Bibliography
Alvord, Clarence Walworth. The Illinois Country, 1673-1818. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987.
Armistead, Betsy. Schaumburg. Portsmouth, NH: Arcadia Publishing, 2004.
Baerreis, David Albert. Indians of Northeastern Illinois. New York: Garland Pub. Inc., 1974.
Black Hawk. Life of Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak or Black Hawk. Edited and Translated by Roger L. Nichols. Boston: Russell, Odiorne & Metcalf, 1834. Reprinted as Black Hawk’s Autobiography. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1999.
Clifton, James A. The Potawatomi. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.
Edmunds, R. David. The Potawatomis, Keepers of the Fire. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1978.
Jablow, Joseph. Illinois, Kickapoo, and Potawatomi Indians. New York: Garland Pub., 1974.
Kleespies, Gavin W. and Jean Powley Murphy. Mount Prospect. Portsmouth, NH: Arcadia Publishing, 2003.
Larkin, Jack. The Reshaping of Everyday Life, 1790-1840. New York: HarperPerennial, 1988.
Palatine Historical Society. Palatine, Illinois. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 1999.
Quaife, Milo Milton. Chicago and the Old Northwest, 1673-1835, a study of the evolution of the northwestern frontier, together with a history of Fort Dearborn. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1913.
Whitney, Ellen M. Editor. The Black Hawk War, 1831-1832. Introduction by Anthony F. C. Wallace. Springfield, IL: Illinois State Historical Society, 1970-1978.
Straus, Terry Editor. Indians of the Chicago Area. Second Edition. Chicago: NAES College, 1990.
Temple, Wayne Calhoun. Indian Villages of the Illinois Country: Historic Tribes. Illinois State Museum, 1977.
http://www.chicagohs.org – Encyclopedia of the History of Chicago
http://media.library.uiuc.edu – Maps Collection
http://memory.loc.gov – Travels in America Collection, Monroe Collection, and Jefferson Collection.
Penny Berlet, Curator of Education, Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, Evanston. No primary documents.
Newberry Library has a large collection of original maps that can be extremely helpful and some books that are useful.
Chicago Historical Society has a collection of letters from perhaps the early 1800s that may be of use or of interest, as well as some maps.
Shari Caine, Special Projects Coordinator, Des Plaines Historical Society. Material focuses mainly on the local history of Des Plaines. They are interested in furthering knowledge of the area of Des Plaines before its settlement. Primarily a limited number of secondary sources on the Potawatomi and other tribes. Only a small collection of “projectile points and stone axe heads”.
The majority of the books had the same information and was more or less repetitive. I do recommend the book by Straus. It seems to have the same information as the other books, but it differs in a couple of ways. One, it goes into a little more depth than some of the books. Two, it does not go into too much depth to make the information in accessible, which also leads to the third, that of readability.
As for primary documents, the website memory.loc.gov, is a U.S. history website sponsored by Library of Congress. The documents that proved useful were contained in the Monroe Collection and Jefferson Collection. There was a little information also in the Travels in America Collection. By and large these documents can be hard to read, but collected material of printed books, rather than the letters of the Monroe and Jefferson Collections are highly readable, but are often more questionable as primary sources.
The most useful primary information was maps and primary documents that can be found in limited quantity and readability at the Newberry Library website. Although the Newberry has a large collection that seems to be of some degree of usefulness, the ability to view these materials online is non-existent. However, they are a good source for catalog work on finding potential materials before going to the Newberry. Furthermore, the Newberry website can help direct you to the holdings of the University of Illinois on U of I’s website, media.library.uiuc.edu.
The material on the U of I website is mainly in the form of maps and very few letters or printed material. The material provided is much in the form of that that will be found at the Newberry. However, U of I provides a small amount viewable online with a handy zoom function. The maps were very useful as they ranged in dates from the mid-eighteenth century German and French produced to American maps of the early-nineteenth century. Many of the maps mark major rivers and the City of Chicago, or Chicagu, or Chikagu. Also, on occasion the map would list specific Native American nations in an area or villages and nearby cities or other land marks to get a better understanding of the natives in the area. Coupled with secondary sources a more reliable idea of tribes and their locations at various times can be found. There are primary sources out there from French missionaries, but they are hard to locate, read, and find available in an on-line format or to even obtain in hardcopy. Much of the information from these can be found in the secondary sources in any case.