Was cited in a Guardian article recently. You can access the full article here:
Native American routes: the ancient trails hidden in Chicago’s grid system
Category Archives: Pokagon Potawatomi Chicago
Video from: A Crossroads of Nations Talk, a Spirit and Place event at the Eiteljorg Museum
Video: The Power of Place: The Indigenous Peoples of Northeastern Illinois & The Fox River Valley” Lecture
Podcast and Video of My Talk at Moraine Valley Community College: The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and the City of Chicago
The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and the City of Chicago: Special Guest Dr. John Low
Dr. John Low from the Ohio State University will be speaking about this book Imprints: the Potawatomi Indians & the City of Chicago (2016, Michigan State University Press). Dr. Low will examine the ways some Pokagon Potawatomi tribal members have maintained a distinct Native identity in Chicago, their rejection of assimilation and their desire for inclusion without forfeiting their “Indianness.” This event is part of our campus programming to commemorate the Illinois bicentennial.
The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and the City of Chicago: Special Guest Dr. John Low?
The audio of this discussion is available below:
Visit our podcast page
Listen in iTunes
Download the MP3 audio
“The Power of Place: The Indigenous Peoples of Northeastern Illinois; the Fox River Valley”; 11/15/18 at Aurora University (IL)
Lecture: John N. Low, PhD
Thursday, November 15, 2018, 7 p.m.
Join Pokagon Potawatomi Indian John N. Low as he discusses the history of the use of a vast network of trails and portages in Northeastern Illinois between two great water systems: the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes.
Indigenous peoples had long settled in villages in what is now northeastern Illinois, prior to contact with Europeans. Northeastern Illinois was one of the best places to portage between two great water systems: the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes. Native peoples could paddle to the St. Lawrence River or Allegheny River in the east, and on to the Atlantic Ocean or south to the Gulf of Mexico or to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in the west. Native Americans understood the importance of this geography and took advantage of this portage system to trade goods for hundreds of years before European settlers arrived. Today’s residents of Aurora and surrounding communities also know the richness of the soil and the resources that made the region a very special place to live.
WBEZ: Map Quest: Searching for Chicago’s ‘Lizard Mound’: An odd detail on a map suggests Chicago may have once been home to an ancient effigy mound.
Map Quest: Searching for Chicago’s ‘Lizard Mound’
Story at link above.
Dilg’s map shows a lizard-shaped mound on the block bounded by Oakdale Avenue, Sheffield Avenue, Wellington Avenue, and Mildred Avenue (formerly “May Street”), oriented from north to south, in the western third of the block. (Courtesy Chicago History Museum, Charles A. Dilg collection)
Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology Occasional Papers
A Native’s Perspective on Trends in Contemporary Archaeology by John N. Low is available in the MCJA Occasional Paper Number 2 – Spring 2018
You can download the pdf here:
Encounters, Exchange, Entanglements: Current Perspectives on Intercultural Interactions throughout the Western Great Lakes
I Will be Presenting at The 2018 TEDNA Regional Conference on Education Sovereignty and Data on April 11th, 2018
The 2018 TEDNA Regional Conference on Education Sovereignty and Data
Description
The Tribal Education Departments National Assembly (TEDNA) through collaboration with the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi is hosting the 2018 TEDNA Regional Conference on Education Sovereignty and Data, will be held from April 10-11th, and on the 12th is the TEDNA Annual Board meeting and Michigan Tribal Education Directors meeting, at New Buffalo, Michigan. The conference is a unique chance to meet different leaders and practitioners in the field of education sovereignty focused on: data collection, implementation, and sharing innovative practices. All attendees will examine research and development of how Tribal Education Departments organize and analyze their education data. Our goal is that every attendee will walk away with policy insights, identification of critical challenges, and foster a solution-based collaboration to improve data quality and result in an increased capacity over tribal education data.
The Power of Place The Potawatomi, Chicago and Wheaton: Friday, December 8th, 4:00 pm, Wheaton College
NU-NAISA commemorates the 153rd Sand Creek Massacre anniversary (Northwestern University)
NAISA commemorates the 153rd Sand Creek Massacre anniversary
Was an invited speaker to this amazing event. Story linked above.
Without Native Americans, Would We Have Chicago As We Know It? (WBEZ Story)
Without Native Americans, Would We Have Chicago As We Know It?
Names like DuSable, Marquette, and Joliet are cited in the history books. But it was Native Americans who first set the foundation for Chicago to develop into a major Midwestern metropolis.
I was recently interviewed for this great story (audio and text linked above) on Native contributions to the city of Chicago.
Between 1790 and 1830, Europeans and Americans, and their Native American spouses, established a small trading community at the mouth of the Chicago river. (Courtesy Library of Congress)
Meet the Author, John Low, Imprints: The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians at the Newberry Library, Chicago December 7th
Thursday, December 7, 2017
6 to 7:30 pm
Ruggles Hall
Free and open to the public. Registration required.
The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians has been a part of Chicago since its founding. In very public expressions of indigeneity, they have refused to hide in plain sight or assimilate. Instead, throughout the city’s history, the Pokagon Potawatomi Indians have openly and aggressively expressed their refusal to be marginalized or forgotten—and in doing so, they have contributed to the fabric and history of the city.
Imprints: The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and the City of Chicago examines the ways some Pokagon Potawatomi tribal members have maintained a distinct Native identity, their rejection of assimilation into the mainstream, and their desire for inclusion in the larger contemporary society without forfeiting their “Indianness.” Mindful that contact is never a one-way street, Dr. Low also examines the ways in which experiences in Chicago have influenced the Pokagon Potawatomi. Imprints continues the recent scholarship on the urban Indian experience before as well as after World War II.
After his talk, Dr. Low will sign copies of the book. Imprints will be available in the Newberry Bookstore; your purchase helps to support the Newberry Library and this program’s featured author.
Download a PDF flyer for this event to post and distribute.
John N. Low (Pokagon Potawatomi) is Assistant Professor of Comparative Studies at the Ohio State University Newark, where his research and teaching encompass many aspects of American Indian histories, literatures, and cultures. He has previously served as Executive Director of the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian in Evanston, as a member of the Advisory Committee for the Indians of the Midwest Project at the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the Newberry Library, and on the State of Ohio Cemetery Law Task Force. He continues to serve as a member of his tribe’s Traditions & Repatriation Committee.
AIQ Review of Imprints: The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and the City of Chicago by John N. Low
Reviewed Work: Imprints: The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and the City of Chicago by John N. Low
Review by: Robert E. Walls (Notre Dame)
American Indian Quarterly
Vol. 41, No. 3 (Summer 2017), pp. 292-294
Published by: University of Nebraska Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5250/amerindiquar.41.3.0292
Page Count: 3
3rd Annual Native American and Indigenous Community Dinner, Northwestern University, May 7th, 2017
Northwestern University’s Multicultural Student Affairs, in partnership with the Native American and Indigenous Student Alliance, has invited me to the 3rd Annual Native American and Indigenous Community Dinner on Sunday, May 7th, from 5pm-7pm. As a founding advisor and inspiration for the creation of NAISA. the student Native American and Indigenous Student Alliance, I have been asked to speak briefly at the celebration. The event will be located on the Evanston campus in Scott Hall’s Guild Lounge, 601 University Place.
Ball State University Anthropology Student Symposium Friday, March 31, 2017
The Ball State University Anthropology Student Symposium held Friday, March 31, 2017: Muncie, Indiana.
I was honored to provide a keynote address and was most impressed with the quality of student scholarship at both the undergraduate and graduate levels at BSU! Thank you again to everyone who I had the pleasure to meet at the daylong event!
John N. Low, JD, PhD, Storyteller 