The UMMAA Brown Bag Lecture Series is pleased to present a lecture by Dr. John Chenoweth, professor at U-M Dearborn. His lecture, "Historical Archaeology of the River Raisin Settlement & War of 1812 Battlefield, Monroe, MI" will be held on Friday, January 23, 12-1 p.m. in Room 1322 in the School of Education Building.
The River Raisin settlement existed at the nexus of national, religious, and colonial contacts and conflicts. Settled by largely French-descended Detroiters in the 1780s and controlled by the British until 1796, it was an important point of interaction during a pivotal period in the “Old Northwest.” The site of key battles in the War of 1812, the events at this location also influenced the course of US-Native relations for a century, providing an excuse for the so-called “removal” process. The site has long been of popular interest, with monuments, commemorations, and even a reunion of veterans presided over by George Armstrong Custer. Starting in the 1970s there was a series of collections of artifacts—some formal, some less so—but there has never been an effort to study this body of artifacts and (sometimes) excavation notes, a gap now addressed by the River Raisin Archaeology Project. In collaboration with U-M Ann Arbor students and faculty, preliminary results are already yielding insights into the site and its important place in the history of the region and beyond.
