Chicago Indian Village facts for kids

The Chicago Indian Village (CIV) was a group that protested for better housing for Native Americans in and around Chicago, Illinois. It was active from 1971 to 1972. The group worked to show people the poor living conditions for Native Americans in the Chicago area and to find solutions.

Why the Chicago Indian Village Started

In the mid-1900s, the U.S. government had policies that encouraged Native Americans to move from their reservations to big cities. By 1969, Chicago was one of the cities with many Native American citizens.

To help with this big change, Native American leaders started the American Indian Center (AIC) in Chicago in 1953. The AIC offered social help, programs for young people and seniors, and cultural events.

Later, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, some Native Americans, including members of the AIC, formed the Native American Committee (NAC). They felt that the Native American community in Chicago, especially the AIC, should focus more on education, helping themselves, and fighting poverty. Important leaders of the NAC included Michael Chosa and Faith Smith.

The Wrigleyville Protest Camp

In early 1970, Carol Warrington, a Menominee mother of six, stopped paying rent. She wanted her landlord to fix her very old apartment. On May 5, 1970, her landlord forced her and her children out of their home. Her apartment was near Wrigley Field, where the Chicago Cubs baseball team plays.

The NAC decided to help Carol. The AIC had a large teepee used for public events. Michael Chosa borrowed it and set it up on an empty lot across from Carol's old apartment. He asked other Native Americans to join him. From this spot, right next to the famous baseball stadium, Chosa demanded fair treatment for Carol and better homes for all Native Americans. Students from a nearby university even gave them money and portable toilets. News reporters called this protest the "little Alcatraz Movement." This was because it was similar to the Occupation of Alcatraz in San Francisco, where Native Americans had taken over an island.

After a few days, the protest group split. Many people stayed with Chosa to continue the protest camp near the stadium. Some members of the AIC, who had lent the teepee, felt the protest had made its point and should end. Another group from the NAC, led by Steve Fastwolf, left to focus on education. The remaining protestors, led by Chosa, decided to call themselves the Chicago Indian Village (CIV).

Other Protest Locations

In June 1971, Chosa led his followers to an empty area by Lake Michigan at Chicago's Belmont Harbor. This spot used to be a military site for anti-aircraft missiles. The CIV group demanded that this land be used to build 200 homes for Native Americans and a school for 500 Native American children. After two weeks, the Chicago police made the protestors leave on July 1, 1971.

Clyde Bellecourt, a co-founder of the American Indian Movement (AIM), visited the CIV at Belmont Harbor. Over the next year, while talks continued, the group camped in different places. These included Big Bend Lake in Des Plaines, Illinois, and another old missile site near the Argonne National Laboratory.

Eventually, a helper for a U.S. Congressman found the group a place to stay at Camp Seager. This was a summer camp run by the United Methodist Church near Naperville, Illinois. It was a temporary solution, but the cabins were not built for winter. By the summer of 1972, the group had fewer members and less energy, so they broke up.

What the Chicago Indian Village Achieved

Even though the CIV only lasted until the summer of 1972, it did achieve some important things:

• The group put enough pressure on government offices in Chicago to create a special team. This team was meant to try and meet some of the Native Americans' needs and demands.
• The CIV was given a seat at the table with government agencies to discuss possible solutions.
• The CIV won temporary housing at Camp Seager. They also got emergency help for the camp. There was a promise to build 132 public housing units for Native Americans in Chicago and a cultural center.

However, these promises from the government depended on certain conditions being met by the CIV members and other city groups. These conditions were not met, and so the CIV group eventually broke apart.

See also

• Urban Indian
• Native American civil rights
• Red Power movement