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.

Our conference theme this year is Water ways of life: teachings, practices, and knowledge in action. Our relationship with water starts at the beginning of time, in many of our Indigenous creation stories. Water is connected to many teachings in our life. Water surrounds us as our first environment when we are in the womb and we continue to have deep relationships with water throughout our lifetime. Water connects us to the world around us and our responsibilities and relationship to others. 

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.

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