Celebrate Native American Heritage Month with Potawatomi Berry Rice

The Chicago area is located on the ancestral lands of indigenous tribes such as the Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac, Fox, Kickapoo, and Illinois Nations. The name Chicago comes from shikaakwa, a word for “wild onion” used by the Miami and Illinois peoples.

Indigenous people in the Chicago region faced many hardships after Europeans arrived in the area. By the early 1800s, the number of Native Americans in the region was severely diminished due to disease and warfare brought by the Europeans. A series of treaties forced the tribes to cede their land to the American government. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 proposed the relocation of indigenous tribes west of the Mississippi River, and several more relocation efforts would happen in the following years. Through the late 1800s to the early 1900s, Indian children were taken from their homes and sent to boarding schools with the mission to assimilate them into white society. In 1910, the population of Native Americans in Chicago was 188.

During the 1900s, many Native Americans moved from rural areas to Chicago in search of jobs. The federal government also led a relocation program that helped move Native Americans to Chicago during the 1950s and 1960s. The American Indian Center (AIC) of Chicago opened in 1953 to nurture the city’s indigenous community. Today, Chicago has the third-largest urban Indian population in the United States. More than 65,000 Native Americans representing over 100 different tribes live in the Chicago metropolitan area. The highest concentrations of Native Americans can be found in Edgewater, Uptown, Rogers Park, and Ravenswood.

Since November, Native American Heritage Month, is just around this corner, now seems like a good time to celebrate the culture and resilience of indigenous peoples.

Potawatomi Berry Rice

*Based on a recipe from the IndigiKitchen, https://indigikitchen.com.

1 c. wild rice, uncooked

3 c. water

¼ c. dried cranberries

1 c. fresh berries

½ c. maple syrup

1 tsp. cinnamon

Add the rice, water, and cranberries to a medium-sized saucepan. Simmer uncovered on medium-low heat until the water is gone, about 1 hour. Mix in the fresh berries, maple syrup, and cinnamon. Serve warm or cold.

Sources:

American Library Association, “Indigenous Tribes of Chicago” and “Urban Natives,” www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/diversity/chicago-indigenous

Encyclopedia of Chicago, “Native Americans,” http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/874.html.

Wikipedia, “Chicago,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago.

Comments

Green River: The Chicago-Made Soda with the "Bubbling Snappiness" of Champagne

It has a distinct lime flavor and color. It was once the second most popular soda in the Midwest. There's a rock song named after it. What is it? Green River soda, of course. Chicago-based Schoenhofen Edelweiss Brewing Company, maker of Edelweiss beer, bought the recipe and sales rights for Green River from Davenport, Iowa, businessman Richard C. Jones in 1919. Jones, the owner of a candy store with a soda fountain, had created Green River several years earlier. Jones wanted to create a soft drink with the “bubbling snappiness" of champagne and decided that lime flavor was the way to go. A local teenager was the first to use the name “Green River” when he ordered the drink at Jones's soda fountain and the name stuck. During the Prohibition years (1920-1933), breweries were turning to manufacturing and selling non-alcoholic goods like soda, yeast, malt syrup, carbonated coffee and tea, and ice cream. Once Schoenhofen Edelweiss started making and distributing Green River, ...

The Simple Secret Behind Portillo's Famous Chocolate Cake

Chicago-based fast food chain Portillo's is known for its Chicago-style hot dogs, Italian beef sandwiches, and, somewhat unexpectedly, its chocolate cake. While it's not exactly typical fast food fare, Portillo's chocolate cake has garnered a devoted following. But what makes the cake so popular? According to the book Iconic Chicago Dishes, Drinks and Desserts , Portillo’s uses a well-known brand of cake mix plus mayonnaise. Many copycat recipes for this cake posted on the internet also use these same ingredients, so the secret is out. Portillo's got its start i n 1963 when Dick Portillo opened a fast food stand in Villa Park out of a small trailer he named "The Dog House." The trailer didn't have a bathroom and got its running water from a garden hose hooked up to a neighboring building. Today there are more than 70 Portillo’s locations across Chicagoland and the U.S., none of them in trailers. Portillo’s added chocolate cake to its menu during its earl...

Tavern-Style: The Other Chicago-Style Pizza

Most people think of Chicago-style pizza as deep-dish, but that’s not the only game in town. While deep-dish pizza is popular with tourists, thin-crust pizza is what Chicagoans are more likely to eat regularly. According to WBEZ, thin-crust pizza orders outnumber deep-dish and stuffed pizza orders 10 to 1 in this city. And tavern-style is Chicago’s signature thin-crust pizza. My sister Jane calls tavern-style “the pizza of my childhood memories.” For many of us Chicagoans, this is the pizza we grew up on. So what makes a Chicago tavern-style pizza? The crust is cracker-thin, the toppings go under the cheese, the sauce and cheese go all the way to edge of the crust, and, perhaps most importantly, the pizza is cut into squares. It's called "tavern-style" because of the many taverns across the city that served this style of pizza starting in the late 1940s. The cracker-thin crust makes the pizza easy to eat as a bar snack. The toppings go under the cheese to prevent them fr...

Chow Down Chicago: Good Eats from the Windy City

Search This Blog