Illinois
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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. The approximate distribution of the Illini in 1640 was:
Cahokia:
Cahokia, Illinois including most of central and southern Illinois.

Chepoussa:
northeast Arkansas and southeast Missouri.

Coiracoentanon:
Des Moines River in southeast Iowa.

Kaskaskia:
upper Illinois River near Utica extending into southern Wisconsin.

Michigamea:
northeast Arkansas between St. Francis and Mississippi Rivers.

Moingwena:
mouth of Des Moines River (Riviere de Moingwena) extending into southeast Iowa and northeast Missouri.

Peoria:
northeast Iowa, southwest Wisconsin, and northwest Illinois.

Tamaroa:
both sides of Mississippi at the mouths of the Illinois and Missouri.

Tapouaro:
eastern Iowa and western Illinois near the mouth of the Iowa River.

After the Beaver Wars reached the western Great Lakes during the 1640s, refugee tribes from Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio were forced west. By 1655, the Fox, Sauk, Kicapoo, Miami and Mascouten had occupied lands claimed by the Illini in southern Wisconsin, while groups of the Shawnee had relocated to central Illinois. That same year, the Illini were attacked by the Iroquois and by 1667 had retreated west of the Mississippi. They began returning to Illinois after the French made peace with the Iroquois that year but did not range as far east as before. After 1673 they were concentrated between the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, but many of their villages were still west of the Mississippi, with one band located near Green Bay, Wisconsin. By 1680 most groups were living along the Illinois River near the new French trading post.

Except for two years west of the Mississippi after another war with the Iroquois in 1680, the Illini remained close to the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, but their territory steadily diminished. The Osage and Missouri drove them from northern Missouri and southeast Iowa (1690-1700), and the Quapaw forced the Michigamea and Chepoussa to leave northeast Arkansas (1693-98). The refugee tribes never surrendered the areas of southern Wisconsin they had occupied during the 1650s and began to expand into northern Illinois after 1690. By 1755 the Illini were confined to southern Illinois and, after their near-extermination in 1769, the vicinity of the French settlement at Kaskaskia. In 1803 they ceded all claim to their homeland and placed themselves under American protection. They surrendered their last Illinois lands and moved to Missouri in 1818, and in 1832 eastern Kansas. After merging with the Wea and Piankashaw in 1854, they moved to northeast Oklahoma in 1867, where their descendents still live.

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