Site of Chicago's Ft. Dearborn Massacre to be called 'Battle of Ft. Dearborn Park'

[sabra]

Source: Chicago Trib

A tragic chapter in Windy City history known to generations of schoolchildren as "The Ft. Dearborn Massacre" will be renamed by the Chicago Park District on Saturday.

With a military honor guard and Native American dancers, a patch of green at 18th Street and Calumet Avenue is to be dedicated the "Battle of Ft. Dearborn Park."

That apparent nod to political correctness won't go down well with many Chicagoans who, from bar stools to seminar tables, cherish their city's legend and lore.

"It's not to say there wasn't a massacre, but we wanted to provide a vehicle for people to come together," said Tina Feldstein, president of Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance the ceremony's host.

...

The U.S. and England had gone to war a second time, and a party of soldiers and pioneer Chicagoans evacuated Ft. Dearborn, then on the country's western frontier. Having reached the site of Saturday's festivities, they were ambushed by 500 Potawatomi warriors. Two-thirds of the Ft. Dearborn group were killed -- 61 to 63 men, women and children. So, too, were 15 Indians.

...

The Indians won the encounter, taking survivors into captivity, later selling them to the British, and burning Ft. Dearborn. But their victory only quickened the U.S. government's efforts to evict the tribes from their villages and hunting grounds. By 1833, the year Chicago was incorporated as a town, the Indians had been removed from its vicinity, noted Russell Lewis, chief historian of the Chicago History Museum.

Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-fort-dearborn-massacre-renamaug14,0,4033765.story

[Javaman]

1. okay, so let me get this straight...

Native Americans pissed off at being over run by a foreign invader, who spread disease and strife among their people, but then help yet another foreign invader in trying to removed the other foreign invader (enemy of my enemy is my friend?) and somehow the people of Deer Born are pissed over the naming of the park which favors the eventual blighting of these same Native American people?

"But their victory (Potawatomi people) only quickened the U.S. government's efforts to evict the tribes from their villages and hunting grounds. By 1833, the year Chicago was incorporated as a town, the Indians had been removed from its vicinity,"

We really need to get over ourselves.

Wow, just wow.

[Retrograde]

3. Yeah, pretty much

From one viewpoint, the French and the British exploited old-standing emnities between the Native peoples. From another, the Native peoples used the rivalries between the Europeans to get good prices on those new-fangled weapons that could do a better job on that *&%$# tribe down the trail. If you think pre-contact North America was a land of sweetness and harmony, ask the Neutrals, who were trying to be the Switzerland of the Great Lakes, but lacking any convenient Alps, got hit by both sides in a trade dispute.

Bottom line, people are people, and no group is inherently better or worse than any other.

[madrchsod]

4. around here some idolize "chief blackhawk"

he was basically a dumb ass that got a lot of his followers killed for no reason. well... a lot of people around here idolize ronald reagan who was also a dumb ass.

[truedelphi]

2. Frenchman trader and trapper, Kinzie, and his family were warned

By the Potowatomis as to the massacre. They fled the area till things quieted down.