U.S. Rep. Underwood talks federal tribal legislation with some concerned Shabbona residents

SHABBONA – U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Naperville, was joined Monday by a Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation official at a packed public meeting to address some residents’ concerns over the tribe’s yearslong effort to reclaim hundreds of acres of stolen land in Shabbona.

Dozens packed into Flewellin Memorial Library, 108 W. Comanche Ave., where Underwood met with constituents, including DeKalb County Board members and Shabbona homeowners. Many residents asked the congresswoman what’s next after portions of the Shab-eh-nay Reservation, near Shabbona State Park, were placed into a trust for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation in April. The action made the land the only federally recognized tribal reservation in Illinois.

Potawatomi Nation officials for years have lobbied the federal government to reclaim hundreds of aces of land that was illegally taken from the tribe nearly 200 years ago in southern DeKalb County.

“One-hundred-seventy-five years ago the federal government unlawfully sold the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation’s land here in DeKalb County, and in Congress I’ve been working in partnership with the Nation to correct the historic injustice through bipartisan legislation that I introduced,” Underwood said to the crowd Monday.

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 10

U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Naperville, and Raphael J. Wahwassuck a tribal council member from the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation answer a question Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, at the Flewellin Memorial Library in Shabbona during a community conversation regarding the Prairie Band Nation Potawatomi Tribe land transfer. (Mark Busch)

Since April, some vocal Shabbona residents have spoken against the Department of Interior’s decision, however, including DeKalb County Board meetings. Underwood said she held a Zoom call with Shabbona property owners in July.

“We want to come in and be good neighbors with everyone. It is not our intention to just close off everything, and shut it down and deny access, OK? That’s not our intention. However, we’re far from being able to say with any certainty what that looks like moving forward.”

—  Raphael Wahwassuck

Berkeley Boehne, with DeKalb County Farm Bureau, was one of at least four dozen who attended.

“I’ve publicly stated to a lot of these people that ‘Hey, we might have to give up our state park for our tax base,’ but these people are not going to rollover because Farm Bureau represents personal property rights,” Boehne said. “Congresswoman Underwood, you are cautiously setting a dangerous precedent by giving the opportunity of some land away.”

Many of those in attendance said they were surprised by April’s federal decision.

Underwood told the crowd of DeKalb County residents that her office wasn’t a part of that action, but the land placed into a trust was already owned by the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.

“The 130 acres, the land that was placed in a trust, is land that the tribe already owns. It’s theirs,” Underwood said. “Just like you own your land, they own those 130 acres.”

Underwood and Chicago area Democratic U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, as well as others, have sponsored House Resolution 3144, which would allow the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation to acquire 1,280 additional acres of land, largely made up of Shabbona State Park, in compensation for what the Potawatomi Nation has long held was an illegal acquisition of the land by the U.S. government 173 years ago.

“You may be interested to know this legislation settles ownership interests of the Nation and current non-native occupants with clean titles on their homes within tribal land here in Illinois,” Underwood said.

The Nation would also receive $50 million over five years as a settlement, according to the bill’s text that is publicly available.

Underwood said the settlement would be decided by a judge.

“What our federal legislation does, in the current form, is it takes out the reference of the $50 million, and it allows the financial judgement to be made by an external judge. So that is no longer written into the federal legislation,” Underwood said. “I also believe that this would be part of the Tribe’s court case. But I also believe the award is ... almost like back payments for not being able to use their land over the course of these many decades, and is not like a fair market value allocation.”

If Underwood’s bill is not approved before the end of the calendar year, the bill would have to be reintroduced under the next Congress. That isn’t the only legislation Shabbona residents are interested in, however.

State Rep. Mark Walker, D-Arlington Heights, filed a separate piece of legislation in the Illinois General Assembly in February that, if approved, would transfer Shabbona State Park to the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation for $1.

The state legislation has more than 30 sponsors, and was re-referred to the rules committee in May.

Boehne asked Underwood about any connections between the federal legislation she is sponsoring, and what’s being considered in Springfield.

Underwood said the two pending pieces of legislations are completely separate. She said that she believes action from federal, state and local governments is needed.

The Potawatomi Nation and other tribes ceded land in northern Illinois in a treaty signed July 29, 1829, commonly known as the Second Treaty of Prairie du Chien, according to legislation filed in 2023 by members of Congress from Illinois and Kansas.

Potawatomi Chief Shab-eh-nay and his band at their village near Paw Paw Grove, however, were allowed to keep two parcels of land, totaling 1,280 acres. That land became known as the Shab-eh-nay Band Reservation.

In 1849, while Shab-eh-nay was visiting relatives who had been forced to move to Kansas, the land was sold by the General Land Office of the U.S. at a public auction, according to the bills filled in Congress.

Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation Tribal Council member Raphael Wahwassuck, a direct descendant of Chief Shab-eh-nay, also attended the town hall meeting on Monday.

He said that his family isn’t used to being on the winning side of litigations. He said as a grandfather he shares the sentiments of Shabbona residents who expressed their desire to keep Shabbona State Park open for outdoor recreation.

Tribal officials have said they have no plans to build a casino on the land.

“We want to come in and be good neighbors with everyone. It is not our intention to just close off everything, and shut it down and deny access, OK? That’s not our intention. However, we’re far from being able to say with any certainty what that looks like moving forward,” Wahwussuck said.

DeKalb County Board Vice Chair John Frieders, a Republican from District 12, told Underwood he doesn’t agree with her financial philosophy on the matter.

“Any money that goes into a federal bill affects everybody,” Frieders said. “Federal money is not free money, as I have been told on the County Board. That affects everybody, not only in Shabbona, DeKalb County and the state of Illinois, that affects everybody and we are making a huge mistake when we continue to think that federal money is free money and we need to tap into it. That is a rabbit hole we keep going down, and that is bad policy.”

After hearing from some local residents who questioned whether the federal government illegally sold the land, Underwood said her office would disseminate the information they have.

“I have read the documentation from the U.S. Department of Interior and Congressional records that demonstrate that this has happened in the 1800s, and that this tribe has a legal claim to the land that would require congressional legislation to return that land to that tribe, in addition to a financial payment that in the first draft of the legislation was going to be authorized and appropriated by Congress, and in the current draft of the legislation the financial award would be decided by a court,” Underwood said.

Editor’s note: This article was updated at 10 a.m. Aug. 6, 2024, to correct an earlier version which misstated that Democratic U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia was in attendance. He was not.