Chicago murals: Native Americans, settlers, colonial figures are focus of historic South Side fieldhouse art

Chicago's parks encourage motion. There are fields to play ball on. Pools to splash in. Summer camps to piece things together into crafts.

But there's a stillness inside several South Side fieldhouses where historic murals adorn the walls and encourage a look not just at the artistry but also into the past and perceptions of it.

Some of the fieldhouse artwork is a century old, and all of it captures American history — whether colonial figures or European settlers or Native Americans — but not always in a way that would be seen today as appropriate.

While there were efforts in the last few years to remove or better contextualize historic public statues deemed insensitive, murals touching on some of the same controversial people and themes have flown more under the radar.

Chicago Park District Supt. Rosa Escareño declined to comment, but her agency says: “Some of these historic facilities . . . do not always tell the full story of our history or celebrate the values that we share today. Murals, monuments and the names of parks and other public spaces are the topic of ongoing review within the Chicago Park District.”

At Palmer Park, 201 E. 111th St. in Roseland on the Far South Side, several murals date to 1934 and the New Deal era of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Created by artist James McBurney, the artwork depicts "the early history of the South Side area in which Palmer Park was built" in the early 1900s, according to the park district.

One panel shows Native Americans gazing at the lake at sunset. Another shows explorers Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit priest, and Louis Joliet. A third shows Dutch settlers wearing traditional wooden shoes.

In the second-floor gym at Calumet Park, 9801 S. Avenue G in the East Side neighborhood, there are four public murals created in the late 1920s by artist Tom Lea, focusing on "the burgeoning trade system in the region," according to the park district.

In one of the oil paintings, Native Americans seem to be gathered around a fire "in an act of ceremonial ritual."

In another, "Traders lay out beads, guns and other utensils on large gingham blankets perhaps to exchange them for fur pelts."

A mural features Marquette, and another shows Native American villagers apparently returning from a hunt.

At Hamilton Park at 513 W. 72nd St. in Englewood, colonial-era figures are the focus of a series of murals in the fieldhouse lobby done by artist John Warner Norton in 1916.

There are early presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, plus long-ago legislator and diplomat Henry Clay — all slave owners.

Clay was secretary of state under President John Quincy Adams and also was a U.S. senator and House speaker. In the 1800s, he "helped guide a fragile Union through several critical impasses," according to a Senate biography.

Another mural features President Abraham Lincoln, who ended slavery, above doors leading to a gym.

"In addition to the biographical panels, other horizontal stretches are richly illustrated with scenes of Native Americans, explorers and pioneers and romantic American landscapes," according to the park district. "Norton was known for creating murals that harmoniously blend into their architectural contexts. Hamilton Park’s extensive series is an excellent example of this synthesis."

At Sherman Park, 1301 W. 52nd St. in Back of the Yards, a series of murals was created in 1912 by eight of Norton's students from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

The scenes aimed to portray "American history, with a marked emphasis on the constructive phases in the history of the Middle West," according to the park district.

According to the book "A Guide to Chicago's Murals," the 18 paintings "are an example of one of the important missions of Chicago parks in the early part of the century: to educate the neighborhood children and adults, many of whom were foreign born, and familiarize them with the history of their new country."

There's a mural featuring the early Jamestown settlement and another about Plymouth, where the pilgrims of the Mayflower settled in the 1600s.

The paintings at Sherman Park portray Native Americans negatively, with one titled "The Treachery of the Indians" adjacent to artwork that shows whites evacuating from Chicago's Fort Dearborn.

Another mural showcases explorer Christopher Columbus, who has been celebrated for centuries as the person to "discover" the Americas despite the presence of Native peoples when he arrived in 1492 and his brutal treatment of them.

John Low, an associate professor at Ohio State University who is part of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, was on a committee that between 2020 and 2022 helped study monuments in Chicago amid complaints that some were racially insensitive or offensive. Low wasn't familiar with the historic paintings at the South Side parks but says: "I think murals, park names and monuments all should be periodically reviewed."

The recent monument study — which also involved city officials — flagged statues of concern and identified possible ways to move forward that might include removing certain pieces or adding "information to the monument placing it in a more informed context."

That's already happened with a 1934 painting of explorers and Natives at a West Side library — one of the few murals addressed by the monument group. A Native American artist was commissioned to "present an alternative narrative to the historic events depicted in the mural."

Little else has occurred publicly yet in response to the study. According to a person familiar with the subject, "Behind the scenes, it's a pretty active conversation" among some city officials, with plans in the works for new, more-inclusive public artwork.