The Origins of Chicago

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with a brand new release every week, exploring everything from the ancient world to World War II. Just visit historyhit.com/subscribe to bring the past alive. It's the 1850s on the southwestern shores of Lake Michigan, where not too long ago, this was just a frontier outpost built on marshy ground at the meeting point of great waterways. Territories utilized by generations of native peoples,

trading hunting, traveling, living according to the land. But now this land is American territory, property, and against the odds a city has risen, Chicago, and it's a boom town. Buildings are erected as quickly as people arrive. Brick limestone and marble facades supported by timber frames. When it rains the streets become wagon-churned mud on its dry,

“their clouds are dust. The humanity, too, is a contrast. For every rising industrial”

magnet stepping from mansion to theater to Grand Hotel, there are tenement blocks of laborers newly arrived from Ireland and Germany, living between shifts in overcrowded squalid conditions. The rivers, too, are crowded with boats, and increasingly choked with waste. It is growth without pause, and not enough plan, and unlikely city rising from uncertain ground, and straining against it.

Hello there, greetings and welcome to American History Hip. I'm Don Wildman, your host and very glad to be speaking today about a city that looms large on the skyline of America's past and present. Consider this, so many towns and cities in this nation were founded after our colonial period. This is a young nation still, but only one of those cities has become a mega city, a staging ground for so much of what has fueled the advances and innovations,

which made the United States the superpower it is today. As that city grew in size and influence, it imposed itself upon American culture in every conceivable fashion. And for that reason, it is often called by me for one, the only true American metropolis. That city is, of course, Chicago. But the origins of Carl Sandberg's city of big shoulders are historically quite complicated,

and it says much about us that the real story of our third largest city is so little understood by so many.

So let's understand it. How did Chicago really begin? We discussed this today with Anne Durkin Keating, an author and scholar who has written extensively on the city in books like Building Chicago, suburban developers and the divided metropolis, Chicago land, city and suburbs of the railroad age, Chicago neighborhoods and suburbs, a historical guide. And what much of our conversation will concern today, rising up from Indian country for Dearborn and the birth of Chicago published in

2012. Professor Keating, that is a breathless list of books there. I'll go to the podcast. Thanks, glad to be here. Before we dive into the past, for our UK listeners, especially, who might not know much about Chicago, I'm going to fly through a couple of facts about this wonderful town, located on the western shore of Lake Michigan in the state of Illinois, largest city in Illinois, but not the capital, which is Springfield, down south. It is called the Windy City for a very good

reason. And the second city for questionable ones, it has great culture, world-class museums,

cutting edge restaurants. It was the backdrop for legendary cinema, Sanatra, Ferris Bueller, the Untouchables. Today TV shows like the Bear. It is still the big stop on the Transcontinental Railroad route, which made it an industrial powerhouse. It's the Cubs, the White Sox, the Bulls, the Black Oaks, the Bears, it's the Obama's, the Bean, Deep Dish Pizza, and the Chicago River made green on St. Patty's Day not to mention. It's a very nice place for a bike ride.

That about cover it, Anne. It's a great synopsis. Like it's a stop and right there. As you can tell, I have an adoration for Chicago.

“But what about you, Anne? What brought you to the history of Chicago as a subject?”

I'm a Chicagoan, so I started there. I studied at the University of Chicago from my graduate degrees, but I am fascinated with the built environment of cities. So that's where I got started in all of this. And I started in an archaeology and then moved to urban history.

history of what makes the modern American city happen. Today's conversation predates that modern

version of Chicago history. One day, we will tell that story. I promise you. This was called the city of the century, meaning the 19th century by all right. And it shouldn't be there at all,

“really when you consider what an unlikely place this really was to build a city. Why was that?”

It's on a swamp along the Lakeshore at the mouth of a very slow-moving, small river called the Chicago River. And you're right. It takes off and it takes off as you note down because of the rail road and industry. And it becomes the center for that growth. So when we think about Chicago, it's a city that really emerges out of the industrial age. So in a very real sense and contrast to cities on the east coast that have their start as you noted in the colonial period, this is a city that

really grows on industrialization, on railroads, on immigration. And that's at the heart of what Chicago is and its built environment right down to the present. All of that very personally, interesting to me, the more modern version of that history. But today, we're going to really talk about the earlier history of this coming out of the early settlements that we're going on

“there. So let's go way back. These are obviously native lands like everything in the American continent.”

It was the intersection of several great waterways, which allowed those native peoples to travel and trade. They were a gong quen, then Miami. What's interesting and will be a theme of this conversation is how much Confederacy there was, how many overlapsings of these territories we're going on at this time. It seems to inform the place, doesn't it? Yeah, as you note, it's at the intersection of the Mississippi River Basin and the Great Lakes. So the continental divide, it's a very

sloppy place. It's hard to imagine that it's a continental divide. But it is to the east from the Chicago River eastward goes into the Great Lakes, into Lake Michigan, to the west goes down to the Mississippi River. So you could portage. There wasn't a river initially, but you could portage between those two waterways. And indigenous people for hundreds and hundreds of years have been using this the paths between those two waterways. So it's been a very valuable space in that way. It's also,

I mean, Chicago is also interesting because it's on the intersection of the eastern woodlands. So of gong quen people really come out of the woodlands of the east and they have a culture and customs that come out of the east. We're on the dividing line here. Chicago between that eastern woodland and the prairie. So the prairie starts just again, we've got patches of prairie and wood lawn here in northeast Illinois. To your point, it really defines this the idea that there are waves of different

groups of indigenous people that are going to claim and live and utilize the natural resources in this region over time. Some of them coming out of the west, the suy and the hotshunk coming from the south with Kahokia. And then the Ankyan people, the Illinois Confederacy and the Miami. Again,

“all at various points in time have claimed this region. How fast are we early in this podcast series?”

We did a show about the Kohokian mountains and I've been there myself and it's right across for those who don't know across the river, Mississippi River from St. Louis, generally. And then you

head inland from there and it was an amazing huge settlement, not even a fair word for it as a city,

a huge city and a sign of what had really been accomplished by those societies. And that would have been to do south from everything we're talking about right now, which is so fascinating. The early European visitors are French Jesuits, so often the case, right? The missionaries are coming out and trying to evangelize people. Explain how the French find the place and why they're? Yeah, the French are a vital piece of this colonial story of Europeans arriving in this region.

So the French are up in Canada, so I'm Quebec and also in the Caribbean and New Orleans, eventually New Orleans, but in the Caribbean and up in Canada. And this territory between and that includes them what's called, we they called the Illinois Country after the Illinois Confederacy is between those two. That space between them is a territory that the French are interested in claiming as colonial holding, they're interested in creating trading partners.

They're interested in, again, in exploring, they're looking for the Pacific Ocean.

And third, they are proselytized in their missionaries, their Catholic missionaries that are

coming out. And they come into this region and they find dense networks of lots of different

the course of their seasons. And what they find is they get involved in the first trade.

So the most critical connection that's made with Indigenous people in this region by the French

is the first trade is the missionizing is creating Christian missions. And again, Illinois, though, is also a transportation route. This area comes to transportation route for the French between the north and the south. It's so interesting that the identity that many of us carry think of when we think of Chicago today is actually routes itself then. In terms of the mixed populations, people getting along, figuring it out together. That's basically why Chicago feels

“cool, you know, and it felt cool even then. Oh, I would agree. I think the idea that the French”

come in, they're not interested. They want to claim land, but they're not taking land or resources straight forwardly from Indigenous people. They continue to hold this land, whether it's pot of water, me, whether it's Miami, a hot chunk, but instead what we get is that trade network and the French men who come into this region are in many cases, their traders who are going to marry Indigenous women. So the trading networks are family networks, our village networks,

so that the French who move into this region create, it's a new culture. It's certainly not simply an Indigenous culture, but it's rooted in Indigenous culture with the addition of European with French goods, with French ideas, with French religion, being a part of the story. So, you know, you'll find they'll remain Indian villages, but many of those villages and then a trading outpost, you'll find French men. And then once those French men and Indigenous women

have formed families, there's going to be this region is filled with mixed-descent people. So,

“people who are a French and Indigenous heritage, and that is, I think a crucial part of the story”

and speaks to the idea that there's a place where there was a possibility of different cultures interacting without destroying each other. In a way, a golden age, wasn't it? I mean, this was a period of, of course, it's the beginnings of what becomes quite dark, but at this point, people are

getting to know each other and there's some hope. The first permanent non-Indigenous settler

is a guy very tellingly. John Batiste, point-to-subbo. He arrives in this area some time in the 1770s into the 80s, right? Right. So, yeah, do-subbo is coming out of the south. He's coming from down near Kahokia, or, I mean, there's some question about whether he's come from Quebec, but my sense is that he's coming from the south. His family may well, his father, mother may have come from Haiti, that's certainly the oral tradition that I think we need to really keep in mind as we go here.

But disobbo comes into the region as one of those mixed-descent traders. Now, he is a mixed-descent trader of branch and African origin. So, his mother was of African descent, and again, that's where the Haitian connection comes in and his father was French. And so, the surmises that he or his mother were enslaved, maybe both enslaved people who gained their freedom. So, he comes into this region, though, as a part of this French trading world, he joins in, he's trading over in Michigan,

so to the east and a Detroit and up in Mac and Ac, and he's in this area during the American Revolution, and after the American Revolution, then he decides to settle at the mouth of the

Chicago River. So, he, again, to your point, is the first non-native settler here, but he's

setting up a trading outpost. I hesitate to use the word settler because, and I just did, but I realize that's a word that we should use carefully because we often associate it with people who are claiming land or buying real estate and do soble did not, was not claiming land. He was building on a site that was pot-wattamy controlled and he knew that. He marries a pot-wattamy woman and

“he starts his own trading outpost then. Yeah, and pot-wattamy is it going to be a very important”

nation to know about as we move through this story. So, he's married into that tribe, I guess. John Kinsey, another name, a fur trader who acquired disobbles house in 1800. It all happens very recently, really, in the scheme of things, isn't it? Everything's been established for hundreds of years in these coasts. This is all happening around the 1800s. Yeah, I mean, you want to keep in mind what's going on in the East Coast because this is the time of just after the American

Revolution. And the US is, in fact, claiming all of this Western territory, where great Britain is controlling Canada to the north, the boundary between the US and Canada into the 1780s

in 1794, and through all of that time period, the US government is making this claim about land in

“the West. And so, I think the reason that this picks up speed has got everything to do with the US now”

coming in and making this claim. It had been French claims, and then after the French Nendium War, it was British claims, although they remained a lot of French traders in the region, and then after the American Revolution. So, by the 1780s, the US is claiming this whole territory. So, when DuSobbles at Chicago in the 1780s and the 1790s, it's not clear whose territory this is going to be in terms of a European overlords here, whether it's going to be Britain or whether it's going to be

the US. After 1795 with the Treaty of Greenville, it becomes clearer that the US is going to really

make inroads into this territory. And DuSobbles isn't interested in living at least that appears from his exit from this region when the US makes it clear that they're going to be in the area. He doesn't want to be in the area. We don't know that for sure. I'm just making a surmise that in 1800, he's gone, and 1800 is when the US says we're coming to build a fort, and he exits and he lives down in the rest of his life outside of St. Louis. I want to caution folks because we're going

to jump back and forth in time here because there's a lot that goes into this, and that's the

whole sort of quilting of this story that takes place here through these events, but let's

nail one thing down, which is the name Chicago. Where does that come from? So there's a gongkin words

“that would relate it to wild onion, which I think is the smell of a wild onion is probably where”

comes from. I did see that word Chicago, right? Chicago, right? The name of that, it's a leak or a wild onion, and I guess they grew all over the place there in that marshy land. Still, you're probably smelled it. You got it. No, no, that's exactly right. And it did, it had an odor, and again, it goes back to the swampy land that this was in. And so the spring, early spring and into early summer, you'd really get this, you have, you get this aroma walking through the woodlands in this area.

And that, of course, the French explorers are the ones who's writing things down at this point, so they write it as Chicago with an OU at the end. That is then anglicized to Chicago for maps and such, until it becomes the accepted name. But Chicago remains in new France until the French and Indian War makes it British, which in turn then makes it American after the Revolution. And part of what is called the Northwest Territory, which is formerly established by the US in 1787. At which point,

we begin the process of removing native peoples from their ancestral lands. This is one of those

“big chapters. Chicago is where this project really begins in that area in earnest, right?”

Yeah, and I think you've hit on something. The Northwest ordinance includes in it, the idea that you're going to take land and make it into real estate. The idea, and I mean, it takes the land ordinance of 1785 and imposes that on this whole territory in the Northwest that includes what becomes Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. Those states, that territory then, that's when we see this big transition done. To my mind, this is the big moment because it's when the land that had

been, whether it was indigenous controlled with French layer on top or a British layer on top or an American layer, at this point, the US government says, now it's going to be US land. And there isn't going to be space for this indigenous culture, indigenous world, that's a trading world where there's an interaction between Europeans and Africans and indigenous people of various groups here in a place like Chicago and instead we're going to nail down. We're going to survey and we're

going to sell this land and to your point them what we see beginning with earlier than 1795, but certainly with the Greenville Treaty in 1795 is a series of treaties, but the US is going to make with native Americans some very much forced, some weedled, but in all cases, treaties that are going to demand that native peoples give up their lands, in return for lands for the West, for annuities, for harm goods, whatever it's going to be on that list of things that they're going to get. And what you see

then is this beginning of this transformation of this indigenous country into what becomes settler colonialism, right? I mean, up until this point there hasn't been this thing that we now call

until then it's a part of an indigenous world that is not tied to real estate in that way.

“Well, real estate was money. You know, as far as the Americans were concerned, this was the”

beginning of how to value things in these areas, and you start with real estate, so that was never

part of the calculation for Native American tribes, and even the French weren't really looking at that way because they believed it was really just about finding resources. For the Treaty of Greenville, why is it called Greenville, by the way? Greenville, Ohio, so it's just outside of Toledo, is where the treaty took place. And so it's a treaty line that says everything north and west of the Treaty line, which from Toledo runs at a northeast southwest axis, the line does everything to

the west and north would be left to indigenous people. And of course, that was not the case, but in 1795, that was the line. The US and the American colonies before, even before the revolution,

that's the kind of, we're going to draw a line, and there'll be indigenous country on one side,

and the settler colonialism on the other side, and we do that. And then we throw it out the window. And we're just, yeah, exactly right, and then there's another treaty. The takeaway here is, I mean, at this point, obviously, there's no city of Chicago, and so we're really talking about the vast territories and how the Americans are seeing this new land getting dived up. Out of this treaty, Native Americans give up six square miles at the

mouth of the Chicago River. Despite not all Native nations agreeing to this, no representative from Chicago being represented at the signing. This is where Fort Dearborn will be built in 1803

as a military outpost. It is across the Chicago River from the trading post. So this is what happens.

As we've marked this land out, we say, okay, you're over there now. See you later. There's some trading going on. We pay them off, whatever it might be. But we're going to develop over here, and they move. Only to find more and more settlement pushing that line further in further west, story of America. At some point, the Native nations begin to fight back or at least resist, and this becomes what is known as the Battle of Fort Dearborn August 15, 1812,

which your, your book is fully concerned with. So talk to me how this, this moment arose.

“Yeah, I think one thing that that kind of fighting is going on from day one, right?”

George Washington as president goes out in his fighting. I mean, he's out there on western Pennsylvania and Ohio. So this is why the US, why we have a standing army that gets started up after the war. So we've got that piece. And the Treaty of Greenville comes after a loss by indigenous people at fallen timbers. That is ongoing. There's a cool of historians who would argue that there's a 60 year war in the west. Well, it really is that late, you know, from the 18th century into the

19th century, and I think there's an argument for that. At Chicago then, in 1803, when the fourth yearborn is founded, DuSobles left because he didn't want to have anything to do with that, or he doesn't have anything to do with that fort. So he exits. Chicago in 1803 is at the far western edge of the United States. So that's worth just keeping in mind is that the Mississippi River is the boundary for the United States. And then the Louisiana Purchase kicks in

that same year that the fort is built for a dearborn is now in the middle of the country.

“Rather than on the far western edge. So I mean, I think that's a really important part of”

him. Why? Very quickly then we're going to see a push forward towards even more exploration of land through treaties in this region. There are people who are going to fight this. So you get someone like to come, who's probably a familiar name or might be familiar to come, that is a shani warrior who with his brother, Tensquattawa stands and fights. They're not alone. They're nativist leaders. Again, there are a number of them, but come. So there's a good

stand-in for us to have a sense of this. And there are warriors and indigenous leaders who say, we're going to stop. We're not going to let this continue. This ongoing process. We know we have to stand and fight. He and his brother found a settlement at Tipee canoe, which is about 120 miles from Chicago. So it's between Chicago and Fort Wayne, which is important in this story. But it's going to be the center for what he wants to be the center of an indigenous country

that will not be taken over by the United States. So he's going to try and draw a pan

do that. So to come south, it's a really important for you for us to be thinking about. He's going to be opposed by the US government. It's like this is not our plan. Our plan is continue to push. And once you've got the Louisiana purchase, then there's land in the west that indigenous people can be moved to. And that's going to become the process later on.

“Are you going to see it even more in the decades that ensue? So a guy named William Henry Harrison?”

Yes, right. The territorial government in the northwest territory. William Henry Harrison takes it upon himself to burn the villages that Tipee canoe while to come to is a way.

And he starts basically a war in November of 1811. William Henry Harrison on behalf of the U.S.

government. So he's operating within the U.S. system. He's the territorial governor, the top treaty negotiator. And so when the war of 1812 between Great Britain and the U.S. begins in June of 1812, you know, the U.S. declares war against Great Britain in June of 1812. And when that happens, the U.S. is already at war with to come south. So that when we get to the summer of 1812, Fort Dierborn is at a flash point in both the war with Great Britain and the war with

to come south and his allies. And so Great Britain has taken Mackenack three weeks after the U.S. declares war. The British just walk into the fort from the back at Mackenack and the U.S. troops at Fort Dierborn are ordered to evacuate in August of 1812. And they're attacked while they're leaving the fort. This is a very important moment. You know, often folks wonder, why did these tribes, one of these nations work together? You know, if they were so many of them, why didn't

they just get together in fight the Americans? Well, this is actually where this begins to come

so who deserves an episode on his own. He's an amazing person. He was coordinating this intertribal

resistance movement from the beginning against this American invasion. And you mentioned Fort Wayne, there's a number of these forts throughout this region, of course. So this attack or this resistance will be coordinated between these these things. And interestingly, they were communicated using a kind of code, right? The Wompum Belts is very sophisticated planning behind this. These were small beads from their made from shells that are strung together. And, you know,

they're used ritualistically anyway to record histories and so forth. But he was using these

“to communicate messages. Secret messages between tribes in order to coordinate attacks, right?”

That's for sure. And he's got quite a bit of support. They're hoping that they're going to get more support in terms of guns and ammunition and other supplies from Great Britain. And so they align with Great Britain in the war. And again, at Fort Dearborn, the attack is made by to Kamsa allies. To Kamsa is not there to Kamsa's at Detroit alongside the British or near Detroit alongside the British. The US, there's about 90 troops at Chicago that are evacuating soldiers

and some of their families who are also here, just a very dangerous thing to have been. When you look at this, this is a flash point in the west, at Fort Dearborn. But their attack, I think dozens of soldiers are killed immediately, many more dozens more are taken captive. And, you know, it takes months and months and months to find out who has killed initially, who has killed after and who survives because people, it just took that long. The captain of the Americans, Nathan Hield,

“is ransomed by, again, Potawatomi, who are more sympathetic to the US who know. I think that,”

I mean, a lot of Potawatomi, particularly in the regions, I have already begun to understand that they want to cut the best deal they can with the US. And that, to Kamsa is probably, he's looking for something that isn't going to happen, that the future that he's envisioning is not a future that's likely. So, there are Potawatomi that are going to align themselves with the US and they're going to protect the captain and the captain. Again, to give you a sense, if this, I mean, he gets ransomed

first. He's ransomed from the Potawatomi and then he winds up up at Michelin Mackey and his wife,

up at Mackinac with the British, and eventually is paroled and makes his way back from Buffalo around and his family, his wife's family is from Kentucky, and they finally get word that he's and his wife had survived. Almost, I think it's six, seven months after the initial attack, and by that point, her family had assumed that they had been killed in the attack or in the

and their allies burn it down, and for the rest of the war of 1812, there's nothing at Chicago.

“This is a very controversial moment. I mean, some call this a massacre, and I just want to go over a”

few of the facts that you just, that you cited there. The morning of the evacuation from the fort, there were 500 native fighters, Potawatomi and native allies. They attack a convoy of 92. This is what you're referring to American soldiers, civilians. There were nine women and 18 children there. They're attacked in 52 of them are killed, the rest are taken prisoner. This is the kind of story that spreads real fast in American circles and becomes the defining event in how to

deal with these tribes. And so there was no middle ground here at that point. We're going in guns blazing at this moment in many ways. This leads eventually to two treaties. There are

two Chicago treaties they're called. The first one, let's go through that. They're both session

“treaties. They're both about removing people from the land, which is a term I didn't even know”

before I started preparing for this. Session treaties are all over the place. It's basically how we do this. As we've already referred to, let's talk about the first Chicago treaty. What year does that happen? 1821. Yeah. 1821. So Fort Derborn has been rebuilt after the War of 1812. And as a result of the War of 1812, despite the fact that the Potawatomi and their allies win that battle at Fort Derborn or near Fort Derborn in August of 1812, the Potawatomi and their

allies, indigenous people in the Western Great Lakes, they lose big time in this war. I mean, they have lost this war. The consa has been killed in the Battle of Tom's, the whole movement has disintegrated. That pan Indian movement has disintegrated. And instead what you've got is the

“US government demanding more and more sessions. And so if I can jump back one, just one more treaty.”

In 1816, there's a treaty of St. Louis, which may not seem to have anything to do with Chicago. But in the 1816, that treaty sees land that's going to become the Illinois Michigan Canal. It sees a quarter of land between the Illinois River and Lake Michigan that's going to make that connection between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. And so there in 1816 is the idea that now we're going to have a canal that a canal is going to be coming. So I would, to your point,

this is, this is really is the moment when we see that Chicago is, it's going to be the end point for that canal. And that is really a defining moment for Chicago. And it's also to your point. It's a land session. I'm with you. It's a word that I have to every time I'm in a classroom. It's like it's CESION. It's not like a jam session. It's a different kind of a solution. And that land session, then starting in 1816, will be continued with us another series of things.

The first treaty, then, in 1821, it's Chicago, has less to do with land at Chicago than it does

with land further to the east. But what it's doing is it's filling in the land to the east that had not yet been seated by the Potawatomi and their allies, the Miami and their allies. And what we're going to see then in 1821 is to some degree, it's this bait and switch. It's bringing people together, not where they are asked to see land. But somewhere else, so that it's less incendiary, so that you're not going to find as much argument against it. Because it's being hosted at a spot that's

Chicago in 1821 was, by that point, it's a part of that corridor. So it's got the Treaty of Greenville, the island of land at the mouth of the river, and now the corridor. So Chicago itself then is in under US control. So it's a place to have these treaties. And then you get 1829, there's fighting going further north, so up with the Potchunk and the Sok and the Fox for the north. And 1829, you get even more land in this region is seated to the US government. You see

those sessions just piling up.

That first treaty is negotiated back in August, but is then proclaimed in March 25th. It seeds

all lands in the Michigan territory south to the Grand River to the United States with the exception of small reservations. That's basically the first step in really beginning what we will see is a clearance of this land. 10 years later, I'm sure there are many events between this time, but there is the Black Hawk War. The summer of 1832, Sok leader, Black Hawk, if you're wondering

returned to their ancestral homeland in the northern Illinois agents involved, right?

“Yeah, I mean, in Black Hawk's story is an important one. So the Sok have”

seated their land going back to the first decade, 1803. So back in the very first years of the 19th

century, but since 1803, they removed across the Mississippi River, but the Sok villages continue to return to the east side of the Mississippi River to farm every year. So a treaty doesn't necessarily mean that the next year things change. It sometimes takes a while, and that was the case with Black Hawk. So Black Hawk throughout his early decades as a warrior is a part of these in their large villages. I mean, the Sok villages could be upwards of a thousand people, moving and living these

summer villages. So the women would be farming corn, beans and squash all through the summer in the farm fields east of the Mississippi River right into 1830. And then what happens in the late 1820s,

“early 1830s is you've got settlers, the American settlers moving into these farm fields that the Sok”

had held, and they start farming those same farm fields. So that when Black Hawk comes in 1831, and then in 1832, with again, and why the women, because it's the women who are farming, they're the ones that are coming across that are farming here on the western edge of Illinois, and they find other people in their farm fields. They find these American settlers in what they saw as their farm fields, but that was on land that had been seated away decades before that was a

part of the settler colonial enterprise. So Black Hawk, it's at that moment that we're going to see Black Hawk want to fight against this. So Black Hawk goes across northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, looking for allies. He's sock. He's looking for allies amongst the Anishanabe people, and that

“would include a Potawatomi, and that's and the Potawatomi split. The younger some of the younger warriors”

would like to join with Black Hawk, but most of the older Potawatomi leaders have seen what happened in 1812, have seen the way that Kansas movement had not led to holding this territory against the US government, and for the most part, they actually forcibly kept many of their young warriors from joining to come. So because they knew that there was another session in the making, and they wanted the best deal they could get. So Black Hawk, in fact, Black Hawk doesn't fight very much,

but other people who are aligned with Black Hawk fight a couple of battles in Illinois, and then up in the north, up in Wisconsin, and it's a very short war. The US government sends windfield Scott out here. He's going to be famous during the Mexican-American war, and then at the beginning of the civil war, but windfield Scott comes out here with troops. He brings cholera. So there's cholera in this region in 1832, as well as this fighting that's taking place. Black Hawk is taken

prisoner. He's kind of held as a, he's going to be paraded around the east coast in the following years, but the loss that the sock and their allies have in 1832, as a result of this war, leads to this 1833 treaty of of Hago, that's kind of the last treaty. Before we get to that, I just want to point out that a lot of people join this effort. This is a very famous conflict going on, and one is a young man named Abraham Lincoln, who goes up to join this effort

against this. He never actually does fight, but he tries to, and signs up for it.

And he buries soldiers the day after a battle. So to my mind, I get the idea that he doesn't see battle, but what he does see is the results of battle. And I've always taken that away from thinking about Lincoln and in that way. The next year, 1833, comes the second Chicago treaty, even more consequential. The US was not at war with the Ashinaabe people, but they took advantage of the outrage over Black Hawk and that war to force a treaty with them, passing along that allowed

the commissioners to purchase all remaining land held by the Ashinaabe people in the lower Lake Michigan area. How much land are we talking about there? It's millions of acres. It's much of what's

now South East Wisconsin. I have five million acres. Is that? That seems completely reasonable.

That five million acres means a completely reasonable number. So the American government and the Potomac exchange five million acres of land west of the Mississippi for land in Northeast Illinois and South East Wisconsin. We've done an episode on the trail of tears, you know, all around,

happened elsewhere. This trail of tears is an idea more than a specific one. And this is one of those trails of tears, right? This is the Ashinaabe people in a procession west. Right. And it's several years of this removal. So there's a removal from Indiana. And then there's a removal from

“Illinois. And you are absolutely right. And it's really important to be thinking about the fact”

that this is something that takes place over and over again in New York's history. And we do have a blinder's on about it to Cherokee removal. And it's like, no, the trail of tears is this much broader

story of what's taking place. And for the Potomac that are removed, they are moved first to Missouri,

which rejects Potomac claims to land. And Congress has to step in and they're moved to Iowa. And from Iowa, most of them are removed again to Kansas. And from Kansas, they're going to be removed finally to Oklahoma territory. So this is just the beginning of a series of removals for the Potomac. But you'll find descendants of those Potomac families across Iowa, Kansas, and Oklahoma. And so the Prairie Band Potomac are now located in Oklahoma.

And this is a good summary point. There are two Chicago treaties. This is the one that comes after the Indian Removal Act of 1830. So the National Government has created this whole idea

“of Oklahoma being where all these people are going to be sent. That's what the difference is here”

then the first one in 1821. So if 1821 opens the land of Chicago area for American settlement,

1833 clears it. Yes, I think that's an important way of thinking about this. And it makes a possible then to begin buying and selling that land. And you get the first subdivision. So the first plat at Chicago actually precedes the 1832 war and the 1833 treaty. And because it goes back to that 1816 treaty. So it's the Illinois Michigan Canal Commissioners make at the mouth of the Chicago River. And that plat is what becomes downtown Chicago. And that is to my mind. I mean, if you're

thinking about when do you want to start Chicago history? 1833 seems a reasonable moment. 1812 late 1780s when do solblas there? 1803 with four deer born. 1830 though, there's an argument because that's when land is now real estate when you can start to sell it and the U.S. government is thinking about it in those terms. Now it's not the U.S. government. They have given this land to the new state of Illinois to use to build the canal. But it's government land being sold in that

way. So the store in Europe becomes really different. Yeah, 1837 Chicago is officially incorporated as a city. Surprisingly recent, but that's the story of America as we mentioned before. You've got all those old cities on the east coast, old for our standards. But this is why Chicago is such still a very new city. It is the railroad that will establish Chicago as the modern American city, however. And that all comes later on. 1848, the completion of the Illinois and

Michigan Canal creates a water link between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. That is soon overtaken as all canals are by the railroads. 1850, the railroad moves out. Aurora branch railroad laid the first tracks into west Chicago. 1860 Chicago is established as Americans leading railway center, fascinating story, who gets the railroad, not sent Lewis Chicago gets it and the rest of history. Right. I mean, in a big part of that, we can make a linkage here in that there's a lot of

money made at Chicago in real estate speculation in the 1830s. And that real estate speculation

is critical to the money that's needed for investment and railroads in an industry. The other

“thing that I think is really interesting and thinking about what you've just laid out is that the”

federal government agrees to improve the harbor at Chicago. So the harbor at Chicago, there is really not a harbor at Chicago. There's a sandbar at the mouth of the Chicago River and beginning in the mid-1830s. The core of engineers comes in and basically cuts through the sandbar and wedges the Chicago River so that it can be used as a harbor. And the federal money comes in with the real estate investors. So you've got real estate investors from New York and other East

Coast places and then eventually Chicago investors. And it's those folks and want to stay in Chicago and continue to invest in Chicago. Someone like William Ogden who will make a lot of money on real estate investment coming out of New York and then he turns around and he's going to build the first railroad.

reapers. Could there be a better located metropolis? No. I mean you're on the edge of the great

“planes and all that farming and agriculture is happening there. You've got the great lakes right there”

for transportation. You've got the railroad coming into town. Oh boy. And you've got the economic

engine of real estate already taking place. It's a perfect storm of urban development.

You could add in the civil war. You're pulling about about St. Louis is that Chicago kind of

“kibashes St. Louis's aspirations because Chicago then will become an entrepreneur for the”

US during the civil war. And it will continue to grow, continue to industrialize, continue to draw an immigrants through a time period when St. Louis is often under military control. Interesting. I can't wait to do the part two of this. But that's all for today. And Dirk and Keating is a historian

“of Chicago and the American Midwest. She is the Dr. C Frederick Tonigus professor of history at”

North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. Her work focuses on urban growth, regional identity and the development of the city of Chicago. What can be found in her various books, rising up from Indian country, the battle for Dearborn, the birth of Chicago, Chicago land, read it all for the history of Chicago. Thank you so much and great to meet you. Great fun. Thank you. Thanks for listening to American history hit. You know, every week we release new episodes,

two new episodes dropping Mondays and Thursdays from mysterious missing colonies to powerful

political movements to some of the biggest battles across the centuries. Don't miss an episode. By hitting like and follow, you help us out, which is great. But you'll also be reminded when our shows are on. And while you're at it, please share with a friend. American history hit with me, Don Wellman. So grateful for your support. Thanks so much.