Pottawatomic Pow-Wow

A billion dollars today would buy no great part of Chicago's Lake Shore Drive real estate, the rich, fashionable section of the secondlargest, second-richest U. S. city. But a billion dollars was all that was asked last week by some Pottawatomie Indians for all the Lake Shore Drive, all the Gold Coast, and a part of the rest of Chicago. In Shawnee, Okla. gathered 1 ,000 Pottawatomies to take the legal warpath, solemnly pledged to recover the cash equivalent of what was once their tribe's hunting ground.

Their claim: Pottawatomie tribesmen moved south from around Winnipeg. By 1800 they owned the country around the foot of Lake Michigan, from Milwaukee south to Indiana. Government agents drove them from Lake Michigan, forced them to sell part of the land in small lots, simply evicted them from the rest. Eviction did not destroy thei" title, so they are still rightful owners. Declared Andrew Johnson, an educated Pottawatomie, at last week's powwow: "From 1836 to 1840 a great injustice was done."

The Pottawatomies engaged Washington lawyers to press their claim. Before they are paid $1,000,000,000 for their Chicago they must: 1) get Congress to pass a special act permitting them to sue the U. S.; 2) win the suit; 3) get Congress to appropriate money to pay the claim.

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