cover image Rising Up from Indian Country: The Battle of Fort Dearborn and the Birth of Chicago

Rising Up from Indian Country: The Battle of Fort Dearborn and the Birth of Chicago

Ann Durkin Keating. Univ. of Chicago, $30 (328p) ISBN 978-0-226-42896-3

Keating (co-editor, The Encyclopedia of Chicago), a history professor at North Central College in Illinois, sets the record straight about the War of 1812’s Battle of Fort Dearborn and its significance to early Chicago’s evolution. The author explores the overlooked evacuation of 94 people from Fort Dearborn to Fort Wayne under pressure from the Potawatomi tribe, a valiant action costing half of Capt. Nathan Heald’s soldiers with the rest of the civilians taken captive. Famous names from Great Lakes lore play an important part in her informative, ambitious account, such as British trader John Kinzie, U.S. Capt. William Wells, the Potawatomi chief Main Poc, trader Jean Baptiste Point de Sable, and the Indian chief Tecumseh. A welcome aspect of Keating’s work is the fair play she exhibits in shifting her focus between the Americans, the French, the British, and the Native Americans, making sure she touches on every notable event, regardless of the faction. On bookshelves in time to honor the bicentennial of the Fort Dearborn battle, Keating’s well-researched book rights some misconceptions about the old conflicts, the strategies of the whites and Indians to keep their land, and how early Chicago came to exist. 35 illus., 4 maps. (Aug.)