Bringing Detroit’s Indigenous history to the forefront

The city of Detroit turns 321 years old this Sunday, but its history predates the French. To learn more about the land’s Indigenous roots, CultureShift spoke with Karen Marrero, Associate Professor at Wayne State University and author of “Detroit’s Hidden Channels: The Power of French-Indigenous Families in the Eighteenth Century.” She researches, writes and teaches early North American and Indigenous history.

She says a lot of what was once here was erased by the settler presence at the turn of the nineteenth century. Indigenous peoples continue to maintain their connection to the land through oral histories passed down within their nations, but physical reminders of the past are scarce.

“There isn’t much left.”

Marrero says there’s only one remaining burial mound in Historic Fort Wayne, which would symbolize a thriving Native presence, but there used to be many more, and that one used to be much larger.

This lack of preservation is not unique to Detroit, but there are still things we can do to reinstate cultural consciousness of this land’s history. For example, the Michigan History Center is making an effort to address the lack of historical markers that would designate significant Indigenous spaces.

“A lot of people don’t realize that roadways like I-94 started life as Indigenous roadways.”

Marrero also says that Woodward started as part of the Saginaw Trail, and that making these pieces of information more widely available could start to reconcile the erasure of the past.

“We have a long way to go to bring back some of that history.”

Listen: History Professor Karen Marrero reflects on Detroit’s indigenous history

Photo Credit: Jake Neher, WDET