ILLINOIS, FLAG OF

U.S. state flag consisting of a white field (background) with the state seal in the centre showing a bald eagle, a shield, a ribbon, and other symbols. In 1913, five years prior to the centennial of statehood, Wallace Rice submitted a proposal for an Illinois state flag. It had horizontal white-blue-white stripes with 20 blue stars and one large white star, representing Illinois's position as the 21st state to join the Union. The legislature did not approve the design, but on July 6, 1915, it adopted a flag that had been developed in a contest sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution. On a white field the flag showed design elements from the state seala rock on a stretch of land with water and the rising sun behind it, plus a shield bearing the national stars and stripes in the claws of a bald eagle. A ribbon in the beak of the eagle bore the motto of Illinois, State sovereigntynational union; and the dates 1818 (for statehood) and 1868 (for the first use of the state seal) were shown on the rock. As in a number of states, some complained that the flag could not readily be identified when displayed with other state flags. Thus a new law, effective July 1, 1970, changed the design. The sun, which had usually been omitted in the previous design, was required, as were specific colours for the various seal elements, such as water, land, rock, and sun. The name of the state was added beneath the seal in blue lettering. The Illinois secretary of state subsequently issued design specifications to be followed by flag manufacturers and artists. Whitney Smith History Archaeologists have found evidence dating from around 8000 BC of a Paleo-Indian culture in southern Illinois. The Mississippian people, whose religious centre was Cahokia in southwestern Illinois, constituted probably the largest pre-Columbian (around AD 1300) community north of Mexico in the Mississippi floodplain. Indian tribes in Illinois were all of the Algonquian stock. The Kickapoo, Sac, and Fox roamed in the north; the Potawatomi, Ottawa, and Ojibwa (Chippewa) dominated the Lake Michigan area; the Kaskaska, Illinois, and Peoria stalked the central prairies; and the Cahokia and Tamaroa roamed the south. Settlement The first Europeans to visit Illinois were the French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette in 1673, when they explored the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. Near present-day Peoria, Lasalle established the first French foothold, Fort-Crvecoeur, and built Fort-Saint-Louis near Ottawa. After the French and Indian War in the 1760s, France ceded to Britain its claim to lands east of the Mississippi. The following years were uneasyBritish policy was unfavourable to the area's economic development, Indians resented the British, and settlements were without civil government. By 1773 the number of settlers had declined to about 1,000 plus a few hundred slaves. In 1778 the American capture of Kaskaskia, the British seat of government, made Illinois a county of Virginia. The first settlement on the site of Chicago was made in 1779 by the black pioneer Jean-Baptist-Point Du Sable. On July 4, 1800, the Northwest Territory was divided, and the Illinois country was made a part of Indiana Territory; Illinois Territory was formed in 1809 by dividing Indiana Territory, and Illinois attained statehood nine years later.