Prior to 1640, the
state of Illinois including both sides of the Mississippi River from Prairie
du Chien, Wisconsin to the mouth of the Ohio, and then south along the
west bank to the Arkansas River. The dominant tribe in the region before
1655, their hunting territory extended into western Kentucky and across
Missouri and Iowa, the latter provoking occasional skirmishes with the
Pawnee and Wichita on the plains (from whom the Illini learned the calumet
ceremony). The Osage migration to the lower Missouri River (sometime between
1450 and 1650) isolated the Michigamea and Chepoussa from the other Illini.
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