Potawatomi Nation

Tensions ran high during a Wednesday DeKalb County Board committee meeting, as board members discussed whether a resolution congratulating the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation for regaining sovereign lands should get a County Board vote.

The first federally-recognized tribal land in Illinois is in DeKalb County, after portions of the Shab-eh-nay Reservation were placed into a trust for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation on Friday.

A bill pending in the General Assembly this year would give back roughly 1,500 acres of park land in DeKalb County to the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.

Members of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation have asked the DeKalb County Board to jointly leave a 2008 intergovernmental agreement that had formerly established how 1,280 acres of land in southern DeKalb County was governed.

Federal, state and local elected officials gathered on 1,280 acres of land in Shabbona Thursday to support legislation that would clear a pathway for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation’s decades-long pursuit to reclaim land in southern DeKalb County.

Despite previously indicating their intent to support the Potawatomi Nation’s efforts to reclaim nearby land, the DeKalb County Board this week denied that request in a partisan split vote. “I don’t think this is in the best interest of the county,” said chairman John Frieders

As a federal land resettlement act proposed in Washington D.C. renews hope for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation to reclaim land in Shabbona, the DeKalb County Board recently took first steps to back the nation’s efforts.

The filing of a federal reservation resettlement act by a Kansas senator has renewed the hopes for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation as it seeks to reclaim nearby land in Shabbona.

The DeKalb County board will again take up a request by the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation during Native American Heritage Month in November to support the nation’s longstanding pursuit to reclaim nearby land, most prominently located in Shabbona.

The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation sought the DeKalb County government's aid this week in a long-standing pursuit to reclaim nearby land. “We’re hoping that you’re supportive of this to help correct this historical wrong that has been done to our people,” said Joseph Rupick, chairman for the nation.