At the DeKalb County History Center, Michelle Donahoe reads from an 1843 map of Shabbona township.
“This is reserved for the use of Chief Shab-eh-nay and his band, based on the Treaty of Prairie du Chien in 1829," she reads. "So, like, right there, this is a tremendous primary source document.”
Donahoe is the history center’s executive director. That 180-year-old map shows the DeKalb County land stolen from Chief Shab-eh-nay which was returned to the Prairie Band Potawatomi just last year.
This past school year, for the first time, Illinois schools were required to teach a unit on the experience and history of Native people in the state.
So, when the news coincided with the launch of the state’s new indigenous curriculum requirements, Donahoe knew they had an opportunity to help teachers bring local history to their classroom.
So, last summer, they hosted a multi-day training with teachers from every district in the county to show them how to teach with primary sources like the 1843 map. She says they also have old biographies about Shab-eh-nay and court records where the chief sues settlers for stealing his timber.
“This is not something that is really distant, like this happened here in our county," she said.
Emily Weller is an elementary instructional coach in DeKalb. She says the training helped fill a gap in her own education. She doesn’t remember learning much at all about Native American experiences, let alone the local history.
Weller also wanted to make sure their classes didn’t get stuck in history, especially with the Prairie Band formally returning to the region.
“We want them to know that Native Americans are still here," she said. "And so bringing that balance with the past to the current, and so taking those current events was something that was important to our team.”
One of their goals was to keep it as local as possible. The center shared articles and artifacts teachers wove into instruction. A 2nd grade unit focused on DeKalb history. A 4th grade unit centered around Native American cultures, myths, & legends.
They’re not the only ones thinking local. The Newberry Library in Chicago worked with a team, including many Native researchers and advisors, to assemble an interactive ‘Indigenous Chicago’ curriculum. It features digital maps, activity modules, oral histories, and much more.
Like in DeKalb, students explore old maps, like a French colonial portrait of Midwest indigenous tribes from 1718.
“A map oriented around native villages shows us that as late as the 19th century, settlers were still living in a world that was primarily shaped by the location and actions of native communities," said the Newberry’s Rose Myron.
Steve Schwartz is a history teacher at Oak Park & River Forest High School. He was part of a year-long pilot of the program and continues using the resources in his ‘History of Chicago’ class.
He says the tools show students how Native communities, trails, and treaties created the geography of Chicago. When they ask why there weren’t any reservations in Illinois until last year, he can show the removal routes.
“You show them these maps. Well, this is the road out to Iowa. This is the road out to Wisconsin. This is how they end up across the Mississippi," said Schwartz.
He brings indigenous voices into his courses with the oral histories and audio files of Native people pronouncing tribe names and phrases in their languages.
Schwartz also doesn’t want to get lost in the past. He highlights Chicago’s place in indigenous activism movements of the 1960s & 70s, as well as the city’s Native community now, with over 65,000 indigenous people from around 175 tribes.
Other groups across Illinois are also assembling education resources. The Illinois State Museum created activities and videos for students with the museum’s tribal relations director Logan Pappenfort, who is a member of the Peoria Tribe of Oklahoma, which has roots in Illinois.
“What I find incredibly fascinating about this story is that this is a piece of pottery from 2,000 years ago telling the same story that my people have told for that full duration of time and potentially longer," said Pappenfort.
The Illinois State Museum is in the process of returning to tribes the remains of thousands of native people.
Steve Schwartz says his students had always asked why they didn’t teach indigenous history. So, now, he says it’s rewarding to give them the tools to have real conversations about indigenous issues.
“The challenge is to, as teachers, really create this mosaic of what American history really is and you have to fight against the dominant narrative a lot to do that," he said.
Now that Native American instruction is here to stay, he hopes there will be even more resources that spotlight important stories traditionally left out of history classes.
