Chicago is home to one of the largest urban Native American populations in the United States. More than 65,000 Native Americans live in the greater metropolitan area, representing about 175 different tribes.
Native Americans
The report, which concluded a three-year investigation, uncovered that at least 973 children died while under the care of these institutions, with many more expected to have suffered similar fates. These schools were established to forcibly assimilate Native American children — often through violent tactics.
The Prairie Band Potawatomi are now headquartered in northeast Kansas. But they once had a reservation in what is now DeKalb County, a reservation that officials now agree was illegally sold out from under them in 1850.
The bill would authorize the state to hand over what is now Shabbona Lake and State Park to the tribe for $1. It also allows the tribe and the Department of Natural Resources to enter into a land management agreement under which the land would remain open to the public for recreational use for an unspecified period.
Larissa FastHorse is the first Native American woman to have a play produced on Broadway. “The Thanksgiving Play” is now onstage at Steppenwolf Theatre. It’s a satire about earnest theater folks who attempt to stage a historically accurate Thanksgiving play.
“Vigilance: Learning From the Legacies of BIPOC Environmental Leaders” is inspired by the work of Hazel Johnson, a Black Chicagoan known as the mother of the environmental justice movement.
A U.S. Department of the Interior decision places portions of Shab-eh-nay Reservation land, which is located in DeKalb County, into trust for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, which gives the tribal nation sovereignty over the land.
A bill pending in the General Assembly would give back roughly 1,500 acres of park land in DeKalb County to the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. That tribe once occupied much of the Great Lakes region but was forcibly removed in the 19th century.
“What’s disappointing is that it takes a federal law to push institutions and agencies to comply and to even just create consultation with tribes,” said Eli Suzukovich, director of cultural preservation and compliance for the Office for Research at Northwestern University.
Updated federal regulations require museums to obtain “free, prior and informed consent” from affiliated tribes before displaying or doing research on Native human remains or cultural items.
On display at the Newberry Library are selections from “History of the Indian Tribes of North America,” a set of early 19th century books rich with imagery. It’s one of the earliest and best records of what Indigenous people, including Seneca and Black Hawk, actually looked like.
Tommy Orange’s novel, “There There,” has been chosen as the latest selection for the Chicago Public Library’s One Book, One Chicago program. The book, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, tells the story of Native American life, not as it existed centuries ago, but as it does now.
The Center for Native Futures was founded by artists on a mission to make an epicenter of Native creativity. The inaugural exhibition showcases dynamic work from artists representing 19 Native tribes.
Filmed at the Willis Tower, on the lakeshore at the Promontory Point with the city’s skyline in the background and other locations, “Skywalkers” is set to play on a permanent loop as art of a large public commission to Chicago artists.
Centuries After Native American Remains Were Dug Up, a New Law Returns Them for Reburial in Illinois
Key to the measure is first-time authority for tribes to rebury recovered remains in Illinois, which they much prefer to relocating them to states to which the U.S. government forced their relocation nearly two centuries ago.
At a bill signing ceremony in Schaumburg, Pritzker highlighted three historic sites that were significant in Native American history in Illinois.
