The First Blue Islanders
November recognizes Native American Heritage Month, a tribute to the ancestry and traditions of the first Americans. The history of the earliest inhabitants of what we now call Chicagoland is defined by scholars as the Blue Island culture. From 1300-1600 CE Blue Island culture thrived across southeastern Cook County.
These “Blue Island Indians” lived in the prairie grasslands and marshes that spread out south and east of Blue Island, which had transformed the ancient clay lakebed of glacial Lake Chicago, as well as the wooded moraines of Palos. Archaeologists have identified Blue Island culture sites based on projectiles and pottery styles. Game was abundant. Settlements consisted of rectangular houses made of saplings set in the ground, bent and tied at the top and covered with woven mats. While scholars disagree about the tribal affiliation of these early Blue Islanders, many believe they represented the Winnebago.
In 1600 it has been estimated that 20,000 Indians lived along southern Lake Michigan, what is now known as the Calumet Region. At this time many were Illinois. Following losses in wars with the Iroquois, they were succeeded by Miami, Kickapoo, and finally Potawatomi peoples. Joining the Potawatomi were Ottawas and Ojibwas. Europeans first arrive in Chicago in 1673. In 1833, 6000 Potawatomis assembled in Chicago, where they were pressured to cede their remaining lands in Illinois. By 1835, the year of Blue Island’s Yankee settlement, the first community of Chicago Potawatomis emigrated west of the Mississippi.
The best-known stories of Blue Island’s Native American legacy centers on Fay’s Point. The area surrounding this peninsula of land located between the Little Calumet River and what was Stony Creek (lost to the Cal-Sag Channel) still yields evidence of Native American occupation. Near this confluence, just east of the Little Calumet’s dramatic hairpin turn back toward Lake Calumet, it is said that a battle began in 1769. To the avenge the murder of Chief Pontiac (pictured above), the Ottawa, allied with the Potawatomi, Chippewa, Fox, and Saux tribes fought against the Illini. From Fay’s Point the fight carried south along stream and river, culminating in the Illini defeat at Starved Rock.
Stories abound in early Blue Island history of trading with Indians that remained in the area. Later, tales of young boys digging up arrowheads, especially along the southern ridge of Blue Island, are plentiful. These popular links to Native American culture are a reminder of the lasting record the first Americans left for us to appreciate and respect.
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