"Cadillac was a Frenchman, who commanded a fort."
There is a statue of Cadillac because he founded and settled Detroit. It
was not just a fort but a village. It's the narrowest part of the Detroit
River between Michigan and Windsor, Ontario, hence the name. In the
winter, one can walk across. That is, if immigration authorities would
allow it.
There are all sorts of statues to many people in Michigan. A famous one,
which you might have seen,
is the statue of Pere Marquette. He came to Christianize the natives.
When Michigan territory became British, Canada, which at this time was
mostly Quebec, the religious issues became prominent. The bishop of Quebec
urged the citizens to fight any attempt of the Americans to conquer or
unify with Quebec. Quebec was Catholic and British in Michigan were mostly
Protestant, with a few other religious types here and there.
There are native Americans in Michigan, such as the Pottawatami, who
cultivate wild rice in upper Michigan and Minnesota. There are Indian
lands, but I don't think most descendants of Native Americans live there.
They are descendants of the Ottawa and Iroquois, primarily. There are
several casinos in Michigan, and in theory, these are reserved for Native
peoples. But they just declare a piece of land Indian territory, and lo
and behold, a casino can now be built there. Of course, most of the money
from the casinos go the real owners, some to Native Americans, some to
taxes to the states.
Many people in the Upper Peninsula, also known as 'Upers,' would prefer to
belong to Wisconsin. It won't happen, of course. The Upper Peninsula is
economically depressed and the people there think they would do better if
they belonged to Wisconsin.
I hope you went to Mackinaw Island. It's a little geological jewel,
beautiful and fun. I hope if you went there, you rented a bike and rode
around the island to see the rock formations in the water. Different from
what one sees on Oregon coast, but just as beautiful.
Veronica, living where people can't decide whether to call themselves
Michganians or Michiganders.
[Original Message]
From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 7/25/2005 10:09:52 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Michigan
While on vacation, I managed but one scribble, a postcard:
I just want to know why the U.S.- Canadian border, which runs straight in
the West, is so devious in the East. Here in Michigan I hit upon the idea
of asking people how the early history of the region goes. Since no one
proved very helpful on the subject in casual conversation, I went into
bookstores in search of a standard text that might explain the issues.
Preferably a nice, cheap, used copy.
I found none. Here's the piffle I picked up by skimming and dipping: the
Ottowas were a people and Cadillac was a Frenchman, who commanded a fort.
When the land became British--because of General Wolfe's defeat of
Montcalm
on the Heights of Quebec--new forts were called Oswego and Drummond. I
don't know if that Drummond is somehow related to my man William Drummond
Stewart, or whether Oregon's Lake Oswego is related to that fort.
Drummond
is not an unusual Scottish name.
Francis Parkman, in "Montcalm and Wolfe" says that somewhere in the series
of fights that decided who would control north America, a commander sent
his
opponent's wife a gift of pineapples, with an expression of regret "for
the
disquiet to which she was exposed."
Cadillac got a memorial in Michigan, also a car marque; Wolfe has neither.
Francois Bigot, who fought with the French, probably hasn't either either.
After the Revolution (or War of Independence), Americans did not have
control Michigan, but that was handed to them to keep it from falling to
the
Spaniards. At one stage there was a skirmish between the early settlers
of
Wisconsin and Michigan and the result was what people call "the upper
peninsular," which points sideways and belongs to Michigan. It has the
Hiawatha National Forest on it as well as the Ottowa National Forest. I
haven't visited the latter, but I'm guessing that land doesn't have any
Ottowa in it. We did pass through a reservation and casino in the lower
peninsular, but I don't know if they were Ottowa. Ottowa, the city, lies
to
the South and East.
I came home with "Old Forts of the Great Lakes," and installed it on top
of
Stephen Straker's copy of "Montcalm and Wolfe" in the "to be reads" pile.
Carry on.
David Ritchie
Portland, Oregon
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