THE LEGACY OF CHICAGO'S FIRST NON-INDIGENOUS SETTLER
JEAN BAPTISTE POINTE DUSABLE by Suzanne Hanney
The Haitian-Frenchman Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable is important not only as Chicago’s first nonindigenous settler, but because he established a new European trading network with native peoples on top of their existing ones, says Dr. Christopher Reed, emeritus professor of history at Roosevelt University and Black Chicago expert on WTTW’s “DuSable to Obama” website. “He lived like a Frenchman even though he was a mixedblood person,” Reed said. “Think in terms of a charismatic figure who could get along with everyone and make money and have paintings on his walls and eat off of china and pewter. He could have been ‘The Bachelor’ if he wasn’t married. Think of somebody who looks like [President] Obama. He was a cosmopolite.” DuSable was born about 1745 to an African slave and a French mariner, and was possibly educated in France, according to the WTTW website. He spoke French, English, Spanish and several Native American dialects, which served him both as a trader and negotiator. In the early 1770s, he sailed to New Orleans and then traveled up the Mississippi River to Cahokia, where he married Kittihawa (Christian name Catherine) in a Potawatomi ceremony and later, a Catholic one. They had two children, Jean Baptiste Point DuSable Jr. and Suzanne.
Above: There are no known portraits of Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable made during his lifetime. This depiction is taken from A. T. Andreas' book History of Chicago (1884). Right: The Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable stamp was issued Feb. 20, 1987 in the year of the 150th birthday of Chicago (United States Postal Service). Opposite Page: Map of the United States as it was from 1795 to 1796 (Golbez Gallery).
By 1780, DuSable had settled on the north bank of the Chicago River at about what is now Pioneer Court, (the area between Tribune Tower and the Apple store), but his land extended as far west as what is now State Street and as far north as Chicago Avenue. Suzanne’s wedding to Jean Baptiste Pelletier in 1790, and the birth of their daughter Eulalia in 1796 at the homestead, were Chicago’s first nonindigenous marriage and birth, according to the National Park Service application for Pioneer Court historic status in 1975. Otherwise, there are no monuments to DuSable in Chicago. Late last year, the Chicago City Council proposed renaming Lake Shore Drive after DuSable; Transportation Committee Chair Ald. Howard Brookins (21st ward), said a vote could come by April. Meanwhile, a 3.4-acre parcel of land at the mouth of the Chicago River near Ogden Slip was set aside for DuSable Park in 1987 by Mayor Harold Washington. The site has undergone environmental remediation for radioactive thorium, a byproduct of a past lamp factory there, but it is otherwise dormant. DuSable put down roots over two decades and traded goods like metal pots that he received from his French network as well as items produced at his own homestead, Reed said. His customers were British and French explorers and traders, and members of the Potawatomi, Chippewa and Miami tribes.
