The Seeing Indian in Chicago exhibition was sponsored by the D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History of the Newberry Library. It was funded by the Ethnic and Folk Arts Program of the Illinois Arts Council and the Hyman and Marjorie Weinberg Foundation.

An outgrowth of the Chicago American Indian Oral History Project (1984), the Seeing Indian exhibition was held July 22-September 21, 1985 at the Hermon Dunlap Smith Gallery at the Newberry Library. It was part of the Chicago American Indian Photography Project which aimed to document the American Indian community in Chicago by creating an archive of photographs taken by interested community members. The exhibition honored six photographers of the Chicago Indian community: Dan Battise, Ben Bearskin, Orlando Cabanban, Joe Kazumura, F. Peter Weil, and Leroy Wesaw.

The photographs made by each of the photographers were shown to audiences at two community meetings; three photographers were featured at each meeting. In the course of showing the pictures many identifications were made of the individuals in the photographs. This community involvement meant that the pictures could be documented and made more useful to the larger community.

An opening was planned to celebrate the beginning of the exhibit on July 26, 1985, and efforts were made to make it a community event. Dancers and singers were present, and a prayer was offered by a community religious leader. At least half of the four hundred people present for the short program were members of the Chicago Indian community.