WEST RIDGE — Two hundred years ago, Native American tribes were living on land that would later become the city of Chicago.
Today, places like Indian Boundary Park, Chippewa Park and Pottawattomie Park pay some tribute to the early Chicagoans driven off of their land, but a lecture coming to Northtown Library in West Ridge aims to further explore the neighborhood's Native American roots.
The free event runs from 6-8 p.m. Thursday at the library's 6435 N. California Ave. address and will be presented by the Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society and Theodore Karamanski, a history professor at Loyola University.
"This illustrated lecture will narrate the story of American Indians’ long history in the Chicago area from the Ice Age to the present," organizers wrote on the event page. "Special attention will be given to the interactions between Indians and European-American settlers and the government policies that attempted to ethnically cleanse the Native American population."
One well-known marker of the clash between early white settlers and Native Americans is seen in Rogers Avenue, which spans several Far North Side neighborhoods like Sauganash, West Ridge and Rogers Park, and was used as an ancient trail by Native Americans in the area.
In August 1816 the path was designated as the Indian Boundary Line between white settlers and the Ojibwa, Ottawa and Pottawatomie tribes by the Treaty of St. Louis, according to the Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society. It was later named after Philip Rogers, the man whom the Rogers Park neighborhood is also named after. Chicago became a city in 1833.
Those interested are encouraged to pre-register for a guaranteed seat.
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