My land acknowledgment
My family owns a residential plot in suburban Chicago. I decided to find out what used to be there.
(Century illustration by Daniel Richardson)
Other article images in order of appearance: 2023 (left) and 1956 (right) aerial photographs of DuPage Gardens subdivision in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, with the author's house circled / Plat of subdivision for DuPage Gardens with the author's lot circled, along with racial exclusion clause (inset) / US land patent awarding ownership of 120 acres of public land to Thomas Patchell in 1845 / Albert S. Scharf's 1900 map of Indian trails in and around Chicago as they existed in 1804, with the author's lot circled in red (all images public domain)
A long time has passed since we first came upon our lands, and our old people have all sunk into their graves. They had sense. We are all young and foolish, and do not wish to do anything that they would not approve, were they living. We are fearful we shall offend their spirits, if we sell our lands; and we are fearful we shall offend you, if we do not sell them. This has caused us great perplexity of thought, because we have counselled among ourselves, and do not know how we can part with the land. Our country was given to us by the Great Spirit, who gave it to us to hunt upon, to make our cornfields upon, to live upon, and to make down our beds upon when we die. And he would never forgive us, should we bargain it away. When you first spoke to us for lands at St. Mary’s, we said we had a little, and agreed to sell you a piece of it; but we told you we could spare no more. Now you ask us again. You are never satisfied! We have sold you a great tract of land already; but it is not enough! We sold it to you for the benefit of your children, to farm and to live upon. We have now but little left. We shall want it all for ourselves.
—Chief Metea, in defense of Potawatomi land at the signing of the first Treaty of Chicago in 1821
I am standing in the street on a quiet, suburban cul-de-sac in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, in front of a small brick house. The sounds of traffic come strongly from Roosevelt Road to the south and I-355 to the west. This house is my house. I’ve lived here with my family since purchasing it in 2015.
