The RHS Facebook page is a rich archive of history-related posts by Carol Flynn, RHS Facebook admin and writer until mid-2025. Carol prolifically wrote a wide variety of meticulously researched local history articles for RHS. She continues to write for the Beverly Review and other media sources with articles particularly focused on local Ridge history.
Native Americans and the Blue Island Ridge
Native Americans and the Blue Island Ridge – Part 18Conclusion – Land Acknowledgement Statement
A suggested Land Acknowledgement Statement for an organization, business, or individual on the Ridge (like the Ridge Historical Society) would be:
“We acknowledge that we are located on the ancestral homelands of the Potawatomi tribe, a member of the Council of Three Fires with the Ojibwe and Odawa Peoples. Other tribes that lived in the Blue Island area include the Miami and the Illinois Confederation. Many additional tribes including the Fox, Sauk, Winnebago, Menominee, Meskwaki, and Kickapoo lived nearby and accessed the area for trading and portage routes.”
The rationale for this statement is that the Potawatomi were the dominant Native Americans living around the Blue Island area in 1833 at the time of the signing of the Treaty of Chicago. The Council of Three Fires, a confederation of the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi tribes, ceded the land to the U.S. Government at that time. The Miami tribe also had a presence here, concurrent with the Potawatomi, and before that, until the late 1700s, tribes from the Illinois Confederation lived in the area until driven out by the Miami and Potawatomi.
Many other tribes lived nearby. This land is located on the Vincennes Trace and Calumet waterways, and the land and water routes were used for trading and transportation/migration. These tribes included the Fox, Sauk, Winnebago, Menominee, Meskwaki, and Kickapoo.
Just this month, a research article in the journal Science reported that fossilized footprints found at White Sands National Park, New Mexico, date back 21,000 to 23,000 years. This puts humans in North America thousands of years earlier than thought.
However, Native Americans are not relics of the past. The 2020 U.S. Census reported 9.7 million American Indians and Alaska Natives in the U.S. population.
Understanding the history of Native Americans is critical, and sharing information like this series to educate the community is the role of an organization like RHS. Other organizations, businesses, schools, churches, and individuals share the responsibility to evaluate their commitment to the present and future issues of this group of American citizens.
Image:
Sharon Hoogstraten, a professional photographer who now lives in Chicago, is a tribal member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Through her exhibit “Dancing for My Tribe” she documented and preserved Potawatomi culture.
The exhibit, made up of individual portraits of contemporary Potawatomi in their regalia, conveys the story of a modern people preserving the traditional dress of their ancestors. Regalia is traditional tribal dress that identifies a person and tells his or her individual story, not a costume for pretense. No two examples of regalia are alike.
The exhibit premiered in 2014 at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel at the University of Chicago.
This is one entry from the exhibit, from the Artist’s Statement. The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi in Michigan is the group living closest to Chicago.
Native Americans and the Blue Island Ridge – Part 17Native Americans after the 1830s
According to John H. Volp in his book “The First Hundred Years – 1835 to 1935 – Historical Review of Blue Island, Illinois,” many young Native Americans started moving west before the 1830s, and most of the Native Americans left the Chicago area in 1835. However, some of those living around the Blue Island Ridge clung to their ancestral grounds until 1847, when a caravan of thirty-five to forty wagons departed the area.
Up until the 1860s, some returned to visit their seasonal homes. In 1835, the Potawatomi who left Chicago moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa. From there, some migrated to Wisconsin and Michigan.
Native Americans fought on both sides of the U.S. Civil War. The most famous Native American unit in the Union army in the east was Company K of the 1st Michigan Sharpshooters. Most of this unit were Ojibwa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi – the Council of Three Fires. There is a likelihood they included Indians who had lived in or were descended from those who had lived in Chicago.
Company K was known for its marksmanship and strategic fighting capabilities. The Indians taught the white soldiers how to camouflage themselves and infiltrate the enemy. They were highly esteemed for their service.
Native Americans had a presence at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, also known as the Columbian Expedition. Many of the exhibits that involved Native Americans that were staged by whites, including the independent Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show, portrayed negative stereotypes of American Indians as primitive, savage aggressors.
However, several Native American groups used the Fair to represent themselves, their cultures, and their handiwork. The Inuit people set up their own village outside of the fairgrounds, and the Navajo weavers made decent money selling their rugs. Other tribes also sold work to collectors.
Simon Pokagon, the chief of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians in Michigan, was a celebrity at the Fair, popular with the high society of Chicago. He was an author and activist trying to get the U.S. government to honor the treaties that had been signed with Native Americans. He gave a speech to 75,000 people that was published in the Chicago Tribune.
Pokagon began pressing land claims to the lakefront on behalf of the Potawatomi people. The area in question was the section known as Streeterville, built on landfill. The land claims were carried on after Pokagon’s death in 1899, but the U.S. never recognized any ownership of that land by Native Americans.
While there were always Native Americans in Chicago, the Indian Relocation Act of 1956 brought Native Americans back to Chicago in significant numbers. The intent of this law was to encourage Native Americans to leave reservations and their traditional lands and assimilate into the general population in urban areas. The tribal status of numerous groups was terminated at this time.
Chicago was an obvious relocation city, supposedly offering employment, education, and housing opportunities. However, Native Americans across the country quickly learned that not only were the opportunities not there, they faced discrimination in employment and housing. The American Indian Center was founded in Chicago to provide both social services and a gathering place for people faced with drastic life changes.
Today, it is reported that 65,000 Native Americans representing 175 tribes live in the greater metropolitan area of Chicago. The majority lives on the North Side.
As for Native Americans in the Ridge communities, depending on the source, the population of Native Americans or “Other” which includes Native Americans is less than 1%. One source lists 0% for Mount Greenwood and Washington Heights, 0.4% for Beverly, 0.9% for Morgan Park, and 0.8% for Blue Island.
Many Native Americans intermarried with other nationalities and may identify with other groups on census forms. The people of Native American heritage in Ridge communities who have introduced themselves to the Ridge Historical Society are of mixed-race background and assimilated into mainstream business and society, and also celebrate their Native American roots.
Next post: Conclusion, Land Acknowledgement Statement for the Ridge
Native Americans and the Blue Island Ridge – Part 16Captain Billy Caldwell aka Chief Sauganash
While there is documentation of Native American sites all around the Blue Island Ridge, no historical records have been located that identify individual Indians who lived in the area. However, there are references that the area was frequented by Captain Billy Caldwell, also known as Chief Sauganash, a notable figure from Chicago’s earliest days.
Caldwell was born in the early 1780s near Fort Niagara in New York, from a marriage between a high-ranking Native American woman, variously identified as Potawatomi or Mohawk, and a Scots-Irish officer in the British Army during the Revolutionary War. This type of union was not uncommon, but such marriages were rarely recognized as “legitimate” in the white community. Caldwell’s father later settled in Canada, married a white woman from settler stock, and raised a white family. Billy was taken to live with the white family and received formal education. He forged his own life and left Canada after his father’s death.
Caldwell was commissioned as a captain in the Indian Department of Canada during the War of 1812. He made his way to Chicago where he was accepted by the local Potawatomis and he befriended the earliest white settlers. The name Sauganash was given to him by the Indians, loosely translated as “one who speaks English.” He was known to the European traders and settlers as the “Irish Indian.” He was well respected, referred to as Captain Caldwell. Being well-educated and speaking English, French, and several Native American dialects well, his services as a guide and translator were often sought out.
Although his life story is rich, we will only concentrate on Caldwell’s known involvement with the Blue Island Ridge.
According to James Bucklin, chief engineer of the I & M Canal project, Caldwell originated the idea of the Cal-Sag Channel. A passageway between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River had long been sought. The I & M Canal was built to connect the Chicago River to the Illinois River as one leg of the journey. Feeder canals were built to keep water flowing into the canal, and one came from the Calumet River in Blue Island. Bucklin wrote in a report referring to the 1830s: “From Billy Caldwell, a half-breed with some education and great intelligence, who had explored the country in every direction, I often procured valuable information during my exploration. It was he who first suggested making a feeder of the Calumet River.”
Caldwell helped survey the Vincennes road in 1832-33. This was the earliest road that ran through the Blue Island area and connected Chicago with trading posts to the east.
A recounting of a survey party by J. P. Hathaway, Jr., dated July 23, 1833, documents just one visit to the Blue Island by Captain Caldwell others. They found a log house on the Ridge, and the owners not being home, milked the cows and made dinner with ham and bread. They continued south to Stony Creek, at the southern tip of the Blue Island, “a delightful place, commanding a view of thousands of acres of prairie and patches of timber. At this point, there were Indian graves.”
They forded the creek in the area around what is now Western Avenue. Later, returning north, they decided to recross opposite their first encampment. However, the horse got away and their wagon was swamped, and they lost most of their provisions. Continuing north, they found the folks of the log cabin at home, and purchased a pan of milk for supper. They spent a wet night on the ground, keeping the fire going all night. They were back in Chicago by eight o’clock the next night “with keen appetites for regular living again.”
In 1870, John D. Caton, a lawyer and judge on the Illinois Supreme Court, read a paper before the Chicago Historical Society on “The Last of the Illinois, and a Sketch of the Pottawatomies.” In this first-person account, he related, “…[W]hen riding over the prairie south of Blue Island, in 1833, with Billy Caldwell, … the old chief as usual was answering my questions about the past and what portion of the country he had visited. …[H]e commenced giving an account of an expedition of the British from Canada across to Ohio, of which he and a number of his warriors formed a part ….”
Caldwell was instrumental in negotiating the 1833 Treaty of Chicago that led the Potawatomi to peacefully leave the area. He moved with them to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he reportedly died in the early 1840s, although his gravesite is not known.
Both his white and Indian names grace locations around the Chicago area, including Caldwell Woods, Billy Caldwell Golf Course, Caldwell Avenue, the Sauganash neighborhood on the North side, and Sauganash Park.
There are no photographs to be found of Billy Caldwell. There were some sketches and paintings done after his death. This likeness was invented for a cigar brand made by a Chicago company. From the collection of C. Flynn.
The tobacco and cigar industry was very important in the past. By the 1860s, there were more than 200 cigar makers in Chicago. By 1900, there were over 40,000 cigar makers in the country. Many of these were small operations out of homes. But the numbers started to decline in the 1930s for several reasons – the Great Depression, increased use of machinery replacing hand-rolling, rationing of tobacco during World War II, the release of cancer studies, and the embargo on doing business with Cuba which led many cigar makers to leave the country.
Next: Native Americans after the 1830s
Native Americans and the Blue Island Ridge – Part 15Native American Stories and Artifacts on the Ridge
The known sites connected with Native Americans on and around the Blue Island Ridge as indicated on an 1804 map were covered in the last post.
Most of the Native Americans left the Chicago area in the 1830s. Some stayed, of course, and there were even exceptions to the treaties that allowed some chiefs and their groups to remain in certain locations. Some returned annually for a while to their summer home grounds. But they were no longer a dominant presence in the area.
The white settlers who followed the Native Americans recorded various versions of “history” and found artifacts. These are a few of the more interesting stories.
John H. Volp shared a number of stories about the Native Americans in the Ridge area in his book “The First Hundred Years – 1835 to 1935 – Historical Review of Blue Island – Illinois.”
He reported that the Native American villages and sites at the southern tip of the Ridge (called Blue Island and Wildwood to the immediate east, now a part of the City of Blue Island) were the site of a battle in 1769 between the Ottawa and Potawatomi against the Illinois Confederation. The story goes that the Illinois people were ultimately driven to the landmass that became known as Starved Rock, where they were surrounded and isolated, and most of them perished from starvation. This removed the Illinois people from the Chicago area. However, as much as the story of Starved Rock has appeared in Illinois historical lore, researchers today doubt its accuracy. The story has passed down through oral means but there is no other documentation to support it.
Local histories in the Ridge Historical Society collection include reports that early settlers found many Native American artifacts in the area. Postholes were reported being found in the 1840s at what is now the east side of Hale Avenue, between 104th and 105th Streets, and stone tools were found in the area.
The History of Cook County published by A. T. Andreas in 1884 includes this entry: “The neighborhood of Washington Heights also claims some archaeological importance. Since 1859 the members of the Barnard family alone have collected 36 flint arrow-heads, two battle axes, a spearhead, several pieces of ancient pottery, and other evidences of the former savage residents. The remnants of pottery were found in a small mound surrounded by large cobble-stones, and embraced, as it were, within the roots of a small oak tree which sprang up from the mound.”
The location and significance of this mound are not known.
One clarification of local folklore needs to be addressed, concerning the Hopkinson-Platt House at 108th and Drew Streets. The house was built in the 1870s, and Dr. Robert and Mrs. Harriet Platt moved into the house in the 1920s. Dr. Platt (1891-1964) was a geography professor at the University of Chicago, and Mrs. Platt (1899-1979) traveled with him, and also tended to the many foreign students and refugees they invited to live with them.
Mrs. Platt claimed an oak tree in the yard of the house was 800 years old and was the site of Native American councils. She called it the “Council Oak” and there is a plaque installed in the yard. The tree blew down in a storm in 1988.
Whether or not the tree was a “council oak” cannot be verified. That species of oak tree has only about a 200-year lifespan, 300 years at best, not 800 years. That means it was old enough to be growing at that spot during the time of Native Americans prior to 1833, but it would have been a younger tree, and there would have been older and bigger trees for use for council meetings.
The land included with that property has never been developed and excavation would be very interesting.
Native American sites are being excavated in the forest preserves surrounding Chicago, the only land that has not been totally lost to development. In the area of the Ridge, excavation was reportedly going on at an undisclosed location in the Joe Louis Golf Course, which is located in the Whistler Woods Forest Preserve, along the Calumet River, just southeast of the Ridge.
Next post: Captain Billy Caldwell aka Chief Sauganash
Native Americans and the Blue Island Ridge – Part 14Native American Sites Around the Blue Island Ridge
This is a continuation of the series on the historical presence of Native Americans on and around the Blue Island ridge. The purpose of the series is not only to educate the community but also to help those organizations developing Land Acknowledgement Statements.
At the time white settlers arrived on the Ridge, the land was primarily being used by the Potawatomi people. The land had been used before that by other tribes – the Miami, the Illinois Confederation, the Sauk, the Fox, and the Kickapoo.
There were documented Native American sites around the Blue Island Ridge. There were also stories about Native Americans in the area in oral and written histories.
A map from 1804, reproduced and updated in 1900, shows the early Native American trails and villages of the Chicago area, and surrounding counties. Washington Heights and Blue Island are delineated, and the Blue Island is outlined.
On the full map, the Blue Island Ridge area is marked by the black square. The legend of the map shows the symbols. The vast wetlands between the Ridge area and Lake Michigan are evident on the map.
On the close-up of the map, the northern tip of the Ridge, roughly 87th Street and Western Avenue, is identified as number 1. This land is now included in the Dan Ryan Forest Preserve of the Forest Preserves District of Cook County (FPDCC). An Indian camp and signal station are shown there. The Ridge area is the highest elevation in Chicago, about 60 feet higher than downtown Chicago. From here, the surrounding territory could be observed for many miles around, all the way to “downtown” where Fort Dearborn stood, 12 miles to the northeast.
There are no other designations on this map for an Indian establishment on the top of the Ridge. There is some mention of an early map that includes the word “manitou” on the top of the Ridge. In general, because there are many Native American groups with varied beliefs, the Indigenous Peoples believed in a Great Creator, and they interacted with the Creator through spirits called manitous. Each individual had a personal manitou, and there were also manitous that resided in natural objects, such as the sun, trees, and rocks, that helped everyone. It would be consistent that a unique table of land like the Blue Island Ridge housed a manitou.
The southern end of the Blue Island is designated as number 2, where there was a major Indian village on the Stony Creek. The creek at that location is now part of the Cal-Sag Channel. There is also a circle that shows there was an Indian mound there, which likely was a burial site.
The mound builders were actually in the historic period before the Pottawatomi so this shows it was a Native American site for a long time. Another old document mentioned Native American “cemeteries” in Blue Island and to the east, but reported they “vanished” with time. Mounds in the Calumet region in Indiana were destroyed for farmland and this likely happened here also.
A portage trail is shown as number 3 on the map. This ran across the top of the Ridge, an overland route connecting the waterways to the east to the Stony Creek. It ran along what is now about 103rd Street. Portages were used to carry canoes overland where there were dry gaps between waterways.
The Vincennes Trail is marked by number 4. The Vincennes Trace or Trail, a major trail originally formed by migrating buffalo that was well known and used by Native Americans and later by European traders and settlers, ran through Kentucky and Indiana, and into Illinois. It was named the Vincennes Trail by white traders because a major location on the trail was Vincennes, Indiana, a city founded by French fur traders on land inhabited for thousands of years by Indigenous People.
In Illinois, the trail ran south of the Blue Island Ridge, and a branch split off, heading north/south to/from the area which became known as Chicago. Parts of the original trail became Chicago’s State Street and Vincennes Avenue.
This branch that ran north/south to the Chicago area had two paths – one ran along the top of the Blue Island Ridge and a second path ran on the east side below the Ridge. A marker at 91st Street and South Pleasant Avenue indicates the original path, now lost, on top of the Ridge. The lower path eventually evolved into today’s Vincennes Avenue.
The southern Indian Boundary line mentioned previously, established in 1816, is number 5 on the map. There were two boundary lines – a north and a south one. The land in between the two lines defined the territory that could be used by settlers, and the land outside the boundary lines defined the territory that could be used by the Native Americans. The southern Indian Boundary Line was established running diagonally from the northeast to the southwest, passing just below the southern tip of the Ridge, thereby including the Ridge in the settlers’ territory. The land to the east and south of the line was for Native American use.
Next post: Other stories about the Native Americans on the Ridge.
Native Americans and the Blue Island Ridge – Part 13Games and Trade
The Potawatomi Indians, the major presence in the Chicago area by the 1830s when European settlers started moving to the Blue Island area, enjoyed games and sports. They were important pastime activities and formed connections within and between tribal communities.
Gambling games were popular and could go on for days. Men played a game known as straws in which the number of straws in bundles was guessed. Women played a game with plum stones marked on one side. The stones were tossed in a small bowl and points were assigned for the stones that landed with the markings face up.
The sport of lacrosse was invented by Native Americans. A wooden tree knot was used as a ball and the object of the game was to score goals by throwing and catching this ball in a small basket made from buffalo sinew that was attached to the end of a three-foot-long wooden pole or racket.
Lacrosse was considered a symbolic warrior game, played for the honor of the tribe. Teams of hundreds of members played on large fields. It was a violent game and players could be severely injured and even killed. Men and women both played the sport.
The Potawatomi were avid traders. Information and technology were traded back then just as they are now.
The Potawatomi were expert canoe builders, making good use of the birch trees found locally. They traded this knowledge and technology with other tribes and European traders for goods, and for information and technology on growing crops.
The canoes also gave the Potawatomi considerable freedom of movement that other tribes did not have. They were able to travel long distances through Midwest waterways to reach trading sites. With the introduction of horses by the Europeans, the Potawatomi became less reliant on travel by water, and were able to expand their trading and hunting opportunities.
The most important harvested trade items were furs. For several hundred years, fur trading drove the economy in the land that would become the northern United States and Canada. Beaver, especially valued for making hats, were overhunted to the point they became locally extinct. Deer, bear, mink, and skunk were also valuable.
In addition to economic benefits, the fur trade became important for forging alliances between the Europeans and the Native Americans. However, the competition between Native American groups to meet the demand of the Europeans for furs led to considerable inter-tribal conflict.
The Indians traded furs for guns, alcohol, glass beads, silk ribbon, and cloth, items introduced by the Europeans that were novel to the Native Americans.
The interest in beads and ribbons is sometimes trivialized as valuing “trinkets” but in reality, the Indigenous Peoples already had what they needed for subsistence so there was little in that way to get from the Europeans.
Guns were new to the Native Americans and the advantage of this technology over bows and arrows for hunting and warfare quickly became apparent to them. The gun trade became highly competitive for the European colonists and the Indians. Many tribes amassed arsenals superior to those of the settlers.
Perhaps no product was more controversial than alcohol when it came to trade between the Europeans and the Native Americans. Alcohol was not unknown to Indians; various cultures had been making weak beers, wines, and other drinks from plants and grains for thousands of years, but these were generally used for spiritual, medicinal, and ceremonial purposes, not for personal entertainment and intoxication. The Native Americans were totally unprepared for the potent alcoholic beverages like rum, brandy, and whiskey introduced by the European settlers.
Many Native Americans responded with distaste and mistrust as unscrupulous white traders pushed alcohol on them, and many tribal leaders recognized the dangers and called for abstinence. Nonetheless, alcohol became a destabilizing force in Native American communities and created serious health issues both before and after forced relocation. Laws were passed banning the sale of alcohol to Indians, but these laws were ignored and circumvented.
Although much ado has been made historically about alcohol consumption within the Native American communities, in truth, alcohol consumption was extremely prevalent in the white communities also. By 1830, an average of 7.1 gallons of absolute alcohol was consumed annually per individual of drinking age in the white community. Today, that average is about 2.3 gallons per person per year.
It’s often reported that, going back to medieval times, alcoholic beverages were made and consumed because local water supplies were not clean for drinking, but this has been largely disputed and debunked. Even in medieval times, people knew that boiling water got rid of bad odors and tastes, even if they did not realize they were killing harmful organisms.
It’s also reported that alcohol was believed to have medicinal properties and drinking it was “healthy.” This was the case with smoking tobacco for many years, also. Of course, tobacco was first discovered and cultivated by Native Americans and then introduced to the Europeans. Tobacco, which was used by Native Americans in religious ceremonies and for sealing agreements with other tribes, was an early trading item between Native Americans and white settlers until settlers started growing their own tobacco crops.
Next: Documented Native American sites in the Blue Island Ridge area
Native Americans and the Blue Island Ridge – Part 12Food and Other Resources
About 60% of the food crops grown throughout the world originated with the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. These include corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, sunflowers, wild rice, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, peanuts, avocados, papayas, potatoes, cacao, and many more foods.
The Calumet Region around the southern part of Lake Michigan, which extended west to include the Blue Island Ridge, and the land to the west and south of the Ridge, abounded with natural resources. Ecosystems in the area at the time included extensive marshes and wetlands, prairies, and forests of different types of oak, walnut, hickory, elm, maple, and some pine trees.
The Potawatomi engaged in all types of food and resource procurement. They hunted and fished; they gathered wild food plants and cultivated crops; and they used other plants and natural items for building and toolmaking.
The seasons set the activities. In spring, the Potawatomi tapped maple trees for sugar. In spring and summer, the communities came together to plant and grow crops, and to socialize. In the fall, harvesting crops and gathering wild plants took place. Fishing was a year-round activity. In winter, smaller groups went off on their own, and most of their time was spent in making and repairing belongings, and story telling and oral history sessions around the fire.
Using bow and arrow, the Potawatomi hunted deer, elk, beaver, and small game and fur-bearing animals such as rabbits, squirrels, muskrats, and mink. Prairie birds included wild turkeys, grouse, partridges, quail, pigeons, and prairie chickens. Waterfowl visited the marshes annually. In spring, larger hunting parties went after buffalo. Bears were in the area, and predators such as wolves, lynx, bobcats, and the occasional mountain lion were all hunted.
In addition to the meat from the animals, deer skins were used for pants, shirts, dresses, and moccasins. Winter clothing was made from buffalo hides and furs. Plants were used for dyes for clothing. Porcupine quills were used as embroidery needles. Bird feathers and shells decorated clothing, and after the 1600s, beads and silk ribbons from the European traders were used. Red and black paints made from plants were used for facial and body painting and tattoos.
Many types of trees provided resources. The Potawatomi were renowned as canoe builders, using the bark of birch trees. Birch bark was also used to build homes. Floor mats were woven from reeds and cattails, and baskets and bags were made from hickory bark and animal skins. Mussel shells were used as utensils.
Musical instruments included drums made from hollow logs covered with animal skins, rattles made from deer hooves, and wooden or bone flutes.
In addition to Lake Michigan, the system of small lakes (Calumet, Wolf) and rivers and streams (the Calumet rivers, Stony Creek) teemed with fish – trout, white fish, pike. The Potawatomi used spears and nets for fishing.
Wild fruit and nut trees and bushes were plentiful in season. Red and yellow plums, crabapples, haws, grapes, sassafras, and pawpaws were all to be found. The marshes and sand hills provided cranberries, huckleberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, whortleberries, raspberries, roseberries, gooseberries, currants, and winter berries. The sugar from the maple trees was used to sweeten the fruit. Native Americans used berries in tea, puddings, soups, cakes, muffins, and jam.
Nuts included hazelnuts, hickory nuts, white and black walnuts, and beech nuts. Nuts were pounded into flour for bread.
The wild rice that grew in the marshes all around the area not only was gathered as a food item by the Indians, but it also attracted the migrating waterfowl the Indians hunted – ducks including mallards, shovellers, blue-winged teals, and mergansers; coots; geese; and herons.
Greens that the Indians gathered included dandelions, lamb’s quarters, and stinging nettles. Roots included wild artichokes, milkweed, arrowhead, and wild dill. These items were not only very nutritious, many possessed medicinal qualities. Other medicinal plants that were gathered included ironweed, culver’s root, and prairie snakeroot.
The Potawatomi grew corn, beans, squash, peas, melons, pumpkins, onions, and tobacco.
Corn was the most important crop the Potawatomi grew, both for eating and for trade. Corn, squash, and beans were called the “three sisters” and were staples of the diet. They were often grown together and combined together in dishes. Corn was a sacred food for Native Americans, and it went by different names that all meant “life.” It was served at almost every meal in one form or another.
One example of a corn dish from the Native Americans was rockahominie. This was corn pounded to remove the skins, boiled, and served with salt or maple sugar. Today this is a version of “hominy grits.” They also dried corn and ground it into meal to thicken the soups and stews they prepared.
The Potawatomi developed agricultural techniques including the controlled burning off of foliage, which aided hunting as well as killed pests and cleared land for farming; and ridged fields or garden beds that allowed for better drainage. Food, including meat, fish, and vegetables, was dried and stored over winter in birch bark containers.
Native Americans used tobacco for ceremonial purposes. The manitou spirits were believed to be very fond of tobacco, so it was offered to them to ask for or give thanks for help, either as dried gifts or through smoke from pipes. It was also used to seal peace treaties and agreements between tribes and between individuals. Tobacco was smoked in ceremonial pipes, the stem of which was called the “calumet” by the French traders, and this is the origin of the name for this entire southside region.
Next: Trade, games, and other aspects of Potawatomi life on the Ridge
Native Americans and the Blue Island Ridge – Part 11Gender Roles
There were specific gender roles in the Native American groups that inhabited the Calumet region.
In addition to being responsible for childcare and the home, women were in charge of agriculture and food, a vital aspect of village life. They managed the sowing, cultivation, and harvesting of crops. Typically, the women in the families were the “owners” of specific crop fields although the fields were often communally farmed and harvested. Men were expected to help with the clearing and harvesting of the fields. The entire tribe gathered wild fruits, nuts, and medicinal plants.
Men were responsible for hunting and fishing. Women built the temporary structures used for homes during seasonal hunting trips. Women did the tanning of the hides and dyed them different colors using roots and plants.
Local hunting was done by individuals or small groups of men. In spring, larger groups hunted buffalo on the prairies. Deer were often hunted at night. Potawatomi used spears to fish at night with torches of cedar soaked in pine pitch.
There were generally more women than men in a tribe, as men were lost through hunting and fishing accidents and warfare. Polygamy was practiced – a man could have several wives but he was expected to be able to provide for all of them. Infidelity was frowned upon for both sexes. Women could be subjected to physical mutilation or group rape for breaking the tribe’s norms. Men were subjected to the loss of their personal possessions for the same crimes.
The Potawatomi were organized into clans, or smaller family-based units, considered descended from a non-human ancestor, usually an animal. The lineage of a clan was from the male side, but ties to the mother’s family were also important. People did not marry within their own clan, and a woman usually joined her husband’s clan upon marriage. The intermarriages between clans created important links. The Potawatomi freely married members of the Ojibwe and Odawa tribes, their confederates in the Council of Three Fires.
Women rarely served in formal leadership roles. Occasionally one might be a village chief but never a hunting or warfare chief. They had a voice in selecting chiefs, however, and it was reported that in some tribes, it was the women who actually selected the chief.
Women could become powerful healers, and older, experienced “medicine women” held a lot of power in a tribe along with the “medicine men.”
We’ll talk more about games and pastimes of the Native Americans in the area in a future post. These tended to be games of physical prowess, in which the men participated, and gambling games, which the women, as well as men, played. There were specific ceremonial dice games that only women played.
As for the arts, Potawatomi women were, and still are, known for their basket making, using black ash, sweetgrass, and birch bark. Their beadwork and embroidery also became recognized starting in the 1600s with the introduction of glass beads, ribbon, and fabrics, brought by the Europeans. The Potawatomi were also known for their birchbark canoes. These were goods used by the tribe and also traded in commerce. It was the men who did the actual trading with other tribes and the Europeans.
As far as gender identities, Native American tribes recognized as many as five genders, before the Europeans came. These were male and female, “two-spirited” males and females, and transgenders. It was not considered a moral issue; some people were born with the spirits of both sexes or the spirit of the other sex and it was natural to express that. There were many observations of male tribe members who dressed like and took on women’s roles, and of “Hunting Women” who had wives and were fierce warriors. Indians believed that a person who was able to see the world through the eyes of both genders at the same time was a gift from the Creator and often these people had special status in society.
Next: The staples of existence for the Ridge Native Americans – food, clothing, etc.
Native Americans and the Blue Island Ridge – Part 10Spirituality of the Calumet Region Native Americans
This is a very brief introduction to the religions and spiritual beliefs of Native American groups, considered from the perspective of the relationship to the land, for developing Land Acknowledgement Statements. Readers are encouraged to explore the topic in much further depth.
According to John Low, Ph.D., J.D., professor at Ohio State University, an enrolled citizen of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, in a presentation titled “Pokegnek Bodewadmik – The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians – Keepers of the Fire,” “Our ancestors believed in a Creator, Kishaminado. Much of our spirituality has been passed down to us generation by generation and remains private and personal.”
Kishaminado, also known as Kitchesmanetoa to other tribes, was the maker of all things. Potawatomi individuals interacted with Kishaminado through manitous, or personal spirits, which could take a variety of shapes, usually animals. A personal manitou was revealed through dreams.
There were also manitous that resided in natural objects, such as the sun, stars, trees, and rocks, that helped everyone. The Native Americans of the Calumet also had special manitous for war situations, usually birds such as falcons, crows, ducks, swallows, and martins. Not all manitous were helpful, however, and some were greatly feared. Deep water had a manitou that could cause turbulence and drowning. Manitous served as an incredibly important means for relating the spiritual and physical worlds.
Another academic author who wrote about Native American spirituality was Jack D. Forbes, Ph.D. (1934 – 2011), who established one of the first Native American Studies programs (at University of California Davis). He was of Powhatan-Renape and Lenape descent, both historic Algonquian-speaking tribes like the Potawatomi.
Wrote Forbes in a 2001 paper called “Indigenous Americans: Spirituality and Ecos”: “Perhaps the most important aspect … is the conception of creation as a living process, resulting in a living universe in which kinship exists between all things…. An overriding characteristic of Native North American religion is that of gratitude, a feeling of overwhelming love and thankfulness for the gifts of the Creator and the earth/universe.”
According to Forbes, Native Americans take a very broad view of “environment.”
“Our ecos, from the indigenous point of view, extends out to the very boundaries of the great totality of existence, the Wemi Tali,” wrote Forbes.
Forbes wrote about the “sacredness of Mother Earth” and the “rights of the earth not to be mutilated.”
“Native people, according to Standing Bear [a Lakota chief and writer in the 1930s], were often baffled by the European tendency to refer to nature as crude, primitive, wild, rude, untamed, and savage. ‘For the Lakota, mountains, lakes, rivers, springs, valleys, and woods were all finished beauty,’” wrote Forbes.
Introduced to Christianity, Native Americans incorporated elements into their own beliefs, which happened throughout history with most groups, including Europeans. Native Americans linked the Christian God to the sun manitou. Life could not exist without the sun.
The Potawatomi became connected to the Catholic church due to the Jesuit missionaries who visited the area beginning in the 1600s. The Christian god was akin to the Great Creator. Some historians believe the adoption of the Christian faith was a way to help preserve their own culture and religious beliefs by melding the two.
Today, wrote Low, “The Potawatomi retain the legacy of understanding the power of Medicine Bundles and Medicine Bags, Vision Quests, and Naming Ceremonies. Also understood are the importance of songs and dance, feasts, as well as the use of sacred medicines provided by the Creator, such as tobacco, sage, cedar, and sweetgrass.
“Our ancestors used the ceremonies of the longhouse and the sweatlodge to honor the Creator and all that surrounded them and also as a way to purify the mind and body. Those traditions continue today. Prayers have always had an important role in Potawatomi spiritual life. Some Potawatomi participated in a spiritual path called the Midewiwin which combines the knowledge of natural healing with a code of conduct for proper living. That tradition continues as well. Many Potawatomi retain the belief of their ancestors that death is followed by a four-day journey along the Milky Way to the place where the Spirits dwell.”
Midewiwins are religious societies within the group that have specific teachings and practices. “Mide” means “spirit doings” or “spiritual mystery.” They are often referred to as “medicine lodges” but they concentrate on the spiritual causes in connection to natural healing. The priests who ran the Midewiwins were the highest rank in the religious hierarchy.
In summary, the Potawatomi who lived in the Blue Island Ridge area believed in a Great Creator and connected to this entity in a personal and private way. They believed that they were part of the entire universe, and did not exist separate from the earth. The earth was sacred, to be respected and preserved. Their religious ceremonies revolved around gratitude and humility for the gifts given them from the Creator, and learning and following a path of proper behavior and thought to honor all things. The Potawatomi became connected to the Catholic church due to the Jesuits who visited the area and preached Christianity starting in the 1600s.
Next topic: Gender roles
Native Americans and the Blue Island Ridge – Part 9Lifestyle of Calumet Region Indians
There are many sources available for information on the history of Native Americans, and anyone interested in the topic is encouraged to never stop seeking out additional information and new viewpoints.
The actual lifestyles of the Native Americans who lived in the Calumet Region, of which the Blue Island Ridge formed the western boundary, from the 1600s to the 1800s will be the focus of the next few RHS posts. The major references for this are a resource from the University of Chicago titled “Historic Native Americans of the Calumet Region,” which was produced in 2014, and resources from current Native American websites and writings.
The Calumet region long served as the home for tribes that were part of the Algonquian language group and were connected through their heritage and interactions which each other.
The Algonquian are one of the largest and most widespread of the Indigenous groups, prominent along the Atlantic coast, the Saint Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River, and the Great Plains.
The Algonquian languages included about thirty related languages, presumedly descended from an unknown common language spoken about 3,000 years ago. The term “algonquin” is derived from an Indian term meaning “they are our relatives and allies.” Many of the Algonquian languages are extinct now, or severely endangered.
The primary inhabitants of the Calumet region area were the Miami and Potawatomi. Within the Algonquian language family, the Potawatomi are part of the Anishinaabe group, which includes the Ojibwe and the Odawa. By the late 1700s, most of the Miami had moved into the Indiana area and out of the Chicago area, leaving the Potawatomi as the prominent inhabitants.
Through trade and seasonal migration, other tribes that had a presence included the Illinois Confederation, a group of more than a dozen tribes that included the Peoria, Kaskaskia, and Cahokia tribes.
Other tribes with a presence in the area included the Ojibwa and Ottawa, which formed the Council of Three Fires with the Potawatomi; and the Mascouten, Sauk, Winnebago, Kickapoo, Shawnee, and Wyandot, all with lands around the Great Lakes and northern Illinois areas, and all considered “neighbors” of the Indians who lived in the Blue Island Ridge area.
The Native Americans of the Calumet region lived in villages ranging from a dozen to hundreds of lodgings. Specific structures included longhouses and wigwams, and eventually log cabins. Although architecture was not uniform, buildings were constructed of a pole frame covered by large sheets of elm or birch bark or rush mats. A longhouse could accommodate multiple families, while a wigwam or log cabin was usually used for a single family.
Villages served as the home base for the tribe, but they were not fully occupied all year round. Summer was the time the villages were most full, during the agriculture season of cultivating and harvesting crops and native plants. By fall, the village would split into smaller groups for winter hunting, spring sugar making, and fishing, before returning to the village the next summer.
The different tribes had different government structures. Some were largely centralized under one chief, but even that chief might not have actually had that much decision-making power. The chiefdom was not passed down as a birthright. The chief was usually selected based on battlefield success and ability.
The Potawatomi practiced a more decentralized, localized government organization than other Algonquian tribes. There were many groups largely autonomous throughout the tribal territory, and the chief of each of these groups had considerably more political power than chiefs of local groups of other tribes. Leaders were chosen from among the tribe members, based on success during hunting or warfare. The leader of the group had the ultimate say in the group, and was responsible for quick decisions in hunting or raids, and paying reparations or seeking revenge for any deaths that occurred. He would lose his leadership position with lack of success with hunting or war, or with losing members during expeditions.
Within tribes, the “medicine” men and women were feared and respected, and influenced decision-making. These were the traditional healers and spiritual leaders of the group. This created a power hierarchy in which age brought respect and influence into the daily life of the group. As with most groups of people, religious and spiritual beliefs of the tribes greatly affected how they perceived the world around them.
In the next posts, we will look at spiritual beliefs, clothing, food, pastimes, and gender roles of the Indian groups in the Calumet region.