Kitihawa Point Du Sable (also known by her Christian name, Catherine) was a

Potawatomi The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a m ...

woman who, with her husband

Jean Baptiste Jean-Baptiste is a male French name, originating with Saint John the Baptist, and sometimes shortened to Baptiste. The name may refer to any of the following: Persons * Charles XIV John of Sweden, born Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, was King ...

, established the first permanent settlement in what is now the city of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. By the late 1700s, Kitihawa and her husband had set up their farm and trading post on the Chicago river.

Biography

There are no known records of Kitihawa's life before her marriage to

. Kitihawa and her husband were married in the 1770s in a Potawatomi ceremony, followed by a Catholic ceremony on October 27, 1788, in Cahokia, Illinois. Kitihawa and Jean Baptiste had two children, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable Jr., and Suzanne.

Representations in arts, entertainment, and media

* A December 2019 article in the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' mentions a proposal to rename

Lake Shore Drive Lake Shore Drive (officially Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable Lake Shore Drive, and called DuSable Lake Shore Drive, The Outer Drive, The Drive, or LSD) is a multilevel expressway that runs alongside the shoreline of Lake Michigan, and adjacent to ...

for Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. The article suggests rethinking the history of the city and considering the centuries that Native American people used the area as a trading post -- and renaming Lake Shore Drive for Kitihawa instead. * In August 2019
Floating Museum
created an art installation called "Founders," which features Kitihawa, her husband,

, and a child. The goal of the piece is to bring attention to the fact that Chicago was originally founded by a Haitian man and a Potawatomi woman. As part of this installation, the poem "Kitihawa Speaks," written by

Osage The Osage Nation, a Native American tribe in the United States, is the source of most other terms containing the word "osage". Osage can also refer to: * Osage language, a Dhaegin language traditionally spoken by the Osage Nation * Osage (Unicode b ...

poet

Elise Paschen Elise Paschen (born January 1959) is an American poet and member of the Osage Nation. She is the co-founder and co-editor of Poetry in Motion, a program which places poetry posters in subways and buses across the country. Career and education The ...

, was displayed in CTA Greenline cars. * A photographic art exhibit called "Kitihawa's Chandelier" by Nicholas Henry, "honors the historical, cultural and racial fusion of an African and Native American."

References

{{reflist Potawatomi people