High above the Des Moines River’s floodplain, the grasses that sway back and forth in the wind beckon visitors to Iliniwek Village State Historic Site. The site is the only Illinois Indian village site found in Missouri, and thought to be occupied from about 1640 through the late 1670s. Excavations at the site lead archaeologists to believe that perhaps 8,000 people lived in the village at the site when Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette came through the area in 1673. Visitors to the site can walk a short trail to learn more about the village’s inhabitants and the effect settlement had on them.