1		4 1. Wooden beaver-effigy bowl 2. Catlinite pendants 3. Silver gorget 4. Engraved arrow-shaft wrench 5. Chipped-stone arrowheads
2
3		5

[A]ll go together to hunt the wild cattle, which supply them with food. From the hides of these, they make their garments, dressing the skin with a certain kind of earth, which also serves them as a dye. (Claude Dablon, 1674)

Humans are distinguished from other animals by our production and use of complex tools, which we use to provide ourselves with food, clothing, shelter, defense, and other necessities of life. The technology of a society consists of the ways in which the society provides itself with the material objects of its culture. Some of these objects have economic value, such as hoes used to cultivate agricultural fields and weapons used to obtain game animals. Other objects may operate in the society's social or belief systems. For example, special clothing may identify a person as a member of a particular ethnic group, while a religious symbol like a cross may signify one's faith in a particular belief system.

Illinois technology included a wide variety of objects that had value in the economic, social, and belief systems of the society. Most of these objects were obtained by the Illinois from their natural environment and fashioned into such things as dwellings, tools, or weapons. Other objects were obtained from trading partners in other societies, including members of neighboring Indian tribes and, historically, French traders who sought hides and furs produced by the Illinois. French trade goods had already reached the Illinois when Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet became the first European explorers to enter the Illinois Country in 1673. During the following century, many items of traditional Illinois technology were replaced with European objects as the Illinois adapted to their coexistence with French missionaries and settlers.