For thousands of years, Native tribes settled the region of present-day Chicago. Chegago is a Potawatomi word that described the area’s smell, commonly thought to be wild onions. The land was secured in the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, with the goal of controlling the strategic portage of Lake Michigan to the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase. Fort Dearborn Built by Captain …
Pontiac was an Odawa (Ottawa) Chief who organized a multi-tribe resistance, later known as Pontiac’s War, against the British in the Great Lakes area. Early Life: Pontiac was born in 1720 near the Maumee River in what is now Ohio. There is not a lot known about his early life but by 1755 he was the Odawa Chief. Pontiac had …
Under the 1825 Treaty of Dancing, the Choctaw Academy was established in Blue Springs Kentucky for the education of young Native American men and boys. It was constructed on the property of Colonel Richard Johnson, veteran of the War of 1812 and reputed as the man who killed Tecumseh. Johnson also served as the ninth Vice President under Martin Van …
Chopa was the daughter of Naunongee, respected warrior and leader among the Calumet Potawatomi of southern Lake Michigan. She was also the aunt to famed warriors Mad Sturgeon, White Sturgeon and Clear Day. Upon her marriage to François Chevalier, she took the Christian name of Marianne. Receiving several land grants from the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, the couple settled around …
The Cultural Heritage Center houses the Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s museum, archives, research center & library, Tribal Heritage Productions, veteran memorial, Tribal Language and Tribal Enrollment Departments. It was envisioned as a living history museum and cultural center, where tribal members, the Native American community and the public at large could learn about the culture and history of the Citizen Potawatomi …
Born in Detroit, Coquillard was an explorer and fur trader. He was a veteran of the War of 1812, serving under Major General William Henry Harrison. In 1823, he moved to Indiana’s St. Joseph River Valley and established a trading post near fellow American Fur Company agent Pierre Frieschutz Navarre. Trading with local Potawatomi and Miami communities, Coquillard became one …
The Darling family’s Potawatomi ties began with the marriage of Elizabeth Ouilmette and Lucius (Louis) Ripley Darling. Darling was of Scottish and Irish descent and operated a ferry. He married Elizabeth on July 15, 1836. She was the daughter of Antoine, known as one of the first residents of Chicago, and Archange Chevalier Ouilmette. Archange’s mother, Chopa, was the daughter …
The Dawes Act of 1887, also known as the Dawes Severalty Act or General Allotment Act, was a bill passed by congress to split up communal lands held by tribal nations. The purpose of the bill, as stated by its sponsor Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, was to radically assimilate Native people into white society by introducing individual land-ownership …
The 1493 Doctrine of Discovery guided the colonization of the Americas and became part of U.S. law, history, and Euro-American dominant culture. This doctrine is a set of papals from the late 1400’s put out by the Pope. They are the legal basis for the theft of lands in the non-European world by colonizing European powers and legal justification for …
European colonization was a massive structural event, whereby the imperial powers of Europe including Spain, France, England, the Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal, Denmark, Belgium, and later (in the 1880’s) Germany and Italy, violently invaded the lands of North, South, and Central America, Australia, New Zealand, China, the Philippines, the Caribbean, most of South East Asia, India, the Middle and Near East, …