Resounding Pride

Group tracks the trails of Native American heritage

(As Published in the Daily Herald)
Madhu Krishnamurthy
Daily Herald Staff Writer Posted Friday, September 16, 2005

Growing up, Bill Brown of Zion didn't know much about his Native American heritage.

His grandfather brushed off his questions and discouraged participation in Native American traditions and lifestyle.

"There's many families who do that. They won't talk about being native," said Brown, a system analyst for Hospira in Lake County.

"My grandfather told me I wasn't going to be part of that world because he was protecting me from the bigotry he had experienced," he said. "So he wasn't passing anything on of that nature."

But inquisitiveness led the now 53-year-old Brown, also known as Thundering Mountain, to research and eventually embrace his Creek and Echota Cherokee heritage and also become an educator of sorts.

Brown owns a Native American handicrafts and music store in Zion. He is founder and chairman of the Potawatomi Trails Pow-Wow Committee of Zion. The not-for-profit group of Native Americans and non- Native Americans that aims to educate people about the cultures, without any political agenda or affiliations.

The group represents several area tribes even though Brown doesn't belong to any of them. His tribe is originally from the Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama area.

"I was told by an elder once to honor those people who were there before me," he said. "The Potawatomi were the last of the people who were in this area."

The group recently hosted a powwow, or social gathering, at Shiloh Park in Zion, a historical tribal council area where native people came together. It is an annual meeting meant to honor the descendants of area tribes who left markers behind.

About 800 Native American families are estimated to live in Lake County.

More than 2,500 people from throughout northeastern Illinois and southeastern Wisconsin participated in the festivities Aug. 27 and 28.

Brown said powwows were more common affairs years ago when they were held at the Lake County Fairgrounds. But now his group hosts the only such Native American celebration in the county.

A powwow custom is to have elders perform an invocation for everyone present in native languages.

The gathering involves storytelling, native crafts and musical traditions such as dance arenas with members beating giant drums. It is where children are first presented to the culture.

"When kids are brought into the circle for the first time, that's an honor for them to be there," Brown said. "It's a right of passage."

One of the goals of the Potawatomi Trails committee is to preserve Native American sites such as burial areas and old trees that were part of the Trail of Tears. The group also does educational programs in schools and for organizations such as the Boy Scouts on tribal traditions.

"We try to do a lot of explanation of our culture," Brown said. "What people begin to see is we are not so different after all."

The group will conduct a concert fund-raiser Nov. 19 in Zion to help pay for next year's powwow, which can cost up to $10,000 to organize. It will feature Native American entertainer Bill Miller.

The event will be at the Zion Park District Leisure Center, 2400 Dowie Memorial Drive. Doors open at 6 p.m., and the concert starts at 7 p.m.

For tickets or more information, call (847) 746-9086 or visit www.goflo.com/powwow/