Indigenous Chicago

Information for Chicago Tour Guides

Evidence shows that many people learn Chicago history from visits to historic sights and tours. However, since a lot of the information that tour guides use comes from the built environment, it is a challenge to accurately discuss Indigenous history in that context. Many of the myths and falsehoods about Indigenous Chicago are also overrepresented on the buildings and monuments in Chicago–further misrepresenting the truth. While we hope the other information on our website is helpful, we have put together this page to provide more readily usable information for tour guides in Chicago.

Unceded Land

Sovereignty: The land along Chicago’s lakefront is still unceded. Most of the land in Chicago was ceded in a series of treaties from 1795 to 1832. Each treaty lists Lake Michigan as the eastern boundary, but everything east of Michigan Avenue did not exist when the treaties were signed, and thus remains unceded. Members of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi sued the City of Chicago in 1917 in a case that went to the Supreme Court and was decided against them. However, in 2024, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation reclaimed a 130 acres of a 1,280 acre tract in DeKalb County that was illegally auctioned off by the federal government, making them the first federally recognized reservation in Illinois. Native nations who were removed from this land still retain their connections to this place.

Further Resources: Removal Map and Treaties Map

The Chicago River

Native Lifeways: The Chicago River was the entrance to a portage between the Chicago and Des Plaines Rivers, an important piece of infrastructure for Native peoples since the beginning of time. The river was one of many paths for seasonal travel and regional trade. Before the 1800s, the river flowed into the lake after curving south, creating a shallow sand bar ideal for canoes and many plant and animal species. Beginning in the 1820s, it was straightened, rerouted, and reversed.

You may hear people say that Chicago is named after “the Algonquian name” for wild onion or a similar allium, but this is a misnomer. Though many of the place names for Chicago do reference wild onions, or “ramps,” there is no single Algonquian word for such a plant, because “Algonquian” refers to a large group of languages. There are many Algonquian words for the place now called Chicago. 

DuSable and Marquette

Discovery Myths: Native people had been using the Chicago River and portage long before the first Europeans arrived. However, most representations of the so-called “discovery” of the city center French Jesuit priest Father Jacques Marquette. In reality, Kaskaskia people of the larger Illinois Confederation led Marquette through the portage in 1673. Marquette’s likeness is found on multiple reliefs in the city, such as on the DuSable Bridge and the Marquette building. These images consistently feature Marquette as standing and Native people stooped below him, perpetuating an image of the white settler as the leader and the Native guides as subservient.

Founding Myths: Jean Baptiste Point DuSable’s (or de Sable) marriage to Kitihawa (Potawatomi) is an important example of early kinship between Black and Native communities. However, narratives that center DuSable as the founder of Chicago erase the significant impact that Kitihawa likely had on his ability to survive and trade in the area. He and Kitihawa set up a fur trading post on the Chicago River in the 1780s, and she likely served as his translator, guide, and connection to Native kinship networks.

Fort Dearborn

Massacre Myths: Fort Dearborn was a military outpost built in 1803 on land ceded to the US government at the 1795 Treaty of Greenville. The fort was created to establish military control over the fur trade on the Chicago River. During the time of the fort’s occupation, many Native villages in the region were attacked by US military forces including the village of the leader of an intertribal movement, Tecumseh (Shawnee). Tecumseh recruited several Chicago Native leaders to join his movement, and they coordinated a series of attacks on US forts in the summer of 1812, including an attack on Fort Dearborn. This attack was strategically timed with the evacuation of the fort, which was occurring as a result of the War of 1812. US soldiers and civilians were attacked just a few miles from the fort in a brutal 15 minute battle. However, some were also rescued by Native people like Archange Ouilmette. The Battle of Fort Dearborn was called a “massacre” for many years in order to associate Native people with unprovoked violence, but it was one of many battles during the period in which Native people fought on both sides.

Native Organizations Today

Erasure: Though many Native communities were removed from Chicago in the 1830s, Native people have consistently returned to and continue to live in Chicago today. Chicago was one of five original relocation sites for Native people in the voluntary relocation program (1952-1972) run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Relocation Act of 1956. In its first nine years the program relocated almost 5,000 Native people to Chicago from their home communities. Uptown was the main neighborhood where Native families moved, and many organizations, including the Chicago American Indian Center (AIC) were founded to support the expanding Native community. Many of these organizations are still open today, and work together through the Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative (CAICC) a delegation of fifteen organizations that share the goal to meet the current and future needs of Native people in Chicago.