Pottawattomie Park

Pottawattomie Park was one of four parks created by the Ridge Avenue Park District, established in 1896. The Ridge Avenue Park District's early parks were Morse and Indian Boundary. In 1931, the park district purchased property for two additional parks, Chippewa and Pottawattomie. Pottawattomie Park was the idea of the Birchwood Improvement Association, which lobbied for the establishment of a community center east of Ridge Avenue and north of Rogers Avenue. The park's name honors the Pottawattomie (Potawatomi) Indians, one of nine tribal groups living around the Great Lakes after 1600. The Pottawattomies lived on the eastern edge of Lake Michigan until about 1760, when they moved westward into the Chicago region. Although many Pottawattomies intermarried with French, British, and American traders, the tribe was nevertheless forced from the area after the Blackhawk War of 1832. A large Works Progress Administration painting in the park fieldhouse depicts a meeting between Native Americans and whites.