The Illiniwek (also known as the Illini, Illinois, Illinois Confederacy, etc) were a group of several Native American tribes in the upper Mississippi River valley of North America. The five most populous tribes were the Kaskaskia, the Cahokia, the Peoria, the Tamaroa, and the Michigamea.
When French explorers first journeyed to the region from Canada in the early 17th century, they found the area inhabited by a vigorous, populous Algonquin nation who called themselves Hileni or Illiniwek, which means "men." This the French rendered as Illinois. Today, little is generally known about this once powerful confederation of tribes.
In the seventeenth century, the Illiniwek suffered due to a combination of European settlement on the Atlantic coast and the expansion of the Iroquois nations in the eastern Great Lakes region. These expanding Imperial powers drove several tribes into Illiniwek lands, including the Potawatomi, Miami, Kickapoo, Sauk, and others. These tribes all but destroyed the Illiniwek Confederacy. They drove the Illiniwek tribes into what is today southern Illinois. By the early nineteenth century, this area was taken over by United States settlers. This is why little is known about the once-powerful tribal confederation.
As a consequence of Indian Removal, the descendents of the Illiniwek are to be found in Oklahoma as the Confederated Peoria Tribe.
A large agricultural village of Native Americans of the Illiniconfederacy was located on the north bank of the Illinois River near the present town of Utica, Illinois.
This village proved to be unsustainable in size and its inhabitants soon dispersed, with their descendants moving to the regions around Peoria, Illinois, Cahokia, Illinois, and Kaskaskia, Illinois.
During the period after the villagers dispersed, a tale was repeated in local folklore to the effect that the members of the IlliniConfederacy had been pinned by tribal enemies to a last stand atop Starved Rock.
The Illini Confederation as it was known stemmed from common historical roots with kinship ties and a cultural commonality.
Traditionally the Illini had was is known as an egalitarian society, this was a type of social organization that assumes the equality of all people, in which every individual had an equal opportunity to obtain resources and the esteem of others in leadership activities.
Large-scale warfare was sometimes waged against tribes for to the west and south of the Illini, mainly the Pawnee on the Central Plains and the Quapaw along the lower Arkansas River.
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