The Treaty of Chicago
September 26, 18331
Our land has been wasting away ever since the white people became our neighbors, and we have now hardly enough left to cover the bones of our tribe.
(Potawatomi) Chief Metea
getting the Chiefs to sign
wouldn’t be easy. in 1795
the Greenville treaty stole
six miles around the mouth
of the River. city of long cons
fire & fine print. the fight
at Fort Dearborn whites wouldn’t
embarrassed the fumbling army
of dumb settlers in fifteen minutes
to take back Roosevelt & Michigan
land simply called earth then.
but this’ll be the last time
the indigenous dance at the waterway
connecting the Mississippi to the Great Lakes,
a trade post between the Caribbean & New York.
the perfect nexus for whiskey & unbridled capitalism.
this town, such desirable waterfront property
the government will kill to own it.
the pioneers plied Chiefs
all night with bourbon. under intoxication
duress & gun powder, under disease
& white power, in english, an illiterate theft.
they marked the parchment, X