In Illinois a period of decadence set in for the next few centuries (possibly 250 to 1000 A.D.). The larger settlements or settlement clusters dwindled to mere hamlets, whose remains are scarcely distinguishable from the early Woodland artifacts except that the tobacco pipe is present. Though they must still have retained a tradition of plant-raising, they seem to have avoided it and reverted to a pure hunting-collecting economy. Even in southern Illinois the storage of food seems to have played an insignificant role. Nevertheless throughout this cultural recession, certain trends occur in all the six Final Woodland subcultures which foreshadow later developments in the Middle (Mississippi) Phase. [Illustration: Fig. 38. The Stream of Culture. The archaeological cultures within Illinois are included within the two heavy lines, openings in which indicate cultural extensions beyond or intrusions into the state. Vertical positions indicate sequences in a general way. (Drawing by Jeanne McCarty.)] About 1000 A.D. or possibly a little earlier, the Final Woodland developed into an early Protomississippi (Protomiss) and, at last, (possibly 1000 to 1100 A.D.) into the full-blown Middle Phase civilization. The Cahokia subculture appears to be primarily, though not exclusively, Illinoisian while the Cumberland development in the southeast of the state was shared more generously with adjacent Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. Judging by the distribution of stone box (cist) graves, the Cumberland subculture seems to have expanded westward at the expense of the Cahokia peoples to envelope most of the southern counties from Monroe to White. (Another interpretation might be that the grave type of their eastern Cumberland neighbors was adopted by the Cahokians.) The Crable Village, possibly a late Cahokian settlement, yields artifacts suggesting cultural influences brought in from Iowa, Missouri and possibly Arkansas. It is probable that the culture came to an end in Illinois by 1500 or 1550. This fact coupled with the pottery evidence makes it highly probable (though possibly not conclusive) that the disorganized Illini Confederacy embraced the tribes whose members were the descendants of the people of the great Middle Phase civilization in Illinois. More or less contemporaneous with the Middle Phase culture were the so-called Upper Phase peoples of Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. These were represented in Illinois by the Fisher peoples of the Langford subculture known chiefly from sites along the Illinois, Kankakee and Des Plaines rivers in northeastern Illinois and (chiefly on a pottery basis) in northwestern Indiana and southern Michigan.