SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Nearly 175 years after the U.S. government took land from a Prairie Band Potawatomi chief while he was away visiting relatives, the state of Illinois may soon return it to the tribe.
The 1829 treaty that Chief Chabeney signed with the U.S. government to maintain his reservation in northern Illinois was never changed by subsequent agreements or the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced all Native Americans to move west of the Mississippi River.
But around 1848, while Chavenay and other members of his tribe were visiting family in Kansas, the United States sold the land to white settlers.
To right this wrong, the state of Illinois will transfer a 1,500-acre (607 ha) state park named after Chavenay on the west side of Chicago to the Prairie Band Potawatomi.
The state will continue to provide maintenance, but the tribe wants to keep the park as is.
“The public should not know that ownership of the land has been transferred to the nation so they can enjoy everything that goes on in the park and take advantage of all the areas it has,” said Joseph “Zeke” Lapnick, chairman of the Mayetta, Kansas-based Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.
It is not exactly the same land that the US took from Chief Chabeney.
The boundaries of the 1,280-acre (518 hectare) preserve he originally set aside now encompass hundreds of acres of private land, golf courses, and county forest preserves. A bill awaiting approval by the Illinois General Assembly would transfer the Shabbona Lake State Recreation Area.
No one disputes that the Chabeney reservation was sold illegally and remains Potawatomi land. A thorough Interior Department memo from July 2000 found this claim to be valid, dismissing objections from Illinois officials at the time and stating that “Illinois officials appear to struggle with the concept of an Indian reservation within the state’s borders.”
But a quarter century later, nothing has changed.
State Rep. Will Guzzardi, a Democrat who introduced the state park transfer bill, said this is a major concession to the Potawatomi. Currently, various private and public companies own more than half of the original reservation, and reclaiming the land for the Potawatomi would spark a complex legal battle.
“Instead, the tribe offered a compromise: ‘We’ll take the whole park and give up the rights to the private land and the county land and the rest of the land,'” Guzzardi said. “This is a better deal for everyone involved.”
The proposal to transfer the park, 68 miles (109 kilometers) west of Chicago, won Senate approval on the final day of the legislative spring session, but roadblocks in the House prevented the bill from passing. Proponents plan to seek approval for the measure when the Legislature meets again for the fall session in November.
The Second Prairie du Chien Treaty, signed in 1829, guaranteed Chief Shab-e-Nay his original lands. The tribe signed 20 more treaties over the next 38 years, Rupnick said.
“But the council held those two parcels of land in perpetuity for Chief Shabuenei and his descendants,” said Lapnick, who is Chief Shabuenei’s fourth-generation great-grandson. “The council could have stripped the land of its status at any time. They never did.”
Key to the proposal is a management agreement between the tribe and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Lapnick said the tribe needs state assistance to maintain the park.
Many residents who live next to the park are opposed to the plan, fearing it will be built there. casino Or even if there were hotels, it would attract more tourists and create a larger, more crowded community.
“My family and I have spent a lot of money and given up a lot to live in this small community and enjoy the park the way it is,” resident Becky Oest told the House committee in May, asking that the proposal be amended to “prohibit any construction that would impact our community.” “This is a small town. We don’t want it to get any bigger.”
Lapnick said a casino wouldn’t make sense because state-licensed gaming boats already dot the state. He didn’t rule out a hotel, noting that the park gets 500,000 visitors a year and the nearest lodging options are in DeKalb, 18 miles (29 kilometers) northeast of Shabbona. The park has 150 campgrounds.
In 2006, the tribe purchased 128 acres (52 hectares) of land on the original reservation, which it leases for farming.
The U.S. government recognized it as Illinois’ first reservation in April.
Guzzardi hopes the Potawatomi won’t have to wait too long for the park transfer to exponentially increase their numbers.
“This beautiful public asset will be available for everyone to use,” Guzzardi said, “this landowner’s ownership dispute will be resolved and, most importantly, our broken promises will be kept.”
