Many people of Native American ancestry lived in the area; Chief Blackhawk reportedly often smoked a peace pipe with Christian Ebinger.

Article 4 of the Second Treaty of Prairie du Chien, signed on July 29, 1829, between the United States government and several chiefs of the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatamie left particular tracts of land to individuals of mixed-Native American ancestry.

[7] During the 1832 Black Hawk War, one band of Native Americans may have reached Billy Caldwell's property as part of an attempt to reclaim land lost to the United States.

Hostilities ended in 1833, and most Native Americans immediately left, moving west of the Mississippi River[7] The Ebingers settled near Milwaukee and Touhy Avenues in the early 1830s.

John Ebinger had been the head gardener for King William in Württemberg, Germany, but moved to the United States (initially Ann Arbor, Michigan) when he was 62.

John Ebinger and his youngest son Christian (at 21 newly married to orphaned Barbara Reuhle of Stuttgart in 1834; both of whom walked the route to enable their elders to ride) packed and traveled to join them, but found Chicago too swampy to farm.

The older Ebinger brothers (one of whom married the sister of Fort Dearborn's commanders' wife) soon joined them, as did the Planks.

Christian Ebinger or his son of the same name (born 1835 and the first white child born in the area, d. 1879), became the first minister to be ordained in their German Evangelical Association, and served as the Village Collector, Township Assessor and Overseer of the Poor (from 1852 to 1865) and Highway Commissioner, as well as left seven surviving children.

His son William Ogden Niles published the newspaper from Washington, D.C. until it ceased publication in 1849; the Odgen family had longstanding connections with the Chicago area.

[citation needed] Alternatively, soldiers from Niles, Michigan reinforced Fort Dearborn during the Black Hawk War, and afterward may have sent word back about the rich farmland to the north.

An early history of Cook County, Illinois reported that every two weeks a half-breed Indian traveled to Niles, Michigan for mail.

[12] Niles Township was organized in a meeting at the North Branch Hotel on April 2, 1850, a year after John Odell donated land at Milwaukee and Harlem Avenues to build a second school (constructed by John Ketchem, who was active in the Methodist church) and four years after Joseph Curtis returned to England.

[15] Several decades later, it instituted a free bus service to connect residents with local shops, government offices and transit options (shown).

Blase, the son of Greek immigrants raised in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood and a law and business graduate of University of Notre Dame, had moved to Niles in 1959 and initially worked as a claims adjuster for Allstate Insurance Company.

He would become Niles' longest-serving mayor, but resigned in a scandal in 2008 which led to his federal criminal conviction for steering insurance business to cronies.

[16] Blase's "New Era Party" ran a door-to-door campaign against corruption (police turning a blind eye to local gambling houses, and prostitution flourishing near the Chicago border) and builder favoritism.

[17] During his nearly five decades as mayor, Blase established a free bus service, a new village hall, a senior and fitness center, and a new police station, as well as jobs for nearly 500 municipal employees.

[19] Several months later he pleaded guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion, and admitted that he had pressured local businesses to buy insurance from a friend's agency in return for a share of the commissions, receiving more than $420,000 over a period of more than 30 years.

[22][23] After serving his term – first in federal prison, then in a halfway house, and then in home confinement – he returned to live in Niles.

[36] St. Adalbert Cemetery, the largest in the Archdiocese of Chicago in terms of burials,[37] is the resting place of German immigrant Fredrak Fraske (1872–1973), who was the last surviving veteran of the "Indian Wars".

Current trustees of the Village are Morgan Dubiel, John C. Jekot, Danette O'Donovan Matyas, Craig Niedermaier, Dean Strzelecki, and Marryann Warda.

Pace provides bus service on multiple routes in the village connecting Niles to destinations across the region.