Gender and Community Organization Leadership in the Chicago Indian Community

Abstract

This paper concerns eight decades (1920-2000) of community organization in the American Indian community in Chicago. While the trends discussed may be particular to that community or time frame, we expect that there are parallels in other urban Indian communities. The Chicago American Indian Center was the first urban Indian center in the country; with the Oakland Intertribal Friendship House, it served as a model for later urban Indian community organizations. In the early twentieth century, Chicago had an Indian population (188 were counted in the 1910 Census), but no Indian community. Indian people of diverse tribes passing through or settling in Chicago sought the help of Indian residents known to them through the "moccasin telegraph." Carlos Montezuma (Yavapai), for example, a medical doctor in Chicago in the early 1900s, was well known in Indian County. He served as a one-man social agency for Indians in Chicago. When Indian delegations passed through the city en route to Washington, D.C., he graciously met them and made their stay in Chicago pleasant; when Indians became stranded in the city, he interceded with their reservation agencies to help provide the opportunity for them to return home; when Indians came to the city in need of work, he helped them find it. In fact, he informally worked together with the bia warehouse in Chicago in this latter capacity. In 1904 when a train wrecked in Maywood, Illinois, several Indian members of a travelling Wild West show were injured, some critically. Dr. Montezuma not only treated the Indians as patients, but fought (albeit unsuccessfully) through the bia system for better compensations on their behalf.1 [End Page 523] During this time there were no Indian-run or Indian-focused social services available, but generous individuals, such as Montezuma, or later Willard LaMere and Anna Harris, provided essential services to new Indian residents. Those who lived in the city, however, did not at first imagine or work toward a community of Indian people in Chicago. Indian presence has been continuous in Chicago and its environs, and Indian people moved to and through the city throughout the twentieth century. However, we place the beginnings of the present day community in the 1920s, when we have records of purposeful gatherings of Indian people of various tribes and backgrounds. At the same time, the population of Indians in the city had begun to increase as a result of employment opportunities and military experience during World War I. The celebration of Indian Day, proclaimed by the 1919 Illinois State legislature as the fourth Friday of September, recognized continued Indian presence in the city. Dr. Montezuma participated in some of these activities, as did Willard LaMere. Indian Day celebrations were coordinated by the first Indian-focused organization in Chicago, the Indian Fellowship League. The League had a short history, in part due to tensions between its Indian and non-Indian members.2 It provided an organizational framework for Indians to define and address their own concerns within the city and, thus, to become conscious of themselves as a group despite the diversity of their tribal backgrounds and experiences. The Indian Council Fire, formed in 1923, as the Grand Council Fire of American Indians, continued for more than half a century, providing an organizational locus for Indians and those who supported them within the city. Carlos Montezuma was the first recipient of the Indian Council Fire award, honoring an individual Indian for his or her extraordinary accomplishments. The earliest leadership in these organizations was male, although by the 1930s, the Indian Council Fire included women in various capacities. The population of Indian people in Chicago grew considerably during and after World War II. This was due in part to independent relocation for employment, war enterprise, and other personal reasons, and in part to the Federal Relocation Program. With expanded population, the desire for social contact with other Indian people...