High winds and sporadic rain showers on a blustery Nov. 5 did not move a large rock which was the focus of attention that Saturday in Wilmette but blustery conditions caused organizers to move around the itinerary of the closing event of Wilmette’s Sesquicentennial Celebration.
A plaque dedication ceremony at Gillson Park was supposed to start outside at the corner of Lake Avenue and Michigan Avenue across from Michigan Shores Club.
Instead, dignitaries and community members gathered indoors to commence with a land acknowledgment and fellowship in the East Porch of the club.
After podium remarks, the group went outdoors when the rain stopped. A brief Four Directions ceremony for the ancestors was conducted by Sharon Hoogstraten of Logan Square in Chicago, a descendant of the Ouilmette family. The Four Directions honorarium recognizes the four seasons.
“To stand on my ancestors’ land, it’s pretty goosebumpy,” Hoogstraten said.
“I’m glad to have this opportunity,” said Sharon’s niece Ryley Hoogstraten of Otsego, Michigan. “It’s amazing.”
Attendees were there to recognize Archange Chevalier Ouilmette who lived in a log cabin with her family near that boulder’s spot on land along Lake Michigan.
The new plaque acknowledges those whose homeland became the Village of Wilmette.
“People lived here for thousands of years before it (Wilmette) was incorporated and I’m glad the new plaque recognizes that,” event attendee and Wilmette resident Mary Lawlor said.
A rewritten version of the plaque was installed a few weeks ago, replacing wording on a former plaque installed in 1954 by the Wilmette Historical Commission.
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Of the new plaque, “I think it’s long overdue,” said Kathy Hussey-Arntson, director of the Wilmette Historical Museum.
“The plaque has a different emphasis. Some things were wrong on the old plaque.,” said Hussey-Arntson. “It happens. It was 1954. It’s much easier to check facts, not that it’s that easy, but it’s much easier. I’m glad that they did this.”
The timing is poignant with November recognized as Native American Heritage Month. The boulder’s plaque wording, with its header, “The Ouilmette Family,” reads as follows.
“In honor of the Ouilmette family who lived here from the mid-1820s to the late 1830s and after whom the Village of Wilmette takes its name. Archange Chevalier Ouilmette and her children, members of the Potawatomi Tribe, were granted 1,280 acres here in the 1829 Treaty of Prairie du Chien. It was this same treaty whereby three Native American tribes (Ojibwe, Ottawa, and Potawatomi) yielded a large section of northeastern Illinois to the United States, leading to the eventual forced removal of tribal members from the region. For more than 8,000 years, this land had been Native American homeland.”
Event attendee Patrick Leary of Skokie was curator for 20 years of the Wilmette Historical Museum and retired in 2020.
Referencing the large size of the boulder, “The rock is unmovable unlike the Potawatomis, unfortunately,” Leary said.
“It’s because of Archange and Antoine Ouilmette that we have a village,” Leary said.
Podium remarks included participation by Hussey-Arntson, Wilmette Village President Senta Plunkett, along with Sharon and Ryley Hoogstraten.
“This is the culmination of our 150th anniversary and we’re bringing it back to where it all began,” Plunkett said. “I’m just thrilled to be able to do this.
According to Wilmette’s history website, “Among the first residents of Chicago in 1790 was a French Canadian fur trader named Antoine Ouilmette. His wife, Archange Chevalier Ouilmette, was a member of the Potawatomi tribe.”
Plunkett said, “This new plaque really centers the story on the Native American people who were here before us and on Archange Ouilmette and her descendants, unlike the old plaque that was really more focused on her husband as the first white settler.”
Sharon Hoogstraten, an author, told the Michigan Shores Club audience, “I hope our ancestors know we still speak their names.
“I challenge myself to live my life in such a way that seven generations from now, my descendants will remember to remember me.”
Karie Angell Luc is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.
