00:00before the city of steel skyscrapers and sports before the roaring trains and bustling streets
00:07there was a land of open prairies wild rivers and native tribes this is the untold story of
00:15chicago's earliest roots long before the name chicago echoed through maps this region was home
00:22to the potawatomi miami sauk fox ojibwe and kickapoo tribes they called this land home for centuries
00:31living in harmony with nature following the rhythm of the seasons rivers and spirit of the earth
00:37the name chicago itself comes from the miami illinois word chicago which means wild onion or
00:44smelly garlic a reference to the strong smelling wild onions that once grew abundantly along the
00:50chicago river it wasn't just a name it was a reflection of the land a place where wetlands
00:56and prairie met in a rich green mosaic the potawatomi people the dominant tribe in the 18th century were
01:04part of a larger confederation called the council of three fires which also included the ojibwe
01:10and the odawa they lived in wigwams traveled in dugout canoes and hunted bison deer and waterfall
01:17their lives revolved around nature the river for transport the forest for shelter the skies for
01:24guidance they told stories by firelight passed down knowledge orally and held deep spiritual ties to
01:31the land we now call downtown chicago in the late 1600s french explorers and missionaries including louis
01:38joliet and father jacques marquette arrived in the region they paddled up the mississippi river and into
01:44the chicago portage a narrow land connection between the great lakes and the mississippi river system
01:51this made chicago a crucial strategic point for trade and travel but while these explorers marveled
01:56at the land it marked the beginning of a slow but steady transformation one that would eventually
02:02displace the native populations in the late 1700s a man of african impossibly haitian descent
02:10jean baptiste point de sable settled at the mouth of the chicago river he married a pottawatomie woman
02:16and built a successful trading post point de sable is recognized as the founder of chicago
02:22but he didn't build on empty land he built within a thriving native ecosystem he was not a conqueror
02:29but a bridge between two worlds native and european african and american as the 19th century dawned
02:37treaties were signed often under pressure or deception in 1833 the treaty of chicago was signed
02:45forcing the pottawatomie and other tribes to seed their lands and move west of the mississippi
02:50it marked the end of native dominance in the area within a few years the land was sold surveyed and
02:56paved the transformation into modern chicago had begun but the story does not end there today native
03:04communities and historians are working to preserve this rich heritage from the american indian center
03:09of chicago to local efforts to teach native languages and traditions the legacy of chicago's
03:16original inhabitants lives on next time you walk through the city remember beneath the concrete and
03:22glass lies a land with a memory a land once called chicakwa the land of wild onions and wild stories
03:32don't forget to subscribe for more hidden stories from around the world this is world history by ahmed see
03:38you in the next journey
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