Ann Durkin Keating, Professor of History at North Central College and author of The World of Juliette Kinzie, examines the transition of this region from Potawatomi to U.S. control. 

Keating will explore key flashpoints including the Battle of Tippecanoe (1811), Fort Dearborn (1812), and the Black Hawk War (1832), tracing how a series of treaties, from the 1795 Treaty of Greenville to the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, converted Indigenous land into commodified real estate. Together, these moments reveal how legal mechanisms and military force laid the groundwork for the advance of settler colonialism in the Midwest.

In 2026, we honor the 250th anniversary of the United States. As part of the commemoration, the History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff is hosting a year-long lecture series that shows how our local history intersected and influenced the nation's past. We'll show how that history ripples through the present and arcs to our future. 

This special 10-part lecture series will bring local and regional scholars to the History Center and will be organized chronologically, giving attendees an overview of the major American events across the past two centuries. The series will cover pre-settlement Indigenous People's history, to early European arrival in the area, local influence and experiences in the Civil War through World War II, and culminates in a capstone community panel, "Shaping the Next 50 Years: A Community Conversation."