Indigenous Chicago

The American Indian Gift Store was among the businesses promoted as “American Indian owned and operated” in the 1982 Chicago American Indian Community Service Directory. Owned by Chee Joe Spencer, a silversmith, it was also listed in the Native American business section in the Chicago Tribune in 1990, demonstrating some acknowledgement of the importance of representation or the continued presence of a Native-owned businesses.

Sources:

The Chicago American Indian Community Service Directory (Chicago: Native American Education Services, 1982), Newberry Library
“Animates designs liven up pottery, parties, clock, closets,” Chicago Tribune.
“Native American Gift Shops,” Chicago Tribune.

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.