Events

Treaty of Chicago (1833)

In September 1833, representatives of the Potawatomi, Ottawa, and Ojibwe (Chippewa) nations — collectively the Council of Three Fires — gathered in Chicago and signed a treaty ceding their remaining land in northern Illinois and southeastern Wisconsin to the United States, including the Fox River Valley land that became Dundee Township and the site of Chief Nickaway's village at Dundee, Illinois. (Source: HistoryOnTheFox.com: Fox Valley Native Villages, c. 1830)

Date & Context

Date: September 1833 Era: Native American Era (pre-1830s)

Negotiations reportedly opened with a false premise: U.S. officials told tribal representatives that Washington had heard the Native nations wished to sell their land, which the representatives disputed. Several days of negotiation followed before terms were reached. The treaty did not require immediate departure — Native residents retained use of the land, in principle, until it was surveyed and offered for sale — but settlement pressure was already outpacing that timeline in the Fox Valley by the time squatters began arriving in 1833–34. (Source: HistoryOnTheFox.com: Fox Valley Native Villages, c. 1830)

Participants

The Potawatomi, Ottawa, and Ojibwe nations, represented by their chiefs and negotiators, on one side; United States government negotiators on the other. Local figures affected included Chief Waubonsie, Chief Nickaway, and Chief Shabbona, among many others across the ceded territory. (Source: RootsWeb: Kane County, Illinois — Native American history)

Significance

The treaty set in motion the removal that emptied the Fox River Valley of its Potawatomi villages over the following several years, culminating in the relocation of Waubonsie's band (and, presumably, Nickaway's) to Council Bluffs, Iowa in 1835–36 — the same years the first Euro-American settlers were arriving to claim Dundee Township land. See Native American Era (pre-1830s) for the fuller local picture, and Pioneer & Frontier Era (1830s–1850s) for the settlement that followed.

Sources