By John O’connor SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The Prairie Land Potawatomi Nation has reclaimed land in Illinois that was promised to the tribe’s leader 175 years ago but stolen by the federal government 20 years later. A law signed by Gov. JB Pritzker last week transferred Shabbona Lake State Recreation Area, 1,500 acres (607 hectares) in north-central Illinois. “We are proud to once again call this land home,” said Joseph “Zeke” Rupnick, chairman of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation based in Mayetta, Kansas. The action returns to the Potawatomi territory in the same area that was ceded to Chief Shab-eh-nay in a treaty with the U.S. government in 1829. Nothing ever altered that treaty, but when Shab-eh-nay and his people left for several years to visit family in Kansas, the…
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