In farm country near DeKalb, Illinois, Native Americans and settlers have been feuding over a piece of disputed land for 173 years. Now, a federal bill proposes to settle the dispute once and for all — but could still face local resistance.
“This is to correct a historical wrong,” Joseph “Zeke” Rupnick, chairperson for Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, said of the pending legislation.
Much of the land in question is underwater, flooded to create part of Shabbona Lake State Park in the 1970s. Some is occupied by homeowners, farmers and local government. All of it is part of a much broader argument over how to compensate Indigenous people for land that was taken from them long ago.
