Unitarian Church of Evanston Land Acknowledgement

The Unitarian Church of Evanston resides on the traditional homelands of the Council of Three Fires – the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi nations. Once used by Nomadic tribes who shared the Algonquin culture and language, by 1760 Potawatomi villages populated this land. This land was recorded as being transferred from the local Potawatomi community to the U.S. Government in the 1829 Treaty of Prairie Du Chien. The government sold the land to white settlers. After decades of violent encroachment by the French, British, and then U.S. American white settlers, and the defeat of a pan-Indian movement to keep white settlers out of the Great Lakes region, the Potawatomi community had no choice but to sell before they were forcefully removed west of the Mississippi River.

The acknowledgement of this land’s history is one small effort toward finding greater accountability, deeper relationship, and mutuality with contemporary Indigenous communities.

The Chicago metro area, including Evanston, is now home to one of the largest and most diverse urban Native communities in the U.S. with around 40,000 Native Americans representing over 150 nations.

We name these realities with honor for all the ancestors and with respect for our descendants, with gratitude for the animals and plants sustained by this land, and with deep appreciation for the land we use as sacred space.

History of 1330 Ridge Avenue, Evanston, IL from 1607-1844

Learn more about “this land”, the land located at what we call 1330 Ridge Avenue, Evanston, Illinois, for which we are now the caretakers. This is the history from before the City of Evanston was incorporated in 1863 and the Unitarian Church of Evanston was founded in 1891.

Tribes of the Indian Nation map shows the location of tribal communities in the area that is now called the United States before contact with people from Europe. Source: Mitchell Museum of the American Indian

1607 – Nomadic tribes who shared the Algonquin culture and language lived on this land, slowly creating the glacial Indian trail on the ridge in the area that is now called Evanston. Before 1607, there were over 15 million people in over 500 Indigenous communities and nations across the North American continent. Their existing roads, cultivated farmland, domesticated crops, and knowledge of edible plants and medicinal herbs were the foundation upon which white settlers were able to survive and upon which our current society was built.
1673 – French explorers made a colonial claim to this land.
1700 – Small settled tribes of the Illiniwek Confederation lived on this land.
1760 – Potawatomi villages populated this land and the surrounding area connected by numerous paths that we now refer to as Ridge Avenue, Green Bay Road, Prairie Avenue, Skokie Boulevard, Niles Center, and Gross Point Road.

Tribal Locations in 1760 map shows the location of tribal communities in the Great Lakes area as of 1760. The Ojibwa are also referred to as the Ojibwe. The Ottawa are also referred to as the Odawa. Source: Pictorial History of Michigan: The Early Years, George S. May, 1967.

1763 – At the end of the French and Indian War between the British and the French, colonial claim to this land transferred from France to Britain.
1787 – US government passed the Northwest Ordinance outlining the specific ways that the Northwest Territory could be added to the new union. The Northwest Territory, as defined by the new US government, included this land. Although the geographical area defined as the Northwest Territory was inhabited by hundreds of thousands of Indians, the ordinance did not extend rights to them.
1790 – French fur trader Antoine arrived in this area and made a home among the Potawatomi community living here. Antoine married Archange Ouilmette, a Potawatomi woman, and they became an influential couple.
1809 – The Territory of Illinois, which included areas we now call Illinois, Wisconsin, and parts of Minnesota and Michigan, was recognized as an organized incorporated territory by the US government.
1814 – During the War of 1812 colonial claim of this land transferred from Britain to the United States.
1818 – The southern portion of the Territory of Illinois was admitted to the United States as the State of Illinois.
1818 to 1833 – The Potawatomi Indians living in what we refer to as the Chicagoland area negotiated a series of treaties with the US government that bit-by-bit removed tribal lands from their control. Often these treaties were negotiated under questionable circumstances making the outcomes unfairly biased toward the US Americans.
1829 – Treaty of Prairie Du Chien ceded all land located within what we refer to as Evanston to the US government, with the exception of the land north of Central Street and from the lake west to almost Ewing Avenue that was granted as a reservation to Archange Ouilmette due to her assistance of US Americans during the War of 1812. The land ceded was sold by the US government to white settlers or gifted to white military soldiers as compensation for their service.
1833 – Treaty of Chicago forced the remaining Potawatomi communities in what we refer to as the Chicagoland area to sell all remaining tribal lands and outlined the forced removal of all Indians from Illinois to reservations in Oklahoma, with the exception of land given in land grants and the communities residing there such as Archange Ouilmette’s reservation and a few other midwest reservations. Soon after, Chicago was incorporated.
1844 – Heirs of Archange Ouilmette petitioned the US government to sell the reservation’s land. The government purchased the land (640 acres) for $1,000 and then gradually re-sold it to white real estate developers.

This Land in Ancient Times

12,000-8,000 BC (Paleo Period): Nomadic hunters and gatherers during the ice age moved into the area that is now called Illinois around 11,500 BC as the glaciers receded.
8,000-1,000 BC (Archaic Period): At least 8,310 seasonal settlement sites were located along the waterways in the area that is now called Illinois.
600-800 AD (Woodlands Period): At least 39 permanents sites where tribes cultivated corn, beans, and squash were settled in the area that is now called Illinois.
800-1450 AD (Mississippian Period): At least 2,379 settled sites with a vast and complex social, leadership, and trade system existed in the area that is now called Illinois.

Unitarian Universalists Repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery and Support Rights of Indigenous Peoples

The Unitarian Universalist Association seeks justice for Indigenous Peoples. In 2012, the delegates of the Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly passed a Responsive Resolution stating the following:

“THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that we, the delegates of the 2012 General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association, repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery as a relic of colonialism, feudalism, and religious, cultural, and racial biases having no place in the modern day treatment of indigenous peoples; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call upon the Unitarian Universalist Association and its member congregations to review the historical theologies, policies, and programs of Unitarianism, Universalism, and Unitarian Universalism to expose the historical reality and impact of the Doctrine of Discovery and eliminate its presence in the contemporary policies, programs, theologies, and structures of Unitarian Universalism; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call upon the Unitarian Universalist Association to invite indigenous partners to a process of Honor and Healing (often called Truth and Reconciliation), and if one or more partners agree, to undergo such a process about Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist complicity in the structures and policies that oppress indigenous peoples and the earth; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call upon the leadership of the Unitarian Universalist Association to make a clear and concise statement repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery and its current use in U.S. laws and regulations; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we encourage other religious bodies to reject the use of the Doctrine of Discovery to dominate indigenous peoples, and that the UUA collaborate with these groups to propose a specific Congressional Resolution to repudiate this doctrine; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that we call upon the United States to fully implement the standards of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the U.S. law and policy without qualifications. In doing so, we support the establishment of commissions that include accountable representatives of the indigenous nations of North America and the Hawai’ian Kingdom.”