History

The Land today known as Chicago is the ancestral homeland to the Anishinaabek; Niswi-mishkodewin (Council of the Three Fires): Ojibwe, Odawa, and the Potawatomi along with dozens of others including Myaamia, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac, Fox, Kickapoo, and Illiniwek Nations. These great nations had vast trade networks before settlers came to the region and created trade arrangements with French and British after Europeans came to the region. The nations in the region planted maize, squash, and beans in “Three Sisters” groupings, gathered fruits, nuts, tubers, tapped maple trees, and hunted deer, bison, elk, ducks, fish, bear, and geese. “Chicago” is a French misrendering of the Myaamia-Illiniwek word “shikaakwa” (pictured in the header of this page) a wild onion known also by its botanical name Allium tricoccum and can be found growing on our Land today. French explorer, Henri Joutel, wrote in his journal of 1688 (translated from the original French):

“We arrived at a place which is named Chicagou, which, according to what we learned, has taken its name from the quantity of garlic which grows in this district, in the woods... a species of garlic in quantity which is not entirely like that of France, having its leaf broader and shorter, and is also not so strong, though its taste closely approaches it but is not like the little onions or the onion of France.”

French explorers, fur traders, and missionaries came to the area beginning in the late 17th century. Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a free black man, settled here in the 1780’s becoming the first non-indigenous permanent resident of present day Chicago. As Europeans continued to settle the area, pressure and ultimately systematic genocide against the indigenous nations was implemented by the fledgling government of the United States.

“In 1848, Chicago's livestock and packing business was a modest affair, with only about 30,000 animals processed that year. Cincinnati owned the title of "Porkopolis" then, its situation on the Ohio River and the dominance of river transport making it a convenient center for shipments east and west. The hog kill alone in Cincinnati in the 1850s was 350,000 annually, and it peaked at 600,000 in the winter of 18623. But river transport was doomed, made obsolete by the booming railroads, and the Civil War hastened Cincinnati's decline as a packing town because navigation of the Mississippi was interrupted for a time. But the war, and the city's extensive railroad connections, vaulted Chicago to the top as a meat processing center. In 1860, livestock shipments out of 'Chicago amounted to 250,000 animals. By 1863, that number had nearly quadrupled, to 925,000, and Chicago was to reign supreme in the packing world through the middle of the, 20th century.

In 1875, the Chicago Tribune estimated that nearly one-fifth of the Chicago population was dependent on the stockyards and packinghouses, and by 1880, livestock receipts in the city amounted to 8.8 million head, or three times the number that arrived in 1870. The city really was the hog butcher to the world.” (source)

The Land we steward is in Back-of-the-Yards, a neighborhood on the southside of Chicago, an industrial and residential neighborhood so named because it was near the former Union Stock Yards, which employed thousands of European immigrants in the early 20th century. Life in the neighborhood was described in Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel, The Jungle which exposed the unsafe conditions of the U.S. meat-packing industry centered in Chicago and referenced in Carl Sandburg’s poem, Chicago (excerpt below:)

Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders:

Franciscan Friars came to the Land we steward to serve the German-speaking population living in the neighborhood in 1886 and St. Augustine Friary was completed in 1899 which today houses Su Casa Catholic Worker community. St. Augustine Church was established in 1879, demolished in 1990, whose former two-acre footprint is now where we farm and foster wildlife habitat. From the Encyclopedia of Chicago:

“The concentration of railroads in the mid-nineteenth century, the establishment of the Union Stock Yard in 1865, and the perfection of the refrigerated boxcar by 1880 led to a giant expansion of meatpacking in the neighborhood. Part of the town of Lake until annexation by Chicago in 1889, Back of the Yards was settled by skilled Irish and German butchers, joined in the 1870s and 1880s by Czechs. Here in 1889, developer Samuel Gross built one of his earliest subdivisions of cheap workingmen's cottages. By the turn of the century the area was transformed into a series of Slavic enclaves dominated by Poles, Lithuanians, Slovaks, and Czechs, with most communities organized around ethnic parishes serving as social and cultural as well as spiritual focal points for residents' lives. Small numbers of Mexican immigrants entered Back of the Yards and neighboring Bridgeport as early as World War I and the 1920s, but the community retained its Slavic character until the 1970s, when it gradually became a largely Chicano community with a minority of African Americans.”

In November 1931, the parish bulletin carried a message for the parishioners who hesitated to come to church because they wore shabby clothes and could make no financial contribution. The statement read:

“‘NO MONEY,’ DID YOU SAY? Forget about It! Come To Church Each Sunday and Feel Rich! All Are Welcome — especially THE POOR! In the Presence of Jesus, the Father of the POOR!”

And later from A History of the Parishes of the Archdiocese of Chicago:

“In the 1970’s, Spanish-speaking-families joined St. Augustine parish in increasing numbers. At the time of the parish’s 100th jubilee, which was celebrated on Oct. 6, 1979, Hispanics made up 60% of the congregation…. In recent years, two of these parishes —Visitation and St. Basil—have undergone racial change as black families moved into the neighborhood. In large part, however, the Back-of-the-Yards neighborhood of which St. Augustine parish is an integral part, has remained an ethnically diverse area with sizable numbers of Poles and Mexicans.”

When Pope St. John Paul II visited Chicago on October 5th, 1979, he described:

“Your ancestors came from many different countries across the oceans to meet here with the people of different communities that were already established here. In every generation, the process has been repeated: new groups arrive, each one with a different history, to settle here and become part of something new ... E pluribus unum: you became a new entity, a new people, the true nature of which cannot be adequately explained as a mere putting together of various communities ... And so, looking at you, I see people who have thrown their destinies together and now write a common history. Different as you are, you have come to accept each other, at times imperfectly and even to the point of subjecting each other to various forms of discrimination; at times only after a long period of misunderstanding and rejection; even now still growing in understanding and appreciation of each other’s differences.”

Community

The Land is open to all and provides space for healing, respite, refreshment, and access to fresh food through our community food stand. Various groups and organizations who utilize the space hold various workshops, harvest and processing days, educational and stewarding opportunities. Contact us if you are interested in deepening connection with the Land. Our events are open to all.

Food

Growing food for humans is a value in how we steward and connect with the Land. We distribute abundance of the earth we work through our community farm stand at the Laflin Street entrance and harvest-your-own spaces throughout our farm. Below is a list of plants grown for food for our friends and neighbors, #LetUsBreathe Collaborative, and the Su Casa community:

• Vegetables:

• Okras

• Corns

• Tomatoes

• Peppers

• Peas

• Beans

• Radishes

• Beets

• Kale

• Jerusalem Artichoke

• Wild Arugula

• Hemp

Wildlife

Habitat and food for wildlife are values we have in how we steward the Land. Plantings of indigenous species provide specific requirements for many birds, insects, and other beings. Below is a list known to be present on the Land:

• Mammals:

• Grey Squirrel

• Domestic Cat

• Raccoon

• Opossum

• Birds:

• Barred Rock, Black Astralorp, and Rhode Island Red Heritage Chickens

• Pilgrim Geese

• American Robin

• Cardinal

• Monk Parakeet

• European Starling

• Titmouse

• Insects:

• Russian Honey Bees

• Mason Bees

• Bumblebees

• Praying Mantis

• Stinkbug