Attendees of the 2025 Native American Summit at the Illinois State Capitol pose for a photo on the Capitol rotunda alongside state Rep. Maurice West, D-Rockford, top right.

“The Indian doesn’t have foul breath,” declared an 1898 advertisement for Ton-ka-aw, an all-purpose Native American miracle cure manufactured in Central Illinois and sold by the bottle.

Illinois’ legislative session concluded without passage of a Native American K-12 school mascot ban, but another issue sought by Natives will make its way to the governor. Despite desire from ...

Attendees of the 2025 Native American Summit at the Illinois State Capitol pose for a photo on the Capitol rotunda alongside state Rep. Maurice West, D-Rockford, top right.

This past school year, for the first time, Illinois schools were required to teach a unit on the experience and history of ...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois’ legislative session concluded without passage of a Native American K-12 school mascot ban, but another issue sought by Natives will make its way to the governor.

SPRINGFIELD. Illinois’ legislative session concluded without passage of a Native American K-12 school mascot ban, but another issue sought by Natives will make its way to the governor.

Earlier this month, the Illinois House passed legislation — House Bill 1237 — that would phase out the use of Native American-based mascots and logos in our state’s elementary and high schools.

Amid the annual bustle at the Illinois Capitol during the legislative session’s midpoint, a sea of color and singing filled the rotunda on a sunny March day. Attendees of the 2025 Native ...