Excerpt from Illinois Grows Up

Some Indians were kind and friendly. Others were cruel and fierce. They had red skins and high cheek bones. Their hair grew long and straight. Their eyes shone bright and black. Furry skins of wild animals hung from their waists. On their feet they wore leather moccasins. They stuck feathers in their coarse, black hair, and painted themselves with vivid colors.

The Algonquins lived in little villages along the banks of streams and in groves. Around their wigwams they smoked tobacco. They liked to play ball, to wrestle, and to dance. They could walk or run for a long time without getting tired. The men carried hatchets called tomahawks. They fished or hunted with bows and arrows. Though the woods were full of animals, andthe lakes full of fish, the Indians took only what they needed.

Indian women did most of the hard work. They planted the crops, and raised the pumpkins, melons, and corn. When the village moved, the women pulled up the wigwams, carried the poles, and set up the new camp. They did all the cooking. They made their clothes with bone needles. Instead of coats, they wrapped themselves in gaily colored blankets. Their short leather skirts were fringed, and their moccasins embroidered with beads.

The mothers called their babies papooses, and carried them strapped to their backs on wooden boards. They thought the boards made the children grow straight.

Young children learned to stand pain without crying. The boys chipped stone arrowheads. For the winter they made snowshoes. They built strong, light canoes. They learned how to hunt and how to fight. The girls helped their mothers cook and sew. They prepared deerskins for shirts and leggings. They colored porcupine quills for trimming. They wove grass baskets, and sometimes painted pictures on their water jars. Indian girls liked pretty things, and often strung necklaces of beads or shells.

We think of the Indians as having horses. But horses were brought to this country from the Old World. It's fun to imagine how the Indians of Illinois felt when they saw their first horse.

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