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Illinois Now Home to Federally Recognized Tribal Land After Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation Given Back Portion of Ancestral Land

WTTW News | April 19, 2024 1:01 pm

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Recent Achievements Unveiled

HB1633 – Native American Curriculum

This bill was developed and championed by the Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative (CAICC) in conjunction with Representative Maurice West (D-24). It is a multi-faceted piece of legislation…

SB1446 – School Dress Code Policy

The genesis of this bill started when a community high school student was denied receipt of his diploma because he was wearing cultural items and attire that were gifts from his father and grandfather…

HB3413 – Human Remains Protection Act

For decades, Illinois has failed to return Native American remains and belongings to their communities despite a federal law mandating states to do so. Illinois has the second-largest collection…

Committees

Dedicated to furthering diverse causes and the greater well-being

Education

To provide, advocate and support an inter-tribal urban system of education, through networks of Native American Programs and other providers to increase academic and career success.

Arts & Culture

To nurture and promote creative and economic development of Native arts and culture in the Chicago area by gathering and sharing relevant information, providing and publicizing events.

Political Action

Advocacy and  political action to establish a Statewide Native American Commission and get Native American representation on various relevant statewide commissions.

Media & Outreach

To create and support information sharing within & outside the CAICC community to expand the media communication and coverage of community issues and concerns.

Adversity and Resiliency for Chicago’s First: The State of Racial Justice for American Indian Chicagoans

Although Native American Chicagoans play a central role in the social fabric of the city, relatively little attention has been directed to documenting the experiences of racial discrimination and inequities for Native American Chicagoans. In this report, we examine the state of racial justice for Native Americans in Chicago.

Our report is organized across five substantive areas, Population, Housing, (Mis)Representations of American Indians in Popular Culture, Education, Economics, and Justice, each focusing on a different aspect of racial equity.

Who We Are

The members of the Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative (CAICC) are dedicated to furthering diverse causes and the greater well-being of American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and First Nations people in the Chicago area. We seek to maximize effectiveness by creating a forum for fostering mutual aid, political support, positive public recognition, strategic alliances, collaborations, and partnerships.

CAICC convenes organizational leaders and members of the Chicago American Indian community for dialogue, advocacy, and planning with the goal of empowering CAICC to better address the issues and needs of the American Indian community.

Land Acknowledgement

Chicago is the traditional homeland of the Council of the Three Fires: The Odawa, Ojibwe and Potawatomi Nations. Many other Tribes like the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac and Fox also called this area home. Located at the intersection of several great waterways, the land naturally became a site of travel and healing for many Tribes. American Indians continue to call this area home and now Chicago is home to the sixth-largest Urban American Indian community that still practices their heritage, traditions and care for the land and waterways.

Today, Chicago continues to be a place that calls many people from diverse backgrounds to live and gather here. Despite the many changes the city has experienced, our American Indian community sees the importance of the land and this place that has always been a city home to many diverse backgrounds and perspectives.

CHICAGO HAS ALWAYS BEEN INDIAN COUNTRY

from Dorene Wiese on Vimeo