Potawatomi Women

The Potawatomi tribe lived in what is now Chicago from the late 1600’s through the 1830’s when they were forcibly moved west of the Mississippi River. The Potawatomi believed “the land is Mother Earth. You can’t own it — it’s like owning air, owning the stars.” The Potawatomi women successfully farmed the land which is now Chicago. Many years they had surplus crops which they were able to trade with explorers, religious workers and government staff.

Why this stop? Just south of the Red Line Howard station is Rogers Avenue which originally had been a Potawatomi trail. In 1816, the Treaty of St. Louis designated this trail to be a boundary dividing the land between Native Americans (who were allowed to live north and west of the boundary) and white settlers (who were given the land south and east of the boundary).

Learn more about the Potawatomi tribe.

Connect — Get the NativeLand app to find out which indigenous tribes once lived where you now live.

Get involved -- It's hard to imagine that Chicago once was farmland. It's even more surprisint to know that urban farming is happening now. Learn about it and volunteer with the Urban Growers Collective. 

The image is the Potawatomi symbol for woman.