Driving Detroit: The Quest for Respect in the Motor City

6. Turf Wars

C h a p t e r 6 Turf Wars I have a dream this afternoon that one day right here in Detroit, Negroes will be able to buy a house or rent a house anywhere that their money will carry them. —Martin Luther King, Jr., in his original “I Have a Dream” speech, Cobo Hall, Detroit, June 23, 1963 People movin’ out, People movin’ in Why, because of the color of their skin. —“Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today)” sung by The Temptations, 1970 Lust for Land, the Preamble Immediately on pulling his canoe ashore at the narrowest point of the Detroit River, Monsieur Cadillac established a precedent that would define this place for centuries to come: grab some land and then defend it to the death. The log stockade called Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit was not only a deterrent aimed at the British. It was a symbol of security seeking: others coveted the space a person occupied, so it needed protecting. Detroiters have been walling themselves off, literally and figuratively, from the feared “other” for three centuries since. Intense competition over turf has been Detroit’s hallmark from its inception. While the city was still in its infancy, Cadillac thought it a good idea to have more Native American groups encamped nearby, apparently Turf Wars 137 believing this would expand the post’s trading networks and make him a richer man. Unfortunately, having invited the Fox group from Wisconsin to resettle in Detroit, he paid scant attention to potential social tensions that might follow. Indeed, when over 1,000 Fox arrived at the gates of Fort Pontchartrain in the summer of 1711, the established Huron, Ottawa, and Potawatomi groups were not pleased. Cadillac had deftly departed for Louisiana by this time, leaving the new commander, Joseph Guyon du Buisson, to deal with the nasty little problem of allocating turf. As intergroup tensions mounted the next year, Commander Guyon du Buisson’s imaginative response was to revoke Cadillac’s invitation, apparently without offering complimentary vouchers to cover return transportation to Wisconsin. Understandably, the Fox responded by attacking the fort and laying siege for nineteen days. In a resolution suggestive of Detroit-style justice, the Fox were eventually slaughtered and driven off with the military aid of the Huron, Ottawa, and Potawatomi, who wanted their turf back. Only a hundred Fox made it back to Wisconsin. Detroit has had trouble attracting out-of-state tourists ever since. This was hardly the only example of how lust for land dominated Detroit ’s formative days. In 1793, the new U.S. president, George Washington , sent peace emissaries to Native American groups in the Northwest Territories. Despite the end of Revolutionary War hostilities, the British still occupied most of the territory, including Detroit, and thwarted any U.S.-Native reconciliation efforts. In response, Washington sent troops under the direction of General Anthony Wayne, who defeated a combined British-Native force from Detroit on August 20, 1794, at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, just southwest of Toledo. Their military position now untenable, the British abandoned Detroit on July 11, 1796. Two days later, U.S. colonel John Hamtramck and 400 troops arrived, joined a month later by victoryflushed General Wayne. In 1868, Wayne would be posthumously honored for his heroism by attaching his name to a newly founded Detroit college. Detroit was finally under American control thirteen years after the Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War, guaranteeing that future turf battles would be homegrown. And did they continue! Understandably discontented with their lot in Canada, the British continued to covet the lush Michigan turf; and the War of 1812 gave them one last chance to attain this prize. They captured Detroit on August 16, 1812. But their hopes for an expanded Canada were dashed in September 1813, as a U.S. flotilla under Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s command defeated 138 Chapter 6 the British fleet in Lake Erie, and U.S. troops recaptured Detroit under General (and future President) William Henry Harrison’s command. A month later, Harrison appointed Lewis Cass both governor and military commander of Michigan Territory, a position he held until 1831. When Cass and his family arrived in Detroit on October 24, 1815, the town was awed by their opulent carriage. Thinking this inappropriate, Cass quickly sold it. Unfortunately, his rejection of ostentatious wheels set no precedent for future Detroit politicians...