SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) — After 175 years, a state park in Northern Illinois may get returned to an indigenous population.

A bill on Governor J.B. Pritzker’s desk would return the land from Shabbona Lake and State Park to the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.

Rep. Will Guzzardi (D-Chicago) said the bill corrects injustices the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation have been facing for multiple generations.

“Forcibly ejecting the indigenous population from the state began generations of trauma still felt today,” Guzzardi said in a news release. “I am proud to join indigenous advocates and members of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation in committee and on the House floor to pass this bill. We’ve got a lot more work to do to correct the egregious wrongs of past generations, but sending this land back to its rightful inhabitants is one step closer to honoring and supporting the fight for indigenous rights and protections.”

In 1829, the U.S. government recognized, with a treaty, that an area of almost 1,300 acres around Lake Shabbona in DeKalb County belonged to Chief Shab-eh-nay and his people, which is now recognized as the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. While members of the Band were visiting other Potawatomi who had been forcibly relocated in Kansas, the federal government violated the treaty and sold the land in 1849.

The land then became a state park in 1969.

This bill would go into effect with the governor’s signature. The Prairie Band has agreed to keep the lake open to the public for recreation.