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.
[Illustration: 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.