St. Augustine's Center for American Indians (1963-1967)

St. Augustine’s Center for American Indians was founded by Father Peter John Powell in 1961 after he began assisting Native people who had moved to Chicago through the Bureau of Indian Affairs's Voluntary Urban Relocation program (1952-1972). Powell started providing this assistance out of St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church on Chicago’s West Side in the mid-1950s, and prior to this, he had been involved with the American Indian Center as both a supporter and member of the board of directors.

St. Augustine’s began as a series of assistance programs and in its first few years handled over 10,000 cases that included grocery, employment, lodging, clothing, and general assistance for Native families or individuals. It also provided tutoring and cultural programs. After Father Powell resigned from the position of Director of St. Augustine’s in 1971, the position was taken up by members of the Chicago Native community. Board members and directors included Matthew Pilcher (Ho-Chunk), Amy Skenandore (Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican), Elmira McClure (Ojibwe), and Arlene R. Williams (Oneida). Under Amy Skenandore (Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican), Bo-Sho-Ne-Gee Drop-In Center was founded under the umbrella of service provided by St. Augustine's to assist community members struggling with addiction and food security. St. Augustine’s also continued to assist people in receiving healthcare and sponsored community events like baby showers. St. Augustine’s continued to serve the Chicago Native community until 2006. When it closed, it had served over 6,000 Native families.

Sources:

"Father Peter J. Powell, 1928-2022." The Newberry. newberry.org.
James LaGrande. Indian Metropolis: Native Americans in Chicago, 1945-75. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2005).
John J. Laukaitis. Community Self-Determination: American Indian Education in Chicago, 1952-2006. (Albany: SUNY Press, 2015).
Pamela Dittmer McKuen. "Indian tutor shows kids balance: Volunteer instills pride of heritage and customs." Chicago Tribune November 5, 1997.
Douglas K. Miller. Indians on the Move: Native American Mobility and Urbanization in the Twentieth Century. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019).
Brianna Theobald. Reproduction on the Reservation: Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Colonialism in the Long Twentieth Century. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019).

Uptown

After its incorporation into the city of Chicago in the 1880s Uptown worked to compete with downtown, leading to the construction of well-known landmarks such as the Uptown Theatre, the Aragon Ballroom, and the Green Mill Lounge. The Great Depression led to a once thriving area with luxury housing to be broken down into smaller apartments that could be cheaply rented. This was the Uptown that White Appalachians, African Americans, and Native Americans encountered when federal policies or economic necessity drove them to migrate to the neighborhood from across the country from the 1950’s through the 1970’s. Native people that moved to Chicago were motivated by economic necessity or pushed by federal policies created by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) seeking to assimilate them into American society. These policies included the voluntary relocation program (1952-1972) followed by the relocation Act of 1956, other job placement programs, and decades of other assimilation policies. Chicago was chosen by the BIA as one of five original relocation sites for relocation due to the high volume of factory work and other jobs, along with it being an urban setting that was seen as being in opposition to Native reservations. But Chicago had already been chosen by Native people. It had been a site of [Native villages](https://felt.com/map/Chicagoland-Village-Site-Map-MlC9A1aS5T9AKwafrD8Eq7DB?loc=41.892,-88.929,7.53z&share=1) prior to the establishment of the city, and those who remained in spite of removals or moved to the city did not always see it as being in opposition to their home communities. This Chicago Native community that existed prior to relocation founded the Indian Council Fire, the American Indian Club, and worked with other groups to create the foundations of the institutions that would follow. This Native community was scattered throughout the city, not concentrated in one neighborhood. In its first nine years the voluntary relocation program relocated almost 5,000 Native peoples to Chicago. The need for housing for the mass number of people, and the low paying jobs many were forced to take meant that many were forced into cheap housing around the city, with Uptown becoming the neighborhood with the largest population of Natives. Native people also came together to support one another when the BIA failed to provide the housing, jobs, and support that it had promised. In opposition to the efforts to assimilate Native people, relocation resulted in the creation of a new, intertribal community in which people supported one another through mutual aid. Sources: Ann Durkin Keating, ed. *Chicago’s Neighborhoods and Suburbs: A Historical Guide.* (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008: 286). James B. LaGrand. *Indian Metropolis: Native Americans in Chicago, 1945-75*. (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2002). John J. Laukaitis. *Community Self-Determination: American Indian Education in Chicago, 1952-1996*. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2015). Douglas K. Miller. *Indians on the Move: Native American Mobility and Urbanization in the Twentieth Century*. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019). Chicago American Indian Oral History Project Records - Native Voices in the City manuscript, Newberry Library.