Erected in 1916 at the corner of S. Hamilton Street and Cass in Old Town Saginaw, this bronze plaque commemorates the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw between the United States Government and the Native American Tribes of the region, by which the Tribes ceded over 6 million acres of land. Different accounts of the circumstances and formation of the treaty may be found here, here, here, and here. Reading each of these accounts side by side, comparing text, has the effect of giving a richer, deeper understanding of a significant event that happened here, and subsequently beyond, to a region that includes Lansing, Midland, Alpena, Bay City, Saginaw, and Flint -- an event that has not been well-remembered in the culture we call America.
Below are other images of Old Town Saginaw as it exists today, as well as other monument-plaques of note. Many reveal certain aspects of the psyches of colonizing Europeans as they relate to the Indigenous.
