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By the early twentieth century, when this collection of images begins,
American Indians were among the thousands of people who came to the city
seeking work and other opportunities. However, finding members of
particular groups in this collection is sometimes difficult, especially
when scenes of daily life fail to specify the names of the people
involved. Therefore the photographs that can be identified as showing
American Indians or Native Americans usually depict people in native dress,
people in American Indian costume as entertainers, people who were
well-known both for their achievements and as Native Americans, and people
associated with American Indian organizations. To call them "Native
Americans" would have been confusing to people of that era. Almost 36
percent of
Chicago's population in 1910 were immigrants, and "native" was a word more
often used to differentiate people born within the United States from
people who were foreign born.
In this collection, American Indians appear frequently in photographs
of historical celebrations. For example, in 1903, a centennial encampment
of Winnebago and Sac-Fox Indians in Chicago's Lincoln Park was probably
the source of these images of Native Americans (DN-0001533, DN-0001535).
No-in-Ko, a man at the encampment, was described as a medicine man (DN-0001514). Little Calf, also photographed in 1903, may
have been part of the encampment too although he is wearing a regular
business suit (DN-0001522). The encampment
celebrated the centennial
of the founding of Fort Dearborn, a U.S. Army fort established at Chicago
in 1803.
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