Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Native Americans from more than twenty organizations convened at the Capitol Wednesday for their third annual summit.
“We’re still here in Illinois,” said Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative president Jasmine Gurneau. “We have a voice. We have a story to share with our legislators and leaders to help them and to help others throughout the state be in right relationship with indigenous peoples and the territories.”
Things are still not quite right, said Aaron Golding, associate director of multicultural student affairs at Northwestern University.
“It’s easy to dismiss us as ghosts of the past, whose needs don’t matter today,” Golding said. “If our teachers are not learning about us in their pre-service programs and have only a pre-1900 understanding of our history, then how do we expect them to accurately and effectively teach about us throughout history and into the present?”
The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation scored a major victory just last year, as the legislature agreed to return land near DeKalb that the government seized in the mid 19th Century.
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