Contested Land and Water along Lake Michigan: Thoughts from a Member of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi

Photo via Wikimedia

Over a hundred years ago, members of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi filed claims of ownership to land built into Lake Michigan in what is now known as Streeterville. Today, this land is home to Navy Pier, part of the Magnificent Mile, and the downtown Northwestern campus. 

In the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, the United States was granted all land west of Lake Michigan through Lake Winnebago. Most Native people moved west, but the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi stayed in the area in nearby Saint Joseph River Valley. When land was filled into Lake Michigan in the early 1900’s, in part due to the efforts of local eccentric George Streeter, for whom the area is now named, the Pokagon Band filed claim after claim, stating they never ceded any land outside of the treaty lines in 1833, and any land built up past those lines into the lake was rightfully theirs. 

These claims were denied on the basis of abandonment, and the Supreme Court upheld this decision in 1917. By 1919, Northwestern University had purchased a portion of this land. In 1926, Northwestern’s downtown campus construction broke ground, making the campus the first substantial building on this land. 

John Low, enrolled citizen of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and professor at Ohio State University at Newark, discusses this land built into the waters of Lake Michigan.