2012 Lecture Series
The Year of the Treaties!
Chicago was created, in part, by treaties with the Native American Tribes. From 1795 to 1833 a series of treaties
with a number of tribes and tribal leaders gave the ground Chicago's downtown stands upon to the United States,
created the “Indian Boundary Lines”, and finally removed the local tribes from Illinois
Friends of the Chicago Portage will present five free public history lectures by accomplished
local researchers, historians and storytellers about the land of the Chicago Portage, the lines
Americans drew across it, all to build a ditch that made the swampy town a great city,
and a great canal that saved the city from the swamp.
The lectures will be on the last Saturday of March, June and August, October and November.
All presentations are at the Village of Lyons Community Center located at 4200 S. Lawndale Avenue in Lyons.
All presentations will begin at 1pm and will end before 3pm. Groups should RSVP by calling
Jeff at 312-771-6855. Light refreshments will be served.
Saturday, March 31, 2012 at 1pm
Geology as Destiny: Across the Continental Divide and through the Chicago Portage
Discover how ancient geology created a water link between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico and why that link led to the creation of this great city in the heart of the Midwest. This presentation lays the "groundwork" for the rest of the lecture series.
Presented at the Village of Lyons Community Center located at 4200 S. Lawndale Avenue in Lyons
Presented by Friends of the Chicago Portage member David Dolak, Professor of Geology and Environmental Sciences at Chicago's Columbia College.
The Treaty of Greenville 1795
Saturday, June 30, 2012 at 1pm
The Treaty of Greenville
Friends of the Chicago Portage President Jeff Carter will take you back to the “Battle of Fallen Timbers” and the resulting 1795 Treaty of Greenville that put an end to the Northwest Indian War and ceded to the new United States " one piece of land, six miles square at or near the mouth of the Chicago River, emptying into the southwest end of Lake Michigan, ", the area now known by Chicagoan's as “the Loop”.
Presented at the Village of Lyons Community Center located at 4200 S. Lawndale Avenue in Lyons
Presented by Friends of the Chicago Portage
President Jeff Carter
Saturday, August 25, 2012 at 1pm
The Treaty of St. Louis and
the Indian Boundary Lines
Following the War of 1812, local tribes ceded to the United States a 20 mile wide strip of land centered on the mouth of the Chicago River to near present day Ottawa, Illinois. Through the Treaty of St. Louis of 1816, the government acquired control over the Chicago River corridor linking Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River.
Presented at the Village of Lyons Community Center located at 4200 S. Lawndale Avenue in Lyons
The Great Indian Council at Chicago in 1833
Saturday, October 27, 2012 at 1pm
The Treaty of Chicago
In September 1833, 6,000 Indians of the “United Nation of Chippewa, Ottowa, and Potawatamie Indians” gathered in Chicago and ceded to the United States all their land in Illinois, about five million acres, for a half million dollars. Largely represented by three Chicago mixed race natives; Billy Caldwell, Alexander Robinson, and Joseph LaFramboise, this final treaty removed the last native tribes from Illinois and ended the fur trade era.
Presented at the Village of Lyons Community Center located at 4200 S. Lawndale Avenue in Lyons.
Presented by Potawatomie historian, naturalist and master storyteller, Jack MacRae.
Jack MacRae was born at an early age in the small coal mining community of Barrington, Illinois. He has a 32 year career (so far) interpreting the natural and cultural history of the Chicago region
Saturday, November 24, 2012 at 1pm
Building The Canal To Save Chicago
Chicago was the fastest growing city in the late 1800s because of the I&M Canal and the railroads that followed. But its location on the bed of old Glacial Lake Chicago had one big disadvantage - poor drainage. Cholera and typhoid were rampant and Chicago had one of the highest mortality rates in the U.S. The Chicago River was a public nuisance, polluted and smelly.
The building of a new canal solved these problems and allowed the city to continue to grow, the mortality rate plummeted and the river became enjoyable. Building the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal required the creation of a new government and the development of pioneering construction technology that helped build the Panama Canal. The reversal of the Chicago River remains a wonder of the world and remains critical to a sustainable future for the Chicago metropolis.
Dick Lanyon of Evanston, IL, not only grew up along the North Branch of the Chicago River, but has had 50 years of working experience with water in metropolitan Chicago.
Richard's new book "Building the Canal To Save Chicago" is available here, at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com and he will have copies for sale at this presentation.