Chicago's First Urban Indians---the Potawatomi.

Abstract

For the last several decades, scholars have been intrigued with the ways that some American Indians resisted assimilation into the mainstream of the dominant culture of the United States. Chicago's First Urban Indians---the Potawatomi, examines the ways some Pokagon Potawatomi found to retain a distinct American Indian identity; the ways their resistance represented both their rejection of assimilation into the mainstream, and their desire for inclusion into the larger contemporary society without forfeiting their Indianness. The Chicago urban Indian experience did not begin with the post World War II federal programs of relocation of American Indians from reservations to urban areas. Rather, the Potawatomi (more specifically the Pokagon Potawatomi) have been a part of Chicago since its founding. In very public expressions of indigeneity, they have refused to hide in plain sight or assimilate. Instead, throughout the city's history, the Pokagon Potawatomi Indians have openly and aggressively expressed their refusal to be marginalized or forgotten---and in doing so they have contributed to the fabric and history of the city. Examining, in roughly chronological order, the literature and rhetoric of Simon Pokagon, the spectacles, performances, and monuments of the Potawatomi, their efforts for the restoration of territory, and their engagement with sport and recreation, this dissertation reveals how these activities and practices preserved and promoted a Pokagon Potawatomi presence in the city.