Chicago American Indian Center (1953-1963)

Source
The sign for the American Indian Center at its original location on LaSalle Street.

The Chicago American Indian Center was founded in 1953, but has existed in several locations across its history. At each place, it has worked to promote community across Native people living in Chicago, advocate for the welfare of Native people in the city, and sustain and educate others about Native cultural and artistic traditions.

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Red Power Activism in Chicago

Native people have long asserted their presence across the United States, however, the most often looked to period of Native activism is known as the Red Power Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The Red Power Movement is defined by moments outside of Chicago that include the Indians of All Tribes' occupation of Alcatraz, the Occupation of Wounded Knee by the American Indian Movement (AIM), and the occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C.; but these were not the only ways Native peoples advocated for themselves. Within Chicago, the Native community chose multiple paths of activism, spanning from occupying sites to protest housing conditions, founding pre-secondary schools, establishing a college, and promoting intertribal collaborations across the Unites States. This City Story centers the Chicago Native community by examining sites and actions taken by Native people within Chicago during the era of Red Power. However, it also looks beyond these moments. Tribal nations, intertribal institutions, individual Native people, and at times non-Natives have consistently worked to promote Indigenous issues within cities such as Chicago. Sources Daniel Cobb. *Native Activism in Cold War America: The Struggle for Sovereignty.* (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2008). Kent Blansett, Cathleen D. Cahill, and Andrew Needham, eds. *Indian Cities: Histories of Indigenous Urbanization.* (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2022). James B. LaGrand. *Indian Metropolis: Native Americans in Chicago, 1945-75.* (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002). John Laukaitis. *Community Self-Determination: American Indian Education in Chicago, 1952-2006.* (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2015).