As we celebrate Native American Heritage Month, it is important to remember that our great city began as a welcoming city.
Chicago has been home to several Native American tribes for centuries if not for millenniums. Though the first Native American tribe to inhabit Chicago may be unknown to history, it is clear numerous Native American tribes shared the land with each other and welcomed additional Native American tribes to make their home in Chicago.
Chicago’s location with both waterways and land trails made it an ideal home as well as a center of social and commercial activities. While land development may have inadvertently destroyed ancient artifacts, we may one day still discover remnants of Indigenous visitors from Central and South America as well as unrecorded pre-Columbian visitors from continents across the globe. A further reminder that many were welcome here.
Independent French traders, voyageurs (licensed) and coureurs de bois (unsanctioned), from present-day Canada established trade with the Native American tribes of Chicago in the early 1600s. Many French traders lived among the Native American tribes, learning their language and culture, and some marrying Native American women.
The welcoming reception the French traders received from the Native American tribes of Chicago paved the way for the French to send government-sponsored representatives including Jacques Marquette; Louis Jolliet; Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle; and Henri de Tonti in the 1670s.
Native American trails are still with us
These French representatives were also welcomed to Chicago and provided food and lodging by the Algonquin-speaking Native American tribes of Chicago. The French would speak volumes of the generous welcome they received in Chicago. The French utilized the centuries-old Native American trails to explore other parts of Chicago and beyond. The trails are still with us underneath modern streets named Archer, Clark, Lincoln, Milwaukee, Ridge and Vincennes. These ancient Native American trails were a welcoming path to Chicago.
A century later, Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable was received with open arms by the Potawatomi of Chicago. DuSable was not only welcomed as a resident but welcomed to establish a business in Chicago. It is not hard to imagine how “welcoming” most towns in 1779 America would be of a Black man, but in Chicago one fleeing intolerance and wishing to live in peace was welcomed with open arms and extended a home and opportunity regardless of skin color.
Since then, Chicago has been a welcoming city to “DuSables” of all colors, creeds, orientations and socio-economic backgrounds. Chicago has benefited from many great migrations including Native Americans. Far from being a drain or liability, these migrations have been a source of our great city’s cultural, economic, and social strength and continue to this day.
Chicago is not a welcoming city because of the passage of a law or decree; we are a welcoming city because that is what Chicago and Chicagoans have always been from the beginning. Welcoming is at the core of the soul of Chicago.
Chicago has always been a city of collaboration and compassion, and I commend and join Mayor Brandon Johnson and others in continuing Chicago’s proud Native American tradition of being a welcoming city to all those seeking a better life in peace in the greatest city on Earth.
In one of the original languages (Potawatomi) of Chicago, we should be proud to welcome all to Chicago with the words – Bozho n’Nikanek or Greeting my Friends.
Matthew W. Beaudet is a fifth-generation Chicagoan and a citizen and elder of the Montaukett Tribe of Long Island and of Matinecock, Penobscot and Weskarini descent. He has served in state, county and city government for 35 years and currently serves as the commissioner of the City of Chicago Department of Buildings. He is an active member of the Chicago Native American community.
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