The Indigenous Chicago project is a multifaceted collaboration between the Newberry Library, the Chicago American Indian Community, and tribal nations who have ancestral ties to Chicago. The project includes a temporary exhibition at the Newberry Library, digital resources and interactive maps that reposition Chicago as Indigenous land and space, curriculum for high school social studies students, new oral histories of community members, and a series of public programs.
Chicago is, and always has been, an Indigenous place. As Neshnabé (Potawatomi, Odawa, Ojibwe), Illinois Confederation (Peoria, Kaskaskia, and others), Myaamia, Wea, Sauk, Meskwaki, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Kickapoo, and Mascouten homelands, the Chicago area has long been a historic crossroads for many Indigenous peoples and continues to be home to an extensive urban Native community.
Indigenous Chicago explores these histories by centering Indigenous voices, laying bare stories of settler-colonial harm, and gesturing toward Indigenous futures. It is a living project and archive that will continue to be added to in collaboration with Native communities.
Digital resources and interactive maps that reposition Chicago as Indigenous land and space, curriculum for high school social studies students, new oral histories of community members, and a series of public programs.
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An initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art in partnership with artists and organizations across the city, Art Design Chicago is a series of events and exhibitions that highlight the city’s artistic heritage and creative communities.
