Illini

Illini can refer to:

Illinois Confederation

The Illinois Confederation, sometimes referred to as the Illiniwek or Illini, were a group of 12–13 Native American tribes in the upper Mississippi River valley of North America. The tribes were the Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Peoria, Tamaroa, Moingwena, Michigamea, Chepoussa, Chinkoa, Coiracoentanon, Espeminkia, Maroa, and Tapouara. At the time of European contact in the 17th century, they were believed to number over 10,000 people. The Illinois spoke various dialects of the Miami-Illinois language, one of the Algonquian languages family. They occupied a broad inverted triangle from modern-day Iowa to near the shores of Lake Michigan in modern Chicago south to modern Arkansas. By the mid-18th century, only five principal tribes remained—the Cahokia, Kaskaskia, Michigamea, Peoria, and Tamaroa.

Name

Illinois is from a French rendering of ilinwe (pl. iliniwek). Ilinwe is in turn an Odawa language rendering of irenweewa. (The Ottawa were a neighboring tribe, whom the French met first.) Irenweewa means he-who-speaks-the-common-way in the Illinois Confederation language but the confederation word for themselves was inoca or inoka (currently, of unknown meaning). Unlike the plural form iliniwek, the term illini does not appear to have an historic linguistic connection.

Illini and Saluki

The Illini and Saluki are a pair of passenger trains operated by Amtrak between Chicago and Carbondale, Illinois. They are part of Amtrak's Illinois Service and are primarily funded by the state of Illinois. Additional service over the route is provided by the long-distance City of New Orleans. The Illini has operated since 1973; a previous version operated in 1971–1972 between Chicago and Champaign. The Saluki debuted in 2006.

History

The Illinois Central Railroad's main line between Chicago and New Orleans ran through Champaign-Urbana and Carbondale, along the east side of Illinois. At the formation of Amtrak in 1971, the Illinois Central still operated a number of services from its Central Station in Chicago over this route, including the Illini and Shawnee (Chicago-Carbondale), the City of New Orleans and the Panama Limited (both, Chicago-New Orleans), plus the City of Miami (Chicago-Birmingham).

Amtrak retained two trains on this route: the City of New Orleans (which it named the Panama Limited) and the Shawnee. Amtrak brought back the Illini name on November 14, 1971, as a Chicago-Champaign train, operating in conjunction with the Campus. Amtrak discontinued the Campus and Illini on March 5, 1972. Both trains used Central Station, which Amtrak was abandoning; Amtrak judged that the additional 35–40 minutes necessary to serve Union Station made the schedule impractical. The 1972 Illini made its last trip on March 3.