Indigenous People and the Chicago Portage
Join us as John William Nelson, Eric Hemenway, and Raphael Wahwussuck discuss the critical importance of Chicago’s regional waterways to Indigenous history.
Thursday, November 21, 2024
6:00 - 7:00 p.m. CST
Newberry Library (Ruggles Hall)
60 West Walton Street Chicago
This program is free and open to all.
This program will held in person at the Newberry and live-streamed on.
Advance registration required
In-person registration HERE
Live-streamed registration HERE
In this edition of “Conversations at the Newberry,” historian John William Nelson discusses researching issues of land use and landscape change, focusing on the Indigenous history of Chicago waterways, with Tribal Historic Preservation Officers Eric Hemenway and Raphael Wahwassuck.
This event is part of programming connected with the Newberry Library's free exhibition, Indigenous Chicago, running September 12, 2024, through January 4, 2025. The “Conversations at the Newberry” series is generously supported by Sue and Melvin Gray.
Cosponsored by the Newberry Library and Chicago Collections Consortium.
This event is part of programming connected with the Newberry Library's free exhibition, Indigenous Chicago, running September 12, 2024, through January 4, 2025. The “Conversations at the Newberry” series is generously supported by Sue and Melvin Gray.
Speakers
Eric Hemenway, an Anishinaabe/Odawa, is Director of Repatriation, Archives, and Records for the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians of Waganakising—The Land of the Crooked Tree—located in the northwest portion of the lower peninsula of Michigan. He has a lifelong involvement in researching Odawa history. He has collaborated widely with museums, universities, the National Park Service, schools, and various governments in conducting and presenting research to a wide range of audiences, including to students, staff, faculty, and the general public. He has a wide range of speaking experiences, writing accomplishments, and media projects.
John William Nelson, Assistant Professor of History at Texas Tech University, explores the ways ecology and geography shaped the terms of cross-cultural interaction between Native peoples and European colonizers from first contact through the early republican era of the United States. He is the author of Muddy Ground: Native Peoples, Chicago's Portage, and the Transformation of a Continent, which explores how a particular local landscape along Chicago's continental divide influenced colonial encounters from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries.
Raphael Wahwassuck is a Tribal Council member and Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.