Des Plaines River

Every fall, as the air turns crisp and Thanksgiving festivities get under way, our thoughts turn to the Native Americans. (Namely: How the hell did they survive without gas and electricity?) Just west of the city, the Forest Park area offers three spots that give a few hints of Native nations past. Ditch electricity and spend a day exploring these Potawatomi spots on foot.

1 Start at the Forest Home Cemetery (863 Des Plaines Ave, Forest Park). This vast graveyard—the second largest in the area next to the North Side’s Graceland—offers a layered look at Chicago’s past. Stories Chicagoans, like anarchist Emma Goldman, are buried alongside 16th-century Potawatomis. Start at the gates where three Potawatomi mounds mark the tribe’s presence. Wind along paths and over a scenic, river-crossing bridge to see the graves and mausoleums of Germans (the area was once called Waldheim Cemetery, which translates to forest home) and labor leaders, as well as grief-twisted faces on three Haymarket monuments.

2 What the heck’s inside a Native American mound? Head out the cemetery’s back gates and walk three-tenths of a mile northeast to the Forest Park Public Library (7555 Jackson Blvd, Forest Park). A small exhibit of burial artifacts from the Forest Home Cemetery contains silver armbands, wristbands, star brooches and dress ornamentation. In the 18th century, Potawatomis traded fur with the French for silver, which was then shaped into the wearable objects on display.

3 To trek through Potawatomi stomping grounds, head 1.5 miles west on Madison Street to the Indian Boundary Trail (Madison St, northeast of the Des Plaines River). The name comes from the nearby territorial boundary line created in 1821, when Native Americans ceded land to the United States. The muddy, foot-beaten path (read: wear your old kicks) moves north, oddly fully insulated from the neighborhood’s quaint Victorian and Frank Lloyd Wright houses. Hike through a thick oak-hickory forest along the river for a few miles until modernity—e.g. artificially warm hands and feet—calls you home.

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