How did the indigenous people of Chicagoland understand what was happening in the Colonies in 1776? Did the Declaration of Independence affect them in any way? Of course, the City of Chicago was not founded until 1837, but this episode explores the lives of the inhabitants of the Chicago area and the effect of European colonization on their way of life during the Revolutionary War. Our expert guest, Prof. Theodore Karamanski, walks us through the history of Chicagoland, focussing on the following points: -Chicagoland during the Seven Years' War (French and Indian War) -The differences in French and British methods of imperial control over the Indians -The Consequences of the Treaty of Paris (1763) for native peoples in the Interior -Pontiac's War (Native Confederation vs. Britain) -The Anishinaabe people, who inhabited the Great Lakes region -The Three Fires Confederacy (Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi Tribes) -An explanation of the concept of the Village World, which means every tribal village makes its own independent foreign policy decisions -The consequences of the Proclamation of 1763 for both colonists and natives -The alliance between some Chicagoland tribes and American officer George Rogers Clark, who fought together against the British during the Revolutionary War -The alliance between some tribes and the Spanish Empire, who controlled St. Louis, against the British during the Revolutionary War -The period after the Revolutionary War until the founding of Chicago in 1837 The image is of Chief Pontiac picking up the war hatchet.