Chicago and Waters Garden is located on the traditional unceded homelands of the Council of the Three Fires: the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations. Many other tribes such as the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac, and Fox also called this area home. The region has long been a center for Indigenous people to gather, trade, and maintain kinship ties. Today, one of the largest urban American Indian communities in the United States resides in Chicago. Members of this community continue to contribute to the life of this city and to celebrate their heritage, practice traditions, and care for the land and waterways.
Waters Garden has co-hosted some small events with members of Chicago’s Native American community and supported each other’s native garden projects. This page is a work in progress, and we will document these past efforts and write more about the future.
Questions? You may find answers via these other land acknowledgments from around Chicago: