Beck stated in Unfair Labor, “.the representations of American Indians at the fair fall into five categories: Indians as they wanted themselves to be known and understood, Indians as objects of science, Indians as assimilating into American society, Indians as romantic images and actors reflecting a bygone era, and Indians as savage and wild representations of America’s past” (2019, p. The endeavor was headed by one of America's first anthropologists, Harvard University professor Frederic Ward Putnam. Word spread across the country that American Indians would be able to present themselves through exhibits. In 1893, Chicago put on the World’s Columbian Exposition. This led to poverty, starvation and severely difficult living circumstances that would continue to plague tribes for years to come. More often than not, the tribes would struggle for what limited supplies and resources were available. The land allotted to tribes was often rejected by settlers. Those who survived the trip would face new hardships. Relocation itself was a tragic undertaking for tribes. The tribes in what is now Chicago and the Great Lakes area would feel the brunt of many land cessations and several relocation efforts over the coming years after this. This would mean the relocation of tens of thousands of indigenous people still living east of the river. On May 28, 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act proposing to relocate indigenous tribes west of the Mississippi River. The Treaty of Ghent, which was written between the British and the United States following the war, felt like a betrayal to the tribes who had fought alongside the British against the United States government, and with economic shifts toward agriculture and industry, the Americans and British no longer felt the need to maintain economic and military relationships with the tribes of the Great Lakes area. The War of 1812 significantly affected the relationship between the Indigenous tribes in the Great Lakes area with the British and the United States. War and starvation further decimated tribal populations. The arrival of Europeans on the continent had led to marked losses among the tribes of the Great Lakes area through the introduction of new diseases and the push of Eastern tribes westward. Reciprocal trade relationships between the tribes and Europeans helped maintain the tribal hold on the Illinois area around Lake Michigan throughout the 1700s. Some roadways in Chicago reflect the trade roads followed by these tribes.

Post-European contact, the tribes maintained trade arrangements with both the French and British. These tribes had thriving trade networks in the Great Lakes area prior to European contact.

The Chicago area is located on ancestral lands of indigenous tribes, such as the Council of the Three Fires-comprised of the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations-as well as the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac, Fox, Kickapoo, and Illinois Nations.

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