About American Indian Association of Illinois

Chicago Has Always Been Indian Country

American Indian people from many different tribes including the Ojibwe, Ho-Chunk, Potawatomie, Ottawa, Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo have lived in Illinois and the Chicago urban area for over 10,000 years. Today, tribal members from over 150 different tribes reside in urban and rural areas of Illinois, including the Ojibwe, Potawatomie, Lakota, Dakota, Navajo, Zuni, Menominee, Oneida and Choctaw, Cherokee and many others.

Columbus did not discover America. Long before 1492, ancestors of modern native people from over 500 different tribes, lived in complex, formalized societies, and hunted, fished, farmed, and traded on the shores of Lake Michigan and throughout Illinois and the Great Lakes area.

NAES College and NAES.Inc.

NAES American Indian College in Chicago, was an historically American Indian controlled institution and the first American Indian College in an urban American Indian community. NAES, founded in 1974, lost its accreditation in 2005. Since there were no Indian controlled college programs left in Illinois, the administration, staff, faculty and volunteers of NAES led by Dr. Dorene Wiese decided to form a new organization, the American Indian Association of Illinois (AIAI) in 2007. They wanted AIAI to continue and expand the work NAES had begun. AIAI is the only Chicago based American Indian non-profit started in the past 25 years. The extensive urban and reservation book, papers, photo, tape, NAES Archives are held by AIAI and the University of Chicago. NAES Inc. continues as a Chicago non-profit organization with archive and library services for students and community sharing space with AIAI.

Urban American Indian Education

While most (78%) American Indian children and families live in urban areas, only one percent of all American Indian educational and other funding is directed to those urban areas. This leaves over one million American Indian children without the basic necessities of life including food, housing, day care, clothing, school supplies, tutoring, legal aid, social services, transportation and health care. Today, AIAI supports American Indian children and families attending the Chicago Public Schools and area Colleges and Universities, with such programs as the Medicine Shield program and the Native Scholars Youth Initiative and strives to bring new funding and programs to those most in need.

THE VISION OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN ASSOCIATION OF ILLINOIS

The American Indian Association of Illinois strives to transform American Indian education into an experience founded in native culture, language, and history fused with knowledge, excellence, and tribal values which will enhance tribal nations and urban native communities where American Indian families work, live, worship, attend school, care for their elders, and raise their children.