Chicago’s story begins long before it became a bustling metropolis. In the mid-18th century, the region was home to the Potawatomi people, who had succeeded the Miami, Sauk, and Meskwaki tribes. These indigenous communities thrived along the shores of what would become Lake Michigan, shaping the early cultural and geographic landscape of the area.

The first permanent settler was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a trader of African descent, likely born in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). Arriving in the 1780s, Du Sable established a trading post and homestead, earning him recognition as the “Founder of Chicago.” Following the United States’ victory in the Northwest Indian War, the land that included Chicago was ceded to the U.S. under the 1795 Treaty of Greenville. The U.S. Army built Fort Dearborn in 1803, which was destroyed in the Battle of Fort Dearborn during the War of 1812 by the Potawatomi, and later rebuilt as settlement expanded.

Throughout the early 19th century, additional treaties, including the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis and the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, facilitated the transfer of land from the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes to the United States. Unfortunately, these agreements led to the forced removal of Native Americans west of the Mississippi River under the federal Indian removal policy. These pivotal moments laid the groundwork for Chicago’s rapid growth, eventually transforming it from a frontier settlement into a thriving urban center.