The sounds you hear surrounding the American Indian Center on Chicago's Northside are those of any urban street corner- cars, dogs, footsteps and busses. But one sound you can't hear is that of a tiny garden. Each spring the garden begins to show signs of last season's work- medicinal plants and herbs. As the plants grow so do the stories they tell about Chicago's Native American community- the 3rd largest urban native population in the country. These are stories of the tradition, migration, and growth of this community and the transformation of their wilderness from native lands to an urban wilderness; a more peculiar wilderness.

 

The sounds you hear surrounding the American Indian Center on Chicago's Northside are those of any urban street corner- cars, dogs, footsteps and busses. But one sound you can't hear is that of a tiny garden. Each spring the garden begins to show signs of last season's work- medicinal plants and herbs. As the plants grow so do the stories they tell about Chicago's Native American community- the 3rd largest urban native population in the country. These are stories of the tradition, migration, and growth of this community and the transformation of their wilderness from native lands to an urban wilderness; a more peculiar wilderness.