Short answers, pulled from the story.
Monks Mound is the largest Precolumbian earthwork north of Mesoamerica and it rises from the floodplains of the Mississippi River near Collinsville, Illinois. This massive structure was built by the Mississippian culture between 900 and 1400 CE and supported a population that rivaled London at its height.
Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet launched a canoe expedition in 1673 that established the foundation for the Middle Ground between 1650 and 1815. The French viewed indigenous peoples as metaphoric children in a familial relationship while the British later attempted to eliminate the gift-giving practices that had sustained these alliances.
Miami Chief Little Turtle and Shawnee chief Blue Jacket led a confederation that routed General Arthur St. Clair's force near the headwaters of the Wabash River in 1791. More than 600 soldiers and scores of women and children were killed in what became known as St. Clair's Defeat.
Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903 and Detroit became the world center of the auto industry by 1900. The city's status was cemented by the proliferation of businesses that produced parts and tires, creating a synergy that encouraged the growth of truck manufacturers like Rapid and Grabowsky.
The Republican Party was founded with its first local meeting held in Ripon, Wisconsin, on the 20th of March 1854. The Midwest was the birthplace of the Republican Party and its political history is a tapestry of ethnic and religious conflicts.
The Midwest contains tallgrass prairie in the wetter eastern region, mixed-grass prairie in the central Great Plains, and shortgrass prairie towards the rain shadow of the Rockies. These three prairie types largely correspond to the corn/soybean area, the wheat belt, and the western rangelands respectively.