George Ronan-- Part 4: Setting the Stage for the Fort Dearborn Massacre

One of the most threatened American forts on the Frontier  was a small stockaded fort associated with a fur-trading post near the southern tip of Lake Michigan.  Although the Chicago River and the area is flowed through was officially a part of the United States, the Fort Dearborn soldiers and fur traders were tremendously outnumbered by adjacent bands of Indians.

The predominant Indian group in the area was the Potawatomi nation, who remained allied with the British though their land had been ceded to the United States at the end of the American Revolution at the 1783 Treaty of Paris.

On the Great Lakes, the years before the War of 1812 saw increasingly embittered competition between British-Canadian fur traders and American merchants and fur traders, many of whom were in alliance with the interests of the powerful John Jacob Astor and his American Fur Company.

--Brock-Perry

US Navy Bicentennial Commemoration Comes to Milwaukee

From the July 30th NBC26, WGBA in Green Bay, Wisconsin "4 Ships to Visit Milwaukee Next Week."

The four ships come from the US Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy and the Coast Guard and have been having ports-of-call in several US cities this summer, all part of the US Navy's commemoration of the war.

USS DeWert, frigate
USCG Hurricane, coastal patrol ship
USCG Neah Bay, cutter
HMCS Ville de Qubec

The DeWert and Canadian ship will be at Milwaukee's Liquid Pier 5.  The other two will be at the Discovery World Pier.

The ships will be available for tours Aug. 8-14.

And It Is Not That Far for Us.  --Brock-Perry

Time to Give Canada Some Respect-- Part 3

On the last 197 years.

**  Canada is the largest market for U.S. exports in the world, buying about 20% of our stuff.

**  Our bilateral automobile industry is leading the way.  Some vehicles cross the border seven times while being made.

**  Canada now supplies about 25% of the oil the U.S. imports and nearly 90% of our natural gas. (Judging by what I pay at the pump, I'd have to say they are getting wealthy.)

**  Canadian and U.S. militaries cooperate. A Canadian general directed the air defense of North America on 9/11 and nearly 300 American planes landed in Canada that day when American air space was closed.

**  Canadian troops had one of the toughest missions in Afghanistan.

**  One of the world's largest unmilitarized borders between the two countries.

Our Good Buddies, the Canadians.  --Brock-Perry