The battlefields outside were long forgotten, covered by a paper mill and other modern uses, but this is a story that Americans must never forget. So the community came together to make sure we “Remember the Raisin”, correctly, completely and for our kids. The park opened in 2011, repurposing an underused ice rink, and built this longhouse and other exhibits and made the park film with the support and participation of local Native American tribes. My guide passionately explained how learning the history of his own backyard literally changed his life.

The War of 1812 was a mistake, which led to the burning of the White House and the Capitol. The US could have remained neutral as the French & British continued fighting, but instead we declared war on England without adequate preparations. The cause in the history I read was about trade relations and kidnapped sailors, but the real cause was Native American relations. The war was opposed by the ocean trading states in the northeast. Americans wanted to move west, despite the land being occupied by Natives, with treaty protections in many cases. Declaring war was popular among the western border states.

Indiana Governor Harrison destroyed a sacred Native American settlement called Prophetstown at Tippecanoe in 1811. The Americans committed atrocities there, including digging up corpses and scattering the remains. That caused the almost 20 tribes to ally with the British. When the war broke out just as the British were ready to be more conciliatory, the Americans took a French settlement on the River Raisin south of Detroit. Native Americans, with some support from British-Canadian troops, retook the village and killed a number of wounded Americans, in retaliation for Prophetstown.

Americans turned their large military losses into a recruiting tool with a big campaign to ‘Remember the Raisin’—which was followed by similar campaigns for the Alamo, the Maine, the Lusitania, Pearl Harbor and 9/11. When the new recruits arrived, the troops advanced and killed the Native leader Tecumseh. The British fled back to Canada. But for Native Americans, this was the beginning of a national military campaign to force them to Oklahoma and other reservations. Harrison was elected President after Jackson on an equally racist platform.

So it’s appropriate to start with the longhouse, the dugout canoes, maple syrup, corn meal and other Native exhibits, because this site is ground zero for US choosing policies of reneging on treaties, ignoring rights, forcing removal and waging asymmetrical war against the original inhabitants of our country.