Illinois Indians

The Illinois Confederation, sometimes referred to as the Illiniwek or Illini, was a group of 12–13 Native American tribes in the upper Mississippi River valley of North America. The tribes were the Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Peoria, Tamaroa, Moingwena, Michigamea, Chepoussa, Chinkoa, Coiracoentanon, Espeminkia, Maroa, and Tapouara. At the time of European contact in the 17th century, they were believed to number over 10,000 people. Most of the Illinois spoke various dialects of the Miami-Illinois language, one of the Algonquian languages family, with the known exception of the Siouan-speaking Michigamea. They occupied a broad inverted triangle from modern-day Iowa to near the shores of Lake Michigan in modern Chicago south to modern Arkansas. By the mid-18th century, only five principal tribes remained: the Cahokia, Kaskaskia, Michigamea, Peoria, and Tamaroa.

The Illinois River (Inoka Siipiiwi) (″the River of the Inoka, i.e. Illinois″) and the entire vast Illinois Country are named after the Illinois Confederacy.

The Illinois autonym was not "Illinois," but rather "Inoka," a word of unknown meaning. The name "Illinois" ultimately derives from the Miami-Illinois term irenweewa "s/he speaks normally" or "s/he speaks in the ordinary way." The term was likely originally applied to the Illinois by the Miami tribe, who spoke a dialect of the same language. It was then borrowed by Odawa as ilin(i)we/alin(i)we, and loaned from Odawa into French, and from there into English (in the French of the 1600s, the spelling <Illinois> represented /ilinwe/).

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