The reasons leading up to the battle are complex and involved a young United States, Great Britain, and the various tribal nations east of the Mississippi that had called the area home for hundreds of years. On Tuesday August 14 at 7:00pm , Glessner House Museum will host a lecture “Don’t Know Much About the War of 1812?” where the factors behind the battle and the war will be discussed. The lecture will present the conflict from a Native American perspective and will be given by Frances Hagemann and Barbara Johnson. Hagemann (Ojibwe/Métis) is a retired University of Illinois at Chicago professor and a scholar-in-residence at the Newberry Library. Johnson is a former teacher, freelance writer, and independent historian focusing on American Indian history.
The Battle of Fort Dearborn, known for most of the past 200 years as the Fort Dearborn Massacre, has been the source of a great deal of controversy for many years. In the 19th century and for much of the 20th century, the Native Americans who participated in the battle were simply seen as the enemy. Today, however, there is a much greater understanding of the Potawatomi who were involved in the battle, in light of their desire to preserve their ancestral lands, and the various injustices that were imposed upon them by Americans as the country expanded ever farther west. Simon Pokagon, the son of a Potawatomi participant in the battle, summed up the controversy when he said “When whites are killed it is a massacre; when Indians are killed, it is a fight.”
In 2009, a more balanced view of the battle was presented to the public, when a small tract of land at the corner of 18th Street and Calumet Avenue was dedicated as the Battle of Fort Dearborn Park. The plaque reads as follows:
From roughly 1620 to 1820, the territory of the Potawatomi extended from what is now
August, 2009
Sponsors: Alderman Robert W. Fioretti, U.S. Daughters of 1812, Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance, Glessner House Museum, American Indian Center and Illinois State Historical Society
Sponsors: Alderman Robert W. Fioretti, U.S. Daughters of 1812, Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance, Glessner House Museum, American Indian Center and Illinois State Historical Society
This cottonwood tree, which stood on the north side of 18th Street , between Prairie and Calumet avenues, marked the traditional site of the battle. The location was identified by Fernando Jones, a Chicago pioneer and long-time resident at 1834 S. Prairie Avenue , who was shown the site by a Native American who had participated in the battle. Jones later hung a sign on the tree that read, “Cursed be he that removeth the ancient landmarks.”
This photo of the tree, taken about 1888 by George Glessner, shows it towards the end of its life. It was felled during a windstorm on May 18, 18 94 . Souvenir hunters swarmed the site to retrieve a piece of the relic, but the main section of the trunk was salvaged by George M. Pullman (whose stable is visible at the left) and given to the Chicago Historical Society.
Top photo: Unveiling of the plaque at the Battle of Fort Dearborn Park, August 15, 2009 .
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