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‘Contrary To Our Way Of Thinking’: The Struggle For An American Indian Center In Chicago, Grant Arndt

Grant Arndt

When Chicago’s American Indian Center opened in 1953, it had a small core of dedicated leaders, but little support in the city. The Center’s board of directors had applied for funding to Chicago’s Metropolitan Welfare Council, the main clearing- house of philanthropic funding in the city, only to be told that the Center’s existence was “contrary to our way of thinking.” 1 It was not the first time that Native Americans seeking to cre- ate urban organizations had encountered rejection. For years, local Native American activists had found that urban Indians and Native American urban organizations were contrary to the …