Chicago History

At the beginning of European recorded history, the Chicago area was inhabited by a number of Algonquian peoples, including the Mascoutens and Miamis. Trade links and seasonal hunting migrations linked these peoples with their neighbours, the Potawatomis to the east, Fox to the north, and the Illinois to the southwest. The name "Chicago" is the French version of the Miami-Illinois word shikaakwa " Stinky Onion" , named for the plants common along the Chicago River. 1 2 3 It is not related to Chief Chicagou of the Michigamea people. 4 During the mid-18th century, the Chicago area was inhabited primarily by Potawatomis, who displaced the Miami, Sauk, and Fox tribes who had previously controlled the area and moved west under pressure.

Chicago's location at a short portage Chicago Portage connecting the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River system attracted the attention of many French explorers, notably Louis Jolliet and Henri Joutel. In 1696, French Jesuits built the Mission of the Guardian Angel to Christianize the local Wea and Miami people. 5 French and allied use of the Chicago portage was mostly abandoned during the 1720s because of continual Native American raids during the Fox Wars.

The first non-native permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, who built a farm at the mouth of the Chicago River in the 1780s. 7 He left Chicago in 1800. In 1968, du Sable was honored as the city's founder and featured as a symbol.

In 1795, following the Northwest Indian War, Native Americans ceded the area of Chicago to the United States for a military post in the Treaty of Greenville. The US built Fort Dearborn in 1803. It was destroyed during the War of 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, and all the inhabitants were killed. After the end of the war, the Potawatomi ceded the land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. Fort Dearborn was rebuilt in 1818 and used until 1837. During the Black Hawk War of 1832, General Winfield Scott's troops brought cholera with them from the East Coast, where an epidemic raged. It spread among the refugees crowded at the fort, and the soldiers had to dig a pit to bury the dead.

In 1829, the legislature appointed commissioners to locate a canal and layout the surrounding town. The commissioners employed James Thompson to survey and plat the town of Chicago, which at the time had a population of less than 100. Historians regard the August 4, 1830 filing of the plat as the official recognition of a municipality known as Chicago.