Chippewa Park

Chippewa Park was one of four parks created by the Ridge Avenue Park District, established in 1896. The park district's other properties were Indian Boundary, Pottawattomie, and Morse (now Matanky) Parks. In 1931, the park district purchased property in the southwest corner of the district, built a one-story brick fieldhouse designed by Clarence Hatzfeld, and designated the new park Chippewa. The name recognized the Chippewa Indian tribe that lived in the Great Lakes region when Europeans arrived. Between 1600 and 1760, the Chippewas made their home along the northern shores of Lakes Michigan and Superior and numbered between 25,000 and 30,000. The Chippewa formed a loose confederacy with the Ottawa and the Potowatomi. By the 19th century, the three tribes were known as "the Three Fires." The name Chippewa is an adaption of the word Ojibway, "to roast till puckered up," a reference to the puckered seams of their moccasins.