CHICAGO HISTORY Editor-in-Chief Copyright 2012 by the Rosemary K. Adams Chicago Historical Society Clark Street at North Avenue Senior Editor Chicago, IL 60614-6038 Emily H. Nordstrom 312.642.4600 www.chicagohistory.org Assistant Editor Lydia C. Carr ISSN 0272-8540 Articles appearing in this Designer journal are abstracted and Bill Van Nimwegen indexed in Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life. Cover: In this detail from Photography an undated postcard, John Alderson Footnoted manuscripts of the articles appearing in this people and animals Shelby Silvernell issue are available from the alike take advantage Chicago History Museum’s of Chicago’s public fountains. Image courtesy of Leslie Coburn. Publications Office. CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY OFFICERS HONORARY TRUSTEE Bridget M. Reidy Barbara Levy Kipper Rahm Emanuel Jesse H. Ruiz W. Paul Krauss Sharon Gist Gilliam Mayor, City of Chicago Larry Selander Fred A. Krehbiel Chair Joseph Seliga Joseph H. Levy Jr. TRUSTEES John W. Rowe Josephine Louis James L. Alexander Samuel J. Tinaglia Chairman Emeritus R. Eden Martin David H. Blake Ali Velshi Robert Meers John W. Croghan David P. Bolger Joan Werhane Josephine Baskin Minow Vice Chair Warren K. Chapman Jeffrey W. Yingling Potter Palmer Patrick F. Daly Walter C. Carlson HONORARY LIFE TRUSTEE Bryan S. Reid Jr. T. Bondurant French Vice Chair Richard M. Daley Gordon I. Segal Timothy J. Gilfoyle Paul L. Snyder Patrick W. Dolan Mary Lou Gorno LIFE TRUSTEES Treasurer Barbara A. Hamel Lerone Bennett Jr. TRUSTEES EMERITUS Paul H. Dykstra David D. Hiller Philip D. Block III Jonathan Fanton Secretary Dennis H. Holtschneider Laurence O. Booth Sallie L. Gaines Tobin E. Hopkins Stanley J. Calderon Thomas M. Goldstein Gary T. Johnson Nena Ivon Alison Campbell de Frise Cynthia Greenleaf President Daniel S. Jaffee Stewart S. Dixon David A. Gupta Russell L. Lewis Falona Joy Michael H. Ebner Jean Haider Executive Vice President Randye A. Kogan M. Hill Hammock Erica C. Meyer and Chief Historian Judith Konen Susan S. Higinbotham Robert J. Moore Paul R. Lovejoy Henry W. Howell Jr. Eboo Patel Timothy P. Moen Philip W. Hummer Nancy K. Robinson Ralph G. Moore Richard M. Jaffee April T. Schink Michael A. Nemeroff Edgar D. Jannotta Noren Ungaretti The Chicago History Museum is easily accessible via public transportation. CTA buses nos. 11, 22, 36, 72, 73, 151, and 156 stop nearby. For travel information, visit www.transitchicago.com. The Chicago History Museum gratefully acknowledges the Chicago Park District’s generous support of all of the Museum’s activities. THE MAGAZINE OF THE CHICAGO HISTORY MUSEUM Spring 2 012 VOLUME XXXVIII, NUMBER 1 Contents The Water Question 4 Leslie Coburn Crossroads for a Culture 22 Rosalyn R. LaPier and David R. M. Beck Departments 44 Yesterday’s City Robert Pruter 66 Making History Timothy J. Gilfoyle Crossroads for a Culture Chicago provided a home for a diverse group of American Indians during the Progressive Era. ROSALYN R. L A PIER AND DAVID R. M. BECK For many Indians, like this group waiting for a train in 1903, Chicago was a common stop when traveling by rail. 22 | Chicago History | Spring 2012 y the beginning of the twentieth century, Chicago had emerged as one of the largest and busiest B cities in the United States. As the railroad capital of America and a rapidly growing industrial center, it appealed to immigrants and migrants alike. American Indians were no exception. Many came to Chicago seeking employment. Others traveled through the metropolis via the numerous railroads, usually going from western reservation communities to eastern cities. Some passed through in their work as entertainers, while others were on their way to Washington, DC, to meet with fed - eral authorities. A number stayed in Chicago, either tem - porarily or permanently. This occurred during a time of great change in Indian country. As policy makers and reformers began to realize that American Indians were not disappearing from the American landscape, they shifted their efforts to assimi - lation. This was done to a large degree through the boarding school experiments that removed children from their families and community environments to inculcate them with American cultural values. While this process often proved destructive to tribal communities, it also created an educated Indian intelligentsia, who ironically worked hard to incorporate tribal values into modern Simon Pokagon carried on the work of his father, Leopold, drawing life. Those who came to Chicago tried both to wrest con - attention to the plight of the Indian tribes who originated in the trol of what it meant to be Indian from non-Indian defi - Chicago area. This portrait engraving appeared on a handbill nition and to help carve out a place for American Indians he presented to the Chicago Historical Society in 1899. in contemporary society, which now included the urban landscape. The city of Chicago played a central role both played on the Midway Plaisance as part of “the illustrated regionally and nationally as a place where individual history of the progress of the human race, and its develop - American Indians during and after the Progressive Era ment from the cave dweller to the man who is the best asserted their position in modern American society. The embodiment of the civilization of the nineteenth century.” stories of these remarkable individuals shed light on the The displays of the American Indian Village on the development of a new type of experience and leadership Midway and the American Indian school exhibited in the in Indian America. Ethnology Building were developed by ethnologists with the cooperation of the United States government. Simon Pokagon According to one non-Indian observer, “educated” Indians Simon Pokagon, a Potawatomi leader from Michigan, did were used in these displays, and most of them had to be not live permanently in the city. Chicago, however, was taught the “old” customs of music, dwelling, and dress by the traditional territory of the Potawatomi, lost in a treaty the ethnologists. One guidebook to the fair urged visitors in 1833. Throughout his life Pokagon spent significant to see “the almost extinct civilization if civilization it is to time in his ancient homeland. He was among the first be called [of the] ‘noble red man’ . before he achieves modern American Indian leaders to assert his convictions annihilation, or at least loss of identity.” about the status of American Indians and the responsibil - A nascent academic field in the Progressive Era, ities of the U.S. government. He used his role as a tradi - anthropology took a key role in portraying for the visiting tional leader and respected orator to promote Indian public one of the key interpretations of the fair, “the idea issues and concerns, most publically in 1893. of progress, especially as manifested in the assumed tri - In that year, Chicago celebrated the four hundredth umph of civilization on the North American continent.” anniversary of the European “discovery” of the Americas Columbia University’s renowned anthropologist Franz with the World’s Columbian Exposition. As part of the Boas sent some fifty trained ethnologists into American fair’s educational function, American Indians and other Indian communities in the United States and Canada to ethnic groups considered inferior or less civilized were dis - collect a variety of information that could be used to por - Crossroads for a Culture | 23 Simon Pokagon presented this copy of the Red Man’s Rebuke and the two birch bark books at the right to the Chicago Historical Society in 1899. tray Indian America to fairgoers. This work included sur - Six decades after the treaty signing, Simon Pokagon veys conducted with fifteen thousand individuals of argued against the portrayal of Indians as uncivilized more than two hundred tribal backgrounds. American savages by the fair’s organizers. A Catholic, Pokagon Indians served as physical reminders of just how far had studied for three years at Notre Dame, one at removed from civilization early (Native) Americans were Oberlin College, and two at Twinsburg College in Ohio; and measuring sticks for how far modern (white) he spoke five languages, was a good organist, and gen - Americans had advanced. erally considered to have the best, or rather most Despite this implicit and explicit racism, many of the Europeanized, education in his generation of Indians. Indians who attended the fair enjoyed themselves. He attended the opening of the fair, lamenting that Solomon O’Bail probably reflected the perspective of many Indians were not allowed to participate with represen - Indians in attendance when he said, “Had good time all tatives and exhibits of their own. After witnessing the summer; no mad words; good time.” opening ceremonies, the story goes, Pokagon walked However, a number of American Indians also protested the ways in which the fair portrayed them to the world. through the fairgrounds with a heavy heart. A little One of these was Simon Pokagon, whose father, Leopold, Indian girl tried to cheer him by giving him a bunch of had been among the signers of the Chicago treaty of flowers. “This simple act,” one observer said, perhaps September 26, 1833. Simon was just a young boy when with some embellishment, “inspired him to write the the tribe gathered in its old hunting and fishing grounds Red Man’s Greeting .” The “greeting,” originally titled the in what is now the South Side of Chicago for this treaty- Red Man’s Rebuke , was a bitter document of Indian –white signing. Father and son spent their lives attempting to gain relations printed on birch bark and widely distributed fair restitution for that land from the federal government. on the Midway. Pokagon began: 24 | Chicago History | Spring 2012 In behalf of my people, the American Indians, I hereby declare to you, the pale-faced race that has usurped our lands and homes, that we have no spirit to celebrate with you the great Columbian Fair now being held in this Chicago city, the wonder of the world.