TERRITORIES
The Illinois County of Virginia (1673-1778) was a political and geographic region, part of the British Province of Quebec, claimed during the American Revolutionary War on July 4, 1778, by George Rogers Clark of the Virginia Militia as a result of the Illinois Campaign. The Virginia-based local government lasted only six years. Illinois County was extinguished when Virginia ceded its claims to the Northwest Territory to the United States in 1784.
The Northwest Territory (1784-1800), aka Old Northwest, formally known as the Territory Northwest of the Ohio River. It was formed from an unorganized western territory of the United States after the Revolutionary War. Established in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation through the Northwest Ordinance, it was the nation's first post-colonial organized, then incorporated territory.
INDIAN TRIBES SNIPPETS
"The Illinois" was a Confederacy of Indian tribes consisting of the Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Peoria, Tamarais (Tamaroa, Tamarois), Moingwena, Mitchagamie (Michigamea), Chepoussa, Chinkoa, Coiracoentanon, Espeminkia, Maroa, and Tapouara tribes. They were all in the Algonquin family and spoke Iroquoian languages. The Illinois called themselves "Ireniouaki" (the French word was "Ilinwe").
The indigenous tribes of today's Chicago area were the Potawatomi, Ojibwe, Odawa Nations, The Miami, Winnebago (Ho-Chunk), Menominee, Sauk (Sac), Meskwaki (Fox), and Kickapoo tribes.
Indians calling what became the future State of Illinois' footprint home were the Dakota Sioux, the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk), and the Shawnee tribes.
The "Collar Counties" is a colloquialism for the five counties of Illinois that border Cook County; DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties, Illinois.
