By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – A northern Illinois Native American group wants its land back.

The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, chaired by Joseph Rupnick, says the federal government seized its land near DeKalb, in violation of treaties agreed to about 200 years ago with Rupnick’s ancestor, Chief Shab-eh-nay.

“We have entered into 44 treaties,” said Rupnick, “and every one of them has been broken in one form or fashion or another.”

Part of that land is Shabbona State Park. State Rep. Mark Walker (D-Arlington Heights), appearing at a Capitol news conference with Rupnick and other Prairie Band members, said the easiest thing to do would be to return that land to the Native Americans.

On another topic, a Northwestern University professor of learning sciences, Megan Bang, supports a bill for Illinois K-12 schools to do away with Native American imagery in mascots and team names.

“There has been a mountain of impeccable social science research,” said Bang, “more than twenty years in the making, from the best social scientists in the world, demonstrating the presence of native mascots, logos and names harm native children. They harm native children.”

While the bill addresses only K-12 schools, Bang responded to a question about the University of Illinois, which abolished “Chief Illiniwek” years ago. She said that’s not enough; that the university should remove “Fighting Illini” as the name of the university’s teams.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected].