Camp Shaw-Waw-Nas-See

The area of Rock Creek that flows through our beautiful Camp Shaw-Waw-Nas-See was once the home of Pottawatomi Chief Shaw-Waw-Nas-See for which Camp Shaw is named.

Camp Shaw-Waw-Nas-See sits on the site where one of the oldest Pottawatomi villages was located. In 1830, there was a great tribal council, Chief Shaw-Waw-Nas-See who was not only respected by his tribe, but many others in the area advised his people to make a treaty with settlers, in order to maintain their friendship. This eventually led to the mass exodus of the Indians of the Rock Creek area to the reservations in the West. At that time Chief Shaw-Waw-Nas-See was too old and in poor health to make the journey. He remained on this land. He appealed to his family and friends to promise not to bury him in the ground, but to place him in a log cabin built for the purpose which was sometimes the Indian custom. One of his settler friends built him the log cabin and his wishes were met. Chief Shaw-Waw-Nas-See’s remains are a mystery, some believe they were stolen by trappers, some say they were taken to Chicago and displayed in a surgeon’s office and later destroyed in the great fire, others believe he is still buried on these grounds. What we do know is there is a marker we can visit to remember him and those that came before us on this land.