Illinois

Illinois returns nearly 1,500 acres of stolen land to state's first federally recognized tribe

Published

9 months ago

March 24, 2025

Illinois returns nearly 1,500 acres of stolen land to state's first federally recognized tribe

Gov. JB Pritzker signed a law to restore Shabbona State Park, a total of about 1,500 acres in DeKalb County, to the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.

His action Friday comes nearly a year after the group became the first federally recognized tribal nation in Illinois. Previously, Illinois had been one of 15 states without a federally recognized tribal nation.

The law’s passage is part of an attempt to correct what state lawmakers have called a “historic injustice” that occurred 175 years ago when the U.S. government auctioned off nearly 1,300 acres of Prairie Band land, largely encompassing the state park, when Chief Shab-eh-nay was visiting relatives in Kansas. The state established the state park after it purchased the land with federal grant funds between 1969 and 1978.

Prairie Band Chairman Joseph Rupnick, the fourth-generation great-grandson of Chief Shab-eh-nay, said the move showed “healing and reconciliation are possible.”

“Returning our land is a necessary step toward the recognition we deserve as a people and as citizens of Illinois,” Rupnick said. “Illinois has shown true courage and vision by leading the way in the Land Back movement. … We are proud to once again call this land home.”

Because of “quirks” in federal treaties and the way the land was handled legally, this is only an option — as far as lawmakers currently know — for these parcels of land, and couldn’t be used as a framework for returning land to tribal nations nationwide. However, one of the bill’s sponsors, state Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago, said he wouldn’t be surprised if there are other, similar land transfers that could be made nationwide.

“The Land Back movement is alive and well,” Guzzardi, who represents several Chicago neighborhoods, told the Sun-Times Monday. But “this movement looks like different things in different places. … These are very unique circumstances in Illinois with these parcels of land.”

Prairie Band and the state are now working on a land management agreement to set parameters around how the park is maintained, and the tribal nation has committed to keeping it open to the public and “improving the infrastructure and experience of the park.”

“Our goal and the nation’s goal: The average visitor will not have noticed anything has changed,” Guzzardi said. “It will be preserved as publicly available park land.”

It wasn’t until 2001 that the U.S. Department of the Interior confirmed the history and legal status of the Shab-eh-nay Reservation as federally recognized Indian country because the government’s auction of land owned by Chief Shab-eh-nay had not been approved by Congress, as was required.

Last April, the Interior Department announced the decision to place parts of Shab-eh-nay Reservation land — about 130 acres, or roughly 10% of what was originally stolen — in DeKalb County into trust for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and giving the tribal nation sovereignty over the land.

The Prairie Brand Reservation in Dekalb County.

The tribal nation had spent $10 million over the years to get the land back before handing it over to the government to be put into trust and officially recognized. The change in status allowed the land, which sits just southeast of Shabbona, about 70 miles west of Chicago, eligible for federal benefits and protections, and put the tribal nation in charge of governing the land.

As was the case with the prior land return, there are homes on the property not owned by members of the tribal nation, though tribal leaders have promised to work with homeowners and the state to amend their deeds in order to “assure current homeowners that their property is theirs without condition.”

This can only be accomplished through an act of Congress, given how the homes’ deeds were written in connection to the land, but as part of the agreement, the tribal nation has agreed to push for the change to be made at the federal level, allowing the homeowners to have clear titles to their properties.

“This landmark legislation puts Illinois on the right side of history — fostering a partnership with Indigenous communities and returning what was wrongfully acquired,” state Sen. Mark Walker, D-Arlington Heights, one of the bill’s sponsors, said in a statement. “This transfer is not only a common-sense solution, it’s the right thing to do.”

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Illinois

Shooting investigation shuts down I-270 in Illinois Thursday

Published

3 hours ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

Shooting investigation shuts down I-270 in Illinois Thursday

MADISON COUNTY, Ill. — A shooting investigation shut down a stretch of Interstate 270 in Madison County during the evening rush-hour Thursday. No one was injured, Illinois State Police said.

Troopers from ISP Troop 8 responded around 5:23 p.m. to I-270 eastbound at milepost 8 near Edwardsville after a call of shots fired on the expressway.

The eastbound lanes of I-270 were closed at mile marker 8. Police said the investigation is in its early stages. More details will be posted here as they come into the FOX 2 newsroom.

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Illinois

A power shortage could be in Northern Illinois’ near future, new report warns

Published

15 hours ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

A power shortage could be in Northern Illinois’ near future, new report warns

Illinois energy providers are projected to face power shortfalls within the next decade as demand increases amid a transition away from fossil fuel power plants, a new report found.

The report anticipates accelerating energy demand, largely from data centers coming online. That demand, along with retirement of many coal, gas and oil units, and increasing development constraints could strain the state’s utilities and regional transmission organizations, PJM Interconnection and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, according to the report.

Plus, consumers are likely to see prices continue to rise as demand does.

The report, compiled by Illinois Power Agency, Illinois Commerce Commission and Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, is required by the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) that Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law in September 2021.

Per CEJA, the state is required to undergo a Resource Adequacy Study that assesses its progress toward renewable energy, green hydrogen technologies, emissions reduction goals, and its current and project status of electric resource adequacy and reliability throughout the state, with proposed solutions for any shortfalls the study finds.

The different mechanisms and entities that supply energy across Illinois after the state’s deregulation and restructuring of the electricity industry in the late 1990’s and early 2000s contribute to challenges in managing resource adequacy in the future.

With different entities focusing on serving the needs of its immediate customers, the development of a plan for long-term resource adequacy needs is more difficult than if entities were working in concert with each other, according to the report.

Though Illinois zones are considered “resource adequate” today, sources of energy across Illinois are becoming increasingly constrained. Unless new capacity resources are developed, energy capacity shortfalls could be seen in Illinois as early as 2029, the report found.

Data centers are the primary driver of growth in the latest forecasts, the report states, with growth projections at levels “well above those observed in either market over the past twenty years.”

Combined with an “aging fleet of coal and gas generators,” the growth from data centers is “likely to pose significant challenges for the reliability of both systems,” the report stated.

Rapid, concentrated growth from data center development, in addition to growth from residential and commercial customers, is projected to drive growth in resource adequacy targets for both PJM and MISO between 2025 and 2030.

PJM is expected to experience a capacity shortfall beginning in 2029, with the deficit projected to widen in subsequent years if left unabated. MISO is resource adequate through 2030, though a shortfall is projected to emerge in 2031 and grow from there.

Though Illinois has long been known as an exporter of electricity, Northern Illinois will begin to import power in 2030 as the area served by Commonwealth Edison is projected to see a 24% increase in demand for power, according to the report.

MISO, which services downstate Illinois, will meet its zonal requirements through 2035 as a more modest increase of only 11% is expected between 2025 and 2030, though reliance on imports after that is possible.

In addition to the credible risks to reliability, rising demand means already rising consumer cost will continue to trend upward over the next decade.

Utility customers in Illinois reported increasing costs on their electricity bills earlier this year, with some saying their payments have doubled.

When ComEd bills increased an average of 10% in June after a capacity charge increase, PJM told NBC Chicago “higher prices reflect the fact that electricity supply is decreasing while demand is increasing.”

The latest PJM and MISO auctions each set record high capacity prices, which will incentivize new resource development and retention of existing generation. However, the price signal is also going to increase costs for consumers, the report states.

Sarah Moskowitz, Executive Director of Citizens Utility Board — a nonprofit that advocates for utility consumers in Illinois — said the report “makes clear the need to confront these challenges head-on and remain firmly committed to keeping the lights on at prices we can all afford.”

The report also “underscores the urgency” for the implementation of the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act (CRGA), that was passed earlier this year to address the imbalance of supply and demand for energy in Illinois and to pass additional reforms on data centers.

“Across the country, our energy systems are facing new pressures, but for years, consumer advocates have sounded the alarm about policy shortcomings from the regional power grid operators, including unacceptable delays in connecting clean and affordable resources to the power grid,” Moskowtiz said. “Illinois’ strong energy policy gives the state a blueprint to tackle our resource adequacy challenges.”

The Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition also pointed to the CRGA as an important step to addressing the projected shortfalls, however, passing “commonsense guardrails for data centers” is “the next critical step” to protecting Illinois’ ability to meet energy demands in the future.

“ICJC looks forward to working with legislative leaders and stakeholders in the spring legislative session to ensure data center developers, not Illinois consumers, pay for the disproportionate energy burden big tech is bringing to our power grid and keep in line with Illinois’ national leadership on climate by powering these facilities with clean energy,” the organization said in a statement.

Clean Energy Choice Coalition Executive Director Tom Cullerton said while the organization is in support of decarbonization and the state’s climate ambitions, “the Resource Adequacy Study makes clear that policy-driven shutdowns of reliable energy generation, before replacement resources are ready, will drive higher costs within this decade and push Illinois toward a less reliable system while putting skilled energy jobs at risk.”

As mandated by the CRGA, Illinois will begin an Integrated Resource Plan next year, an energy planning tool that will help the state account for the challenges outlined in the report and develop a strategy for moving forward. The IRP process is projected to take place throughout 2026 and 2027, according to the report.

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