Interactive map that shows Chicago’s American Indian population and the land acknowledgments by organizations that work with the American Indian community of Chicago.1.) Click on the red squares to read different land acknowledgements from organizations across Chicago; make sure to watch the video! 2.) What geographic features are mentioned in the land acknowledgements and video? 3.) Does anything about the population map surprise you? Map Credit:  UIC IRRPP

American Indian people from many different tribes including the Ojibwe, Ho-Chunk, Potawatomie, Ottawa, Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo have lived in Illinois and the Chicago urban area for over 10,000 years. Today, tribal members from over 150 different tribes reside in urban and rural areas of Illinois, including the Ojibwe, Potawatomie, Lakota, Dakota, Navajo, Zuni, Menominee, Oneida and Choctaw, Cherokee and many others.

Columbus did not discover America. Long before 1492, ancestors of modern native people from over 500 different tribes, lived in complex, formalized societies, and hunted, fished, farmed, and traded on the shores of Lake Michigan and throughout Illinois and the Great Lakes area.

CAICC is a collaborative that includes over 17 organizations that focus on and support Native Americans throughout the Chicagoland area.

Chicago is the traditional homeland of the Council of the Three Fires: The Odawa, Ojibwe and Potawatomi Nations. Many other Tribes like the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac and Fox also called this area home. Located at the intersection of several great waterways, the land naturally became a site of travel and healing for many Tribes. American Indians continue to call this area home and now Chicago is home to the sixth-largest Urban American Indian community that still practices their heritage, traditions and care for the land and waterways. Today, Chicago continues to be a place that calls many people from diverse backgrounds to live and gather here. Despite the many changes the city has experienced, our American Indian community sees the importance of the land and this place that has always been a city home to many diverse backgrounds and perspectives.

Located near the confluence of several waterways, the Newberry Library sits on land that intersects with the aboriginal homelands of several tribal nations: the Council of the Three Fires: the Potawatomi, Odawa, and Ojibwe Nations; the Illinois Confederacy: the Peoria and Kaskaskia Nations; and the Myaamia, Wea, Thakiwaki, and Meskwaki Nations. The Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Kiikaapoi, and Mascouten Nations also call the region of northeast Illinois home. Indigenous people continue to live in this area and celebrate their traditional teachings and lifeways. Today, Chicago is home to one of the largest urban Indigenous communities in the United States, and this land remains an important place for Indigenous peoples. As a Chicago institution, it is the Newberry’s responsibility to acknowledge this historical context and build reciprocal relationships with the tribal nations on whose lands we are situated.

The City of Chicago City Council passed the Land Acknowledgment

Meeting Date: 11/14/2018
Sponsor(s): Ramirez-Rosa (35)
Type: Resolution
Title: Recognition extended to Indigenous peoples of Chicago and American Indian community who continue to practice tribal and inter-tribal traditions
Committee(s) Assignment:

RECOGNIZING ‘ZHIGAAGONG,’ KNOWN TODAY AS ‘CHICAGO’, AS ALWAYS

WHEREAS The City of Chicago acknowledges that Chicago formerly known as Zhigaagong (pronounced ‘Zhi-Gaa-Goo’) to the native people, sits on the edge of multiple ecosystems, including Swamp, Oak Savanna and Prairie with waterways connecting the Mississippi River and Great Lakes;

WHEREAS The City of Chicago acknowledges il sits upon ancestral homeland to the Anishinaabek; Niswi-mishkodewin (Council of the Three Fires): Ojibwe, Odawa, and the Potawatomi along with dozens of tribes who cultivated and molded the land to sustainably suit their needs since time immemorial;

WHEREAS The City of Chicago acknowledges that an acknowledgment of the land is an Indigenous protocol performed on Indigenous lands across the globe;

WHEREAS The City of Chicago acknowledges Anishinaabemowin for providing the names of Chicago and Lake Michigan along with multiple territories, waterways, roads, and parks in and around Chicago;

WHEREAS The City of Chicago acknowledges it was and is a site of trade, travel, and healing for Indigenous peoples since time immemorial;

WHEREAS The City of Chicago acknowledges Indigenous Knowledge Systems and infrastructure continue to be appropriated as the blueprints of Chicago;

WHEREAS The City of Chicago acknowledges that the treaties made with the People of the Three Fires have not been honored, and the destruction and dispossession of land and life of Indigenous peoples continues until this day;

WHEREAS The City of Chicago acknowledges that colonialism is an ongoing structure, we need to build our mindfulness of our present participation, to deconstruct the romanticisms of forced removal and prevent further genocide of remaining Indigenous peoples;

WHEREAS The City of Chicago acknowledges it is currently home to over 75,000 American Indians known as “Urban Indians”, who keep their tribal kinship and cultures spanning from over 150 tribal nations;

WHEREAS The City of Chicago acknowledges and supports the modern Indigenous people of Chicago along with those who view Chicago as their ancestral territory and continue to practice their kinship, culture, harvest their medicines and foods that continue to grow in Chicago; NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED, The City of Chicago acknowledges the land we occupy as Indigenous homelands and have great appreciation and gratitude to those whose territory we occupy; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, The City of Chicago acknowledges the remarkable resilience of the Indigenous peoples and American Indian community that continues to practice their tribal and inter-tribal cultures while flourishing in modern-day Chicago and continue to enhance our great city’s beauty.

Our history as a museum began in 1893, and the Field’s collection, research, and community partners continue to tell a story about nature and culture that is vast and complex. The ways we tell stories are always evolving and are enriched by what we learn from listening to many different voices.

We are committed to bringing Native American voices to the forefront as we transform the Native North America Hall here at the Field. As part of an ongoing effort to celebrate and tell the histories and contemporary experiences of Native American people, we also recognize the Native American presence on the land where our building is located.

We acknowledge that the Field Museum resides within the traditional homelands of many Indigenous nations:

·      Hoocąk (Winnebago/Ho’Chunk), Jiwere (Otoe), Nutachi (Missouria), and Baxoje (Iowas)

·      Kiash Matchitiwuk (Menominee)

·      Myaamiaki (Miami), Waayaahtanwaki (Wea), and Peeyankihšiaki (Piankashaw)

·      Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe), Odawak (Odawa), and Bodéwadmik (Potawatomi)

The Museum recognizes and is grateful for the Original Peoples who laid the foundation for the City of Chicago, and for the diverse Indigenous nations that reside in Chicago today.

When you visit the Field and our outdoor spaces, we invite you to join us in offering respect and gratitude to the many Indigenous peoples that reside in Chicago and across Illinois, as well as their ancestors.

Northwestern is a community of learners situated within a network of historical and contemporary relationships with Native American tribes, communities, parents, students, and alumni. It is also in close proximity to an urban Native American community in Chicago and near several tribes in the Midwest. The Northwestern campus sits on the traditional homelands of the people of the Council of Three Fires, the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa as well as the Menominee, Miami and Ho-Chunk nations. It was also a site of trade, travel, gathering and healing for more than a dozen other Native tribes and is still home to over 100,000 tribal members in the state of Illinois.

It is within Northwestern's responsibility as an academic institution to disseminate knowledge about Native peoples and the institution's history with them. Consistent with the University's commitment to diversity and inclusion, Northwestern works towards building relationships with Native American communities through academic pursuits, partnerships, historical recognitions, community service and enrollment efforts.

We would like to acknowledge that the University of Illinois at Chicago resides on the traditional Territories of the Three Fire Peoples - the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Bodewadmi, purchased after two-and-a-half years of open warfare, decades of violent encroachment, and the defeat of a pan-Indian movement to keep settlers out of the Great Lakes region at the Treaty of Chicago in 1821, receiving their final payment before moving westward in 1835. The area was also a site of trade, gathering, and healing for more than a dozen other Native tribes. 

The state of Illinois is currently home to more than 75,000 tribal members and the Chicagoland area is currently home to one of the largest and most diverse urban Native communities in the U.S. Illinois is also the territory of Ho-Chunk, Miami, Inoka, Menominee, Sac, Fox, and their descendants. 

By making a land acknowledgment, we recognize that Indigenous peoples are the traditional stewards of the land that we now occupy, living here long before Chicago was a city and still thriving here today. As we work, live and play on these territories we must ask what we can do to right the historic wrongs of colonization and state violence, and support Indigenous communities' struggles for self-determination and sovereignty.

Standards for Chicago is Native Land.

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework