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.