Land Acknowledgment

Northwestern Pritzker Law is a community of learners situated within a network of historical and contemporary relationships with Native American tribes, communities, parents, students, and alumni. The Law School is in the heart of downtown Chicago and thus sits among the urban Native American community in Chicago and near several tribes in the Midwest.

Northwestern Law is located on the traditional homelands of the Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo), Peoria, Potawatomi, and Myaamia (Miami) nations, and is an extension of Northwestern University, which sits on the traditional homelands of the people of the Council of Three Fires, the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa as well as the Menominee, Miami and Ho-Chunk nations. The Chicago and Evanston campuses are placed on lands that were also sites of trade, travel, gathering and healing for more than a dozen other Native tribes and are still home to over 100,000 tribal members in the state of Illinois.

As an academic institution committed to justice, diversity, and inclusion, Northwestern Law has a responsibility to disseminate knowledge about Native peoples and the institution’s history with them. In pursuit of our mission to be a place where theory meets practice and thought meets action, Northwestern University and Northwestern Law work toward building relationships with Native American communities through academic pursuits, partnerships, historical recognitions, community service, and enrollment efforts. 

Northwestern University Native American and Indigenous Resources

• Native American and Indigenous Initiatives
• Native American Outreach and Inclusion Task Force
• Center for Native American and Indigenous Research
• Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion

Further Information

Three Fires Confederacy - collectively known as Anishnabek (or Anishinabe) people

U.S. Potawatomi/Bodéwadmiakiwen

Potawatomi bands include:

• Citizen Potawatomi Nation
• Forest County Potawatomi Community
• Hannahville Indian community
• Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi
• Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi
• Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Nation

Ojibwe

Nearby Ojibwe bands include: 

• Bad River Band of Chippewa
• Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians

Other Ojibwe bands include:

• Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
• Lac Courte Oreilles band
• Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe
• Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe
• St. Croix Chippewa

Odawa

• Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians

Miami Nation

• Miami Nation of Indians of the State of Indiana
• The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma

Ho-Chunk Nation

• Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin
• Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska

Menominee

• Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin

Peoria

• Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma

Kickapoo

• Kansas Kickapoo Tribe
• Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma

The following centers and websites cover current and historical topics related to Native American and Indigenous people of Chicago:

• The Field Museum LibGuide for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition
• Tribal Nations Map: Our Own Names, Our Own Locations (pdf)
• “‘We’re Still Here’: Chicago’s Native American Community”
• Series Erosion of the Middle Ground: Native Peoples of the Great Lakes Region after 1815
• National Museum of the American Indian
• Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative
• National Congress of American Indians
• Milwaukee Public Museum: Wisconsin Indian Resource Project (WIRP)
• Chicago History Museum
• The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Native American Support Program

The following sites were referenced in creating this land acknowledgment: 

• Northwestern University's land acknowledgment
• Native Land
• American Library Association