Q 01/05

Which fruit from Africa, brought to North America by Spanish colonists, did Illinois women grow beside corn and beans?

A) Pomegranates

B) Peaches

C) Watermelons

D) Apricots

Answer · why

C) Watermelons

Watermelons were an important Illinois crop, and archaeologists found their remains at the great Kaskaskia village on the Illinois River.

Q 02/05

At a 1673 feast in a Peoria village, two French explorers refused which meat that the Illinois prized as a delicacy?

A) Bear

B) Dog

C) Elk

D) Skunk

Answer · why

B) Dog

Dog was the third of four courses, and the hosts simply carried it away and brought bison when their guests would not eat it.

Q 03/05

Which field sport did the Illinois play on open prairie with walnut rackets laced with sinew and a wooden ball?

A) Shinny

B) Chunkey

C) Snow snake

D) Lacrosse

Answer · why

D) Lacrosse

Lacrosse teams drew players of both sexes from different villages, and the Illinois played toward a single goal set in the middle of the field.

Q 04/05

The Peoria Tribe, home to descendants of the Illinois Confederation, is based in a town called Miami in which state?

A) Oklahoma

B) Nebraska

C) Wisconsin

D) Arkansas

Answer · why

A) Oklahoma

Oklahoma became home in 1867, when the Peoria left an earlier reservation for Indian Territory, and the town of Miami there is named for the related M...

Q 05/05

Which Great Lakes city takes its name from a Miami-Illinois word for a wild relative of onion and garlic?

A) Milwaukee

B) Chicago

C) Waukegan

D) Detroit

Answer · why

B) Chicago

Chicago was first written down as Checagou by the explorer La Salle around 1679, and a later French traveller noted how thickly the wild garlic grew t...