Misplaced Pages

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77-912: The modern Port of Chicago links inland canal and river systems in the Midwestern United States to the Great Lakes , giving the global shipping market access to the St. Lawrence Seaway and linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Illinois Waterway and the Mississippi River . In 1951, the Illinois General Assembly authorized the creation of port districts in Illinois with

154-522: A 135 railcar staging area. About 6 miles along the Calumet River it feeds into Lake Calumet which contains two grain elevators maintained by the port authority and is reported to have a combined capacity of 14 million bushels, as well as liquid bulk storage of 800,000 barrels. The Illinois International Port District Act creates a nine member board. Four members are appointed by the Governor of Illinois with

231-627: A U.S. Army by Native Americans. The British demanded the establishment of a Native American barrier state at the Treaty of Ghent which ended the War of 1812 , but American negotiators rejected the idea because Britain had lost control of the region in the Battle of Lake Erie and the Battle of the Thames in 1813, where Tecumseh was killed by U.S. forces. The British then abandoned their Native American allies south of

308-455: A house, clearing the ground, and planting crops. A number of means facilitated the legal settlement of the territories in the Midwest: land speculation , federal public land auctions , bounty land grants in lieu of pay to military veterans, and, later, preemption rights for squatters. The "squatters" became "pioneers" and were increasingly able to purchase the lands on which they had settled for

385-472: A privatized revitalization of the Port Facilities and District area. Attempting to strike a deal with Private family-owned International Investment and Management company Broe Group . Negotiation for this revitalization ended on the negotiation table without definitive statement. During the 100th Illinois General Assembly, Elaine Nekritz filed House Bill 2502 which, if signed into law, would have replaced

462-534: A supernatural being who lived in the sky and was believed to have created the world and the Huron people. At death, Hurons thought the soul left the body to live in a village in the sky. Chippewas were a deeply religious people who believed in the Great Spirit. They worshiped the Great Spirit through all their seasonal activities, and viewed religion as a private matter: Each person's relation with his personal guardian spirit

539-566: A trustee. Chicago-area merchants, educators, bankers, ministers and labor officials joined them as charter members. In its early years, the Civic Federation advocated for social and political reform. It led efforts to improve sanitation and education, as well as improve Chicago-area government efficiency. Steel magnate Clayton Mark , who built Marktown , the planned worker community in Northwest Indiana, served several terms as President of

616-538: A written form of language. In the 16th century, the natives of the area used projectiles and tools of stone, bone, and wood to hunt and farm. They made canoes for fishing. Most of them lived in oval or conical wigwams that could be easily moved away. Various tribes had different ways of living. The Ojibwas were primarily hunters and fishing was also important in the Ojibwas economy. Other tribes such as Sac, Fox, and Miami, both hunted and farmed. They were oriented toward

693-883: Is Heartland . Among the Native Americans , Paleo-Americans cultures were the earliest in North America, with a presence in the Great Plains and Great Lakes areas from about 12,000 BCE to around 8,000 BCE. Following the Paleo-American period is the Archaic period (8,000 BCE to 1,000 BCE), the Woodland Tradition (1,000 BCE to 100 CE), and the Mississippian Period (900 to 1500 CE). Archeological evidence indicates that Mississippian culture traits probably began in

770-506: Is the area between the historical foreground of European invasion and occupation and the background of Indian defeat and retreat. White specifically designates "the lands bordering the rivers flowing into the northern Great Lakes and the lands south of the lakes to the Ohio" as the location of the middle ground. This includes the modern Midwestern states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan as well as parts of Canada. The middle ground

847-741: The Algonquian language family. Some tribes—such as the Stockbridge-Munsee and the Brothertown —are also Algonkian-speaking tribes who relocated from the eastern seaboard to the Great Lakes region in the 19th century. The Oneida belong to the Iroquois language group and the Ho-Chunk of Wisconsin are one of the few Great Lakes tribes to speak a Siouan language. American Indians in this area did not develop

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924-522: The Arikara , Hidatsa , Iowa , Kaw (or Kansa) , Kitsai , Mandan , Missouria , Nez Perce , Omaha , Osage , Otoe , Pawnee , Ponca , Quapaw , Santee , Wichita , and Yankton . The nomadic tribes of the Great Plains survived on hunting ; some of their major hunts centered on deer and buffalo. Some tribes are described as part of the "Buffalo Culture" (sometimes called, for the American bison ). Although

1001-481: The Blackfoot , Arapaho , Assiniboine , Cheyenne , Comanche , Crow , Gros Ventre , Kiowa , Lakota , Lipan , Plains Apache (or Kiowa Apache), Plains Cree , Plains Ojibwe , Sarsi , Shoshone , Stoney , and Tonkawa . The second group of Plains Indians (sometimes referred to as Prairie Indians) were the semi-sedentary tribes who, in addition to hunting buffalo, lived in villages and raised crops. These included

1078-777: The Chicago Civic Federation proposed the dissolution of the Illinois International Port District. Under their plan, port operations and related lands would transfer to the City of Chicago ; transfer of open land to the Forest Preserve District of Cook County ; and transfer Harborside International Golf Center to the control of the Chicago Park District . In July 2013, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Governor of Illinois Pat Quinn proposed

1155-1032: The Great Plains region. Chicago is the most populous city in the American Midwest and the third-most populous in the United States. Chicago and its suburbs , colloquially known as Chicagoland , form the largest metropolitan area with 10 million people, making it the fourth-largest metropolitan area in North America , after Greater Mexico City , the New York metropolitan area , and Greater Los Angeles . Other large Midwestern cities include Columbus , Indianapolis , Detroit , Milwaukee , Kansas City , Omaha , Minneapolis , Wichita , Cleveland , Cincinnati , St. Paul , St. Louis , and Des Moines . Large midwestern metropolitan areas include Metro Detroit , Minneapolis–St. Paul , Greater St. Louis , Greater Cincinnati ,

1232-622: The Haitian Revolution and together with the fact that France could not effectively defend Louisiana from a possible British attack, he sold the territory to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Meanwhile, the British maintained forts and trading posts in U.S. territory, refusing to give them up until 1796 by the Jay Treaty . American settlement began either via routes over

1309-493: The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation . The Institute has published numerous studies of Illinois' finances, including: IIFS also publishes a blog that provides additional information and commentary on state finance issues. The Civic Federation was founded in 1893 as a reform organization by several of Chicago's most prominent citizens, including Jane Addams , Bertha Honore Palmer and Lyman J. Gage . The group united around

1386-538: The Kansas City metro area , the Columbus metro area , and Greater Cleveland . The region's economy is a mix of heavy industry and agriculture, with extensive areas forming part of the United States' Corn Belt . Finance and services such as medicine and education are becoming increasingly important. Its central location makes it a transportation crossroads for river boats, railroads, autos, trucks, and airplanes. Politically,

1463-564: The Louisiana Purchase , and establish trade and U.S. sovereignty over the native peoples along the Missouri River . The Lewis and Clark Expedition established relations with more than two dozen indigenous nations west of the Missouri River. The Expedition returned east to St. Louis in the spring of 1806. The Midwest has been a key swing district in national elections, with highly contested elections in closely divided states often deciding

1540-671: The Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with their cessation of the majority of their holdings in North America to the Kingdom of Great Britain in the Treaty of Paris (1763) . In 1673 the Governor of New France sent Jacques Marquette , a Catholic priest and missionary, and Louis Jolliet , a fur trader , to map the way to the Northwest Passage to the Pacific. They traveled through Michigan's upper peninsula to

1617-708: The St. Louis, Missouri area and spread northwest along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers and entered the state along the Kankakee River system. It also spread northward into Indiana along the Wabash , Tippecanoe , and White Rivers. Mississippian peoples in the Midwest were mostly farmers who followed the rich, flat floodplains of Midwestern rivers. They brought with them a well-developed agricultural complex based on three major crops— maize , beans , and squash . Maize, or corn,

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1694-457: The Treaty of Paris , Spain was given Louisiana ; the area west of the Mississippi. St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve in Missouri were the main towns, but there was little new settlement. France regained Louisiana from Spain in exchange for Tuscany by the terms of the Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800. Napoleon had lost interest in re-establishing a French colonial empire in North America following

1771-976: The advice and consent of the Illinois Senate and five members are appointed by the Mayor of Chicago with the advice and consent of the Chicago City Council . The Illinois International Port District is the only port district in Illinois that may not levy taxes. By statute, the Executive Director of the IIPD is a member of the Task Force on the Conservation and Quality of the Great Lakes. ( Rahm Emanuel ) ( J. B. Pritzker ) ( Lori Lightfoot ) ( Lori Lightfoot ) ( J. B. Pritzker ) ( J. B. Pritzker ) ( Rahm Emanuel ) ( Lori Lightfoot ) ( J. B. Pritzker ) In 2008,

1848-710: The Appalachian Mountains or through the waterways of the Great Lakes. Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh ) at the source of the Ohio River became the main base for settlers moving into the Midwest. Marietta, Ohio in 1787 became the first settlement in Ohio, but not until the defeat of Native American tribes at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 was large-scale settlement possible. Large numbers also came north from Kentucky into southern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. The region's fertile soil produced corn and vegetables; most farmers were self-sufficient. They cut trees and claimed

1925-589: The Chicago Regional Port District, to oversee harbor and port development, being the first such port district created. The State of Illinois and City of Chicago had relinquished all rights and interest in the bed of Lake Calumet to the Port District, so as to enable the District to develop Calumet Harbor. The district was given the power to acquire any navigable waters of the state which were within

2002-735: The Civic Federation Collection, which contains reports, memoranda, correspondence, press releases, photographs, and other documents relating to the Civic Federation's foundation and operation from 1893, on. The Civic Federation is classified as a 501(c)(3) public charity under U.S. Internal Revenue Code. The Civic Federation focuses on educational outreach and policy work, consistent with its tax-exempt status. It accepts no government support. The Federation receives funding from its members, which include many Chicago area corporations and service firms. The Civic Federation and Institute for Illinois' Fiscal Sustainability are also supported by

2079-1015: The Civic Federation provides a look at pension funding trends, estimates the accumulated liabilities of the systems and suggests reforms that could improve the fiscal health of the systems. The issue of property tax assessments, collections and appeals is another major focus of the Civic Federation. The Federation has published a number of issue briefs on property tax issues in the Chicago area. The Federation has also taken on special initiatives in addition to its regular government finance research. Some of those projects include: The Civic Federation also discusses government finance and policy issues on its blog, updated weekly. The Federation blog has researched topics such as Cook County township government , privatization and tax increment financing or TIF. Federation blog posts accompany its publications and help provide additional commentary and context on those topics as well as provide reactions to current events. In 2008

2156-502: The Civic Federation. In the 1930s, the Civic Federation transitioned to an organization chiefly interested in improving government efficiency and tax reform. The work of the Federation continues to evolve in the 21st century as a greater emphasis is placed on working with government officials to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and accountability of Chicago-area governments. DePaul University Special Collections and Archives holds

2233-620: The District area. The constitutionality of the district was challenged in People v. Chicago Regional Port District . The plaintiffs, later the appellants, challenged the district on the grounds that the sale or lease of navigable waters by the State was prohibited and the State did not have the ability to establish special corporations. In 1954, the Illinois Supreme Court rejected the appellants’ claim to possess constitutional standing with respect to

2310-615: The Endeavors of Government, or Fear of Indians has kept them properly within Bounds." The British had a long-standing goal of establishing a Native American buffer state in the American Midwest to resist American westward expansion. With victory in the American Revolution the new government considered evicting the squatters from areas that were now federally owned public lands. In 1785, soldiers under General Josiah Harmar were sent into

2387-451: The Federation established the Institute for Illinois' Fiscal Sustainability (IIFS), which examines fiscal issues relating to the state of Illinois. Its mission is to "improve the state's decision making process by providing timely fiscal policy analysis and recommendations to state officials, the media, and the public through education and digital outreach." Major funding for IIFS is provided by

Port of Chicago - Misplaced Pages Continue

2464-577: The French and British, conflicts and treaties with the United States both during the Revolutionary War and after , and its ultimate clearing/erasure throughout the nineteenth century. European settlement of the area began in the 17th century following French exploration of the region and became known as New France , including the Illinois Country . The French period began with the exploration of

2541-534: The French and the British into competition with each other to their own benefit. The Indian demand for certain kinds of cloth in particular fueled this competition. This, however, changed following the Seven Years' War with Britain's victory over France and the cession of New France to Great Britain. The British attempted to establish a more assertive relationship with the Indians of the pays d'en haut , eliminating

2618-558: The Grand River Navigation Co., Traverse City, MI. Illinois International Port District is responsible for Foreign Trade Zone No. 22 . This zone spans 8 counties: Cook , DuPage , Grundy , Kankakee , Kendall , Lake , and Will Counties as well as portions of McHenry and Kane Counties. Around the Calumet zone the district maintains 20 acres of land for future developments as well as 400,000 square feet of warehouse space. At

2695-856: The Midwest or the American Midwest ) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau . It occupies the northern central part of the United States . It was officially named the North Central Region by the U.S. Census Bureau until 1984. It is between the Northeastern United States and the Western United States , with Canada to the north and the Southern United States to

2772-411: The Ohio country to destroy the crops and burn down the homes of any squatters they found living there. But overall the federal policy was to move Indians to western lands (such as the Indian Territory in modern Oklahoma) and allow a very large numbers of farmers to replace a small number of hunters. Congress repeatedly debated how to legalize settlements. On the one hand, Whigs such as Henry Clay wanted

2849-470: The Plains Indians hunted other animals, such as elk or antelope , bison was their primary game food source. Bison flesh, hide, and bones from bison hunting provided the chief source of raw materials for items that Plains Indians made, including food, cups, decorations, crafting tools, knives, and clothing. The tribes followed the bison's seasonal grazing and migration. The Plains Indians lived in teepees because they were easily disassembled and allowed

2926-614: The alliance it created. In the meshed French and Algonquian system of trade, the Algonquian familial metaphor of a father and his children shaped the political relationship between the French and the Natives in this region. The French, regarded as the metaphoric father, were expected to provide for the needs of the Algonquians and, in return, the Algonquians, the metaphoric children, would be obligated to assist and obey them. Traders coming into Indian villages facilitated this system of symbolic exchange to establish or maintain alliances and friendships. Marriage also became an important aspect of

3003-411: The conflict, the British government was forced to compromise and loosely re-created a trade system that was an echo of the French one. While French control ended in 1763 after their defeat in the Seven Years' War, most of the several hundred French settlers in small villages along the Mississippi River and its tributaries remained, and were not disturbed by the new British administration. By the terms of

3080-461: The district’s current governing board with the Chicago City Council . The bill was referred to the Rules Committee and died at the end of the legislative session. As of 2019, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) is studying the District, Its facilities, and the surrounding area to provide a economic solution for the Port to operate out of the negative. Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States (also referred to as

3157-472: The elements claimed as grounds. In 1985, the Illinois International Port District was created by the Illinois International Port District Act as a political subdivision to run the Port of Chicago. C.T.C. No. 1 is a 620-foot-long cargo hauler brought to the south Chicago ports in 1982. With a capacity of 16,300 tons, this ship was used for storage and transfer of cement until its termination in 2009. The ship hasn't moved since its termination and then purchase by

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3234-452: The female line, while the others favored the patrilineal method. All tribes were governed under chiefdoms or complex chiefdoms. For example, Hurons were divided into matrilineal clans, each represented by a chief in the town council, where they met with a town chief on civic matters. But Chippewa people's social and political life was simpler than that of settled tribes. The religious beliefs varied among tribes. Hurons believed in Yoscaha ,

3311-417: The global climate change of the Little Ice Age . Their culture effectively ended before 1492. The major tribes of the Great Lakes region included the Huron , Ottawa , Ojibwe , Potawatomi , Ho-Chunk , Menominee , Sauk , Meskwaki , Neutrals , and the Miami . Most numerous were the Huron and Ho-Chunk. Fighting and battle were often launched between tribes, with the losers forced to flee. Most are of

3388-566: The government to get maximum revenue and also wanted stable middle-class law-abiding settlements of the sort that supported towns (and bankers). Jacksonian Democrats such as Thomas Hart Benton wanted the support of poor farmers, who reproduced rapidly, had little cash, and were eager to acquire cheap land in the West. Democrats did not want a big government, and keeping revenues low helped that cause. Democrats avoided words like "squatter" and regarded "actual settlers" as those who gained title to land, settled on it, and then improved upon it by building

3465-498: The governments' fiscal policy decisions and provide recommendations for effective financial management. These reports are often cited by the press and have helped guide lawmakers' decisions, as detailed on the Federation’s website. The Federation focuses on the following governments: Of major interest to the Civic Federation is the impact that public employee pension systems have on government budgets and finance . In standalone pension status reports and government budget analyses,

3542-461: The growing influence of women in the fur trade also came the increasing demand of cloth which very quickly grew to be the most desired trade good. English traders entered the Ohio country as a serious competitor to the French in the fur trade around the 1690s. English (and later British) traders almost consistently offered the Indians better goods and better rates than the French, with the Indians being able to play that to their advantage, thrusting

3619-411: The lakes. The Native Americans ended being the main losers in the War of 1812 . Apart from the short Black Hawk War of 1832, the days of Native American warfare east of the Mississippi River had ended. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition that took place between May 1804 and September 1806. Launching from Camp Dubois in Illinois, the goal was to explore

3696-582: The land, then sold it to newcomers and then moved further west to repeat the process. Settlers without legal claims, called "squatters", had been moving into the Midwest for years before 1776. They pushed further and further down the Ohio River during the 1760s and 1770s and sometimes engaged in conflict with the Native Americans. British officials were outraged. These squatters were characterized by British General Thomas Gage as "too Numerous, too Lawless, and Licentious ever to be restrained", and regarded them as "almost out of Reach of Law and government; Neither

3773-399: The location of Native American settlements near the headwaters of the Wabash River , but on November 4 they were routed in battle by a tribal confederation led by Miami Chief Little Turtle and Shawnee chief Blue Jacket . More than 600 soldiers and scores of women and children were killed in the battle, which has since borne the name " St. Clair's Defeat ". It remains the greatest defeat of

3850-437: The middle ground was introduced in Richard White's seminal work: The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815 originally published in 1991. White defines the middle ground like so: The middle ground is the place in between cultures, peoples, and in between empires and the non state world of villages. It is a place where many of the North American subjects and allies of empires lived. It

3927-446: The minimum price thanks to various preemption acts and laws passed throughout the 1810s-1840s. In Washington, Jacksonian Democrats favored squatter rights while banker-oriented Whigs were opposed; the Democrats prevailed. In 1791, General Arthur St. Clair became commander of the United States Army and led a punitive expedition with two Regular Army regiments and some militia. Near modern-day Fort Recovery , his force advanced to

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4004-503: The most powerful and dominant tribes were the Dakota or Sioux , who occupied large amounts of territory in the Great Plains of the Midwest. The area of the Great Sioux Nation spread throughout the South and Midwest, up into the areas of Minnesota and stretching out west into the Rocky Mountains. At the same time, they occupied the heart of prime buffalo range, and also an excellent region for furs they could sell to French and American traders for goods such as guns. The Sioux (Dakota) became

4081-446: The most powerful of the Plains tribes and the greatest threat to American expansion. The Sioux comprise three major divisions based on Siouan dialect and subculture: Today, the Sioux maintain many separate tribal governments scattered across several reservations, communities, and reserves in the Dakotas, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Montana in the United States, as well as Manitoba and southern Saskatchewan in Canada. The theory of

4158-422: The mouth of the Calumet River is the Iroquois Landing Lakefront Terminus, this Area is utilized as Shipping container processing and storage space. The terminal currently handles 190 acres (0.77 km) of paved concrete grounds as well as 3000 feet of boat and barge berths. The Iroquois Terminus is serviced with direct trucking and rail access supported by two transit sheds spanning 100,000 square feet including

4235-475: The national result. From 1860 to 1920, both parties tried to find their presidential and vice presidential candidates from the region. One of the two major political parties in the United States, the Republican Party , originated in the Midwest in the 1850s; Ripon, Wisconsin , had the first local meeting while Jackson, Michigan , had the first statewide meeting of the new party. Its membership included many Yankees out of New England and New York who had settled

4312-410: The native peoples who lived along the route were generally friendly, and that the natural resources of the lands in between were extraordinary. New France officials led by LaSalle followed up and erected a 4,000-mile (6,400 km) network of fur trading posts. The fur trade was an integral part of early European and Indian relations. It was the foundation upon which their interactions were built and

4389-478: The need to address concerns about Chicago's economic, political and moral climate at the end of the 19th century. The group's formation was catalyzed by a book by a visiting journalist, William T. Stead , who appealed to the Social Gospel sensibilities of Protestant activists. Gage, president of the First National Bank, and the prominent socialite Bertha Honore Palmer were elected President and First Vice President. The Director of Hull House , Jane Addams, served as

4466-434: The nomadic life of following game. When Spanish horses were obtained, the Plains tribes rapidly integrated them into their daily lives. By the early 18th century, many tribes had fully adopted a horse culture . Before their adoption of guns, the Plains Indians hunted with spears , bows , and bows and arrows , and various forms of clubs . The use of horses by the Plains Indians made hunting (and warfare) much easier. Among

4543-414: The northern tip of Lake Michigan. On canoes, they crossed the massive lake and landed at present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin . They entered the Mississippi River on 17 June 1673. Marquette and Jolliet were the first to map the northern portion of the Mississippi River. They confirmed that it was easy to travel from the St. Lawrence River through the Great Lakes all the way to the Gulf of Mexico by water, that

4620-453: The open prairies where they engaged in communal hunts for buffalo (bison) . In the northern forests, the Ottawas and Potawatomis separated into small family groups for hunting. The Winnebagos and Menominees used both hunting methods interchangeably and built up widespread trade networks extending as far west as the Rockies, north to the Great Lakes, south to the Gulf of Mexico , and east to the Atlantic Ocean. The Hurons reckoned descent through

4697-522: The plains and rolling hills of the Great Plains of North America. Their colorful equestrian culture and famous conflicts with settlers and the US Army have made the Plains Indians archetypical in literature and art for American Indians everywhere. Plains Indians are usually divided into two broad classifications, with some degree of overlap. The first group were fully nomadic, following the vast herds of buffalo . Some tribes occasionally engaged in agriculture, growing tobacco and corn primarily. These included

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4774-501: The practise of gift giving which they now saw as unnecessary. This, in combination with an underwhelming trade relationship with a surplus of whiskey, increase in prices generally, and a shortage of other goods led to unrest among the Indians that was exacerbated by the decision to significantly reduce the amount of rum being traded, a product that British merchants had been including in the trade for years. This would eventually culminate in Pontiac's War , which broke out in 1763. Following

4851-416: The problems of the metropolis. The newspapers adopted Mugwumpery as a way of building support for municipal reform among working-class voters in the late 19th century and the Progressive Era. The Civic Federation publishes reports and commentary about government tax policies, government services and public expenditures in the Chicago region. Its annual analyses of local government operating budgets evaluate

4928-448: The processing of the pelts necessary to the fur trade. Women were integral to the fur trade and their contributions were lauded, so much so that the absence of the involvement of an Indian Woman was once cited as the cause for a trader's failure. When the French fur trade re-opened in 1716 upon the discovery that their overstock of pelts had been ruined, legal French traders continued to marry Indian women and remain in their villages. With

5005-416: The region (as it was in other regions), with Wisconsin a major center. Under the La Follettes , Wisconsin fought against the Republican bosses and for efficiency, modernization, and the use of experts to solve social, economic, and political problems. Chicago Civic Federation The Civic Federation is a Chicago-based non-partisan research organization focused on governments in the Chicago area and

5082-588: The region include, from east to west, the Ohio River , the Upper Mississippi River , and the Missouri River . The 2020 United States census put the population of the Midwest at 68,995,685. The Midwest is divided by the U.S. Census Bureau into two divisions. The East North Central Division includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, all of which are also part of the Great Lakes region . The West North Central Division includes Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, and South Dakota, several of which are located, at least partly, within

5159-402: The region is composed of swing states , and therefore is heavily contested and often decisive in elections. The term West was applied to the region in British America and in the early years of the United States, when the colonial territories had not extended far from the Atlantic coast and the Pacific seaboard was generally unknown. By the early 19th century, anything west of Appalachia

5236-440: The south. The U.S. Census Bureau's definition consists of 12 states in the north central United States: Illinois , Indiana , Iowa , Kansas , Michigan , Minnesota , Missouri , Nebraska , North Dakota , Ohio , South Dakota , and Wisconsin . The region generally lies on the broad Interior Plain between the states occupying the Appalachian Mountain range and the states occupying the Rocky Mountain range . Major rivers in

5313-537: The state of Illinois. The Civic Federation's mission is to help local and state governments reduce their costs and improve public services by "Promoting opportunities to reform local tax structures; guarding against wasteful expenditure of public funds; and serving as a technical resource to public officials and opinion leaders through non-partisan tax and fiscal research." The Federation was founded to fight corruption, government subsidies, high taxes, and unneeded public enterprise. However it also wanted government to solve

5390-432: The trade in both the Ohio River valley and the French pays d'en haut with the temporary closing of the French fur trade from 1690 to 1716 and beyond. French fur traders were forced to abandon most posts and those remaining in the region became illegal traders who potentially sought these marriages to secure their safety. Another benefit for French traders marrying Indian women was that the Indian women were in charge of

5467-415: The upper Midwest. The party opposed the expansion of slavery and stressed the Protestant ideals of thrift, a hard work ethic, self-reliance, democratic decision making, and religious tolerance. In the early 1890s, the wheat-growing regions were strongholds of the short-lived Populist movement in the Plains states. Starting in the 1890s, the middle class urban Progressive movement became influential in

5544-424: Was a system that would evolve over time. Goods often traded included guns, clothing, blankets, strouds, cloth, tobacco, silver, and alcohol. The French and Indian exchange of goods was called an exchange of gifts rather than a trade. These gifts held greater meaning to the relationship between the two than a simple economic exchange because the trade itself was inseparable from the social relations it fostered and

5621-400: Was bounded by the Great Lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Some entities in the Midwest have "Northwest" in their names for historical reasons, such as Northwestern University in Illinois. One of the earliest late-19th-century uses of Midwest was in reference to Kansas and Nebraska to indicate that they were the civilized areas of the west. Another term applied to the same region

5698-639: Was considered American frontier . Over time the American frontier moved to west of the Mississippi River . During the colonial period, the upper-Mississippi watershed including the valleys of the Missouri River and the Illinois River , which were settled in the 17th and 18th century and called Illinois Country . In 1787 the Northwest Ordinance was enacted, creating the Northwest Territory , which

5775-430: Was formed on the foundations of mutual accommodation and common meanings established between the French and the Indians that then transformed and degraded as both were steadily lost as the French ceded their influence in the region in the aftermath of their defeat in the Seven Years' War and the Louisiana Purchase . Major aspects of the middle ground include blended culture, the fur trade , Native alliances with both

5852-514: Was part of his thinking every day of life. Ottawa and Potawatomi people had very similar religious beliefs to those of the Chippewas. In the Ohio River Valley, the dominant food supply was not hunting but agriculture. There were orchards and fields of crops that were maintained by indigenous women. Corn was their most important crop. The Plains Indians are the indigenous peoples who live on

5929-413: Was the primary crop of Mississippian farmers. They gathered a wide variety of seeds, nuts, and berries, and fished and hunted for fowl to supplement their diets. With such an intensive form of agriculture , this culture supported large populations. The Mississippi period was characterized by a mound-building culture. The Mississippians suffered a tremendous population decline about 1400, coinciding with

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