In the early days of U.S. independence settlers streamed into the Ohio Valley, Indiana, and Illinois. As war and treaties dispossessed native communities of their homelands, leaders such as Black Hawk (1767-1838) openly resisted U.S. encroachment. Though defeated in 1832, Black Hawk achieved celebrity status in Eastern cities with the publication of his autobiography, dictated to Antoine LeClaire in 1833.
George Copway
George Copway (1818-1869), a Mississaqua Ojibwa from Ontario, served as a Methodist missionary among the Ojibwa of Minnesota. His memoirs, published in 1847, offered a testament to both the changes and the traditions that constituted the lifeways of many Indians of this region.
Simon Pokagon
Simon Pokagon, a chief of the Pokagon Band Potawatomi community in southwestern Michigan, is an apt symbol of the continued Indian presence in the Great Lakes region. Invited to deliver a speech on the opening day of the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, Pokagon critiqued the triumphalism that characterized the event. Displayed here is a painting by the renowned American Indian portraitist Elbridge Ayer Burbank (1858-1949) and a souvenir copy of Pokagon’s speech, which was re-titled “The Red Man’s Greeting,” printed on birch bark and sold at the fair.
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