery and personal adornment, the only [art] practiced was the cutting of mussel shell into handled spoons and outlines of fish and other objects. Apparently there was no urge for fine workmanship.
It is highly probable that these Upper Mississippians were plant growers who hunted to secure their meat. The extent of village remains and the evidence of semi-permanent dwellings point to this type of [economy] even though no grain or seeds of any kind were found in the site. Shell hoes of the common type were used. The dog was the only domesticated animal.
Fig. 31. [Effigy] fish and a decorated spoon (fragmentary) made of mussel [shells]. Langford [subculture], Upper [Mississippi] [phase] (Fisher site). (Photograph by George Langford, Chicago Natural History Museum.)
Fig. 32. [Stone] tablet and gaming pieces from the Langford subcultural [period], Upper [Mississippi] [phase] (Fisher site). (Photograph by George Langford, Chicago Natural History Museum.)
Apparently most of their needs were supplied by their own efforts and from local sources. There is no evidence of any trade, except possibly of a very limited kind with near neighbors to the west.
The evidence for the residence around the southern lake shores is based chiefly on the occurrence of the Fisher pottery type. This area after 1760 was occupied by the Miami tribe who may possibly have been the builders of the Fisher Mounds.
THE ILLINOIS OR ILLINI[17] (1550?-1833 A.D.)
The Illinois or Illini Indians are, so far as is now known, the next group to occupy the state following the Middle Mississippians. At the time of Marquette and Jolliet’s voyage in 1673, six tribes comprised the Illinois Confederacy, Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Michigamea, Peoria, Moingwena, and Tamaroa[18]. The tribes spoke the same or mutually intelligible dialects of the Algonkian language.
Some time before 1650, possibly a century or more, the Illinois Confederacy seems to have been a powerful nation but in the latter half of the 17th century this was a tradition rather than fact. The Confederacy appears to have engaged in no united action after 1650.
The Illini at that time were in the plant-raising [stage] of [culture] and possessed only the dog as a domesticated animal. Like many other plant-raisers, the families deserted the village for the hunt after the corn was hilled and again after the harvest.