Exercise 4: Native Illinois Warfare

The Illinois went to war for distinctive reasons and with distinctive motives.

In the Classroom

Use "The Power of the Ecotone" and the other sources to answer the following questions:

1. What was the logic of warfare in Illinois society?
2. Were they motivated by notions of conquest and domination, or something different?
3. What do you make of the practice of captivity in Illinois society?
4. Where did Illinois war parties typically go to make their raids?
5. Whom did they usually keep as captives? Why is this significant?
6. How different or similar were the Illinois' motivations when compared to those of European colonial powers, who often engaged in warfare as a means of territorial competition over resources?

Sources

• Sebastien Rasles, "Sebastien Rasles to His Brother, October 12, 1723," in The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France (73 vols., Cleveland, 1898–1901), LXXII, 133–229.
• Antoine Denis Raudot, "Memoir concerning the Different Indian Nations of North America," in The Indians of the Western Great Lakes, 1615–1760, ed. W. Vernon Kinietz (Ann Arbor, 1940), 402–6.
• Pierre de Liette, "Memoir concerning the Illinois Country, ca. 1693," in Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, vol. XXIII: The French Foundations, ed. Theodore Calvin Pease and Raymond C. Werner (Springfield, 1934), 307–18.

Teaching the Article

• Introduction
• Exercise 1: Place in the Past
• Exercise 2: Newcomers
• Exercise 3: Tallgrass Prairies
• Exercise 4: Native Illinois Warfare
• Exercise 5: Language and Indigenous History
• Exercise 6: The Ecological Indian