Well, on the War of 1812 . . . and Chicago

This has something to do with the 1812 affair. [That's presently being discussed on RBB.]

But first, back during our somewhat more than four years of always turbulent and often sanguinary community organizing on the Chicago South/Southwest Side (1969-1973), Alderman Ed Burke, discussed in the following story, was no ally -- and, for the longest time, a foe.  In time, our growing block clubs -- part of  our two very large umbrella community organizations -- were able to dump a Daley Democrat alderman and replace him with a most friendly Independent, Ms Anna Langford, a Black woman lawyer.  Further west, a segregationist foe of ours, much opposed to minority residential migration, the almost defrocked Catholic priest, Francis Lawler, dumped their Daley alderman and Fr Lawler won that post. 

When the Daley machine curtailed civic services to these two rebellious wards, we formed a temporary and pragmatic alliance with Lawler -- and we all got the civic services flowing normally again for both wards.  In Chicago, you had to  wheel and deal. I had already met Fr Lawler. In my large Saturday morning class at Roosevelt University, American Minorities, the class -- about sixty members, mostly "minorities" -- expressed great interest in his coming as a guest speaker and he readily agreed to do so when I called and invited him.  The class was normally three hours but went to more than five on this occasion.  The class was extremely fascinated by him and he with them.

Anyway, Ed Burke represented the 14th Ward, much in our bailiwick, and had heavy white support, most of it implicitly racist at best.  But, in time, our growing grassroots political power forced him to deal constructively with our local leaders.  Much later, after my time, with most of his ward now filled with Blacks and with a mostly Mexican population in the old Back of the Yards area, the 14th was moved much further west into Anglo turf.

One of my memories of Ed Burke was his entering a mostly Mexican Catholic church in Back of the Yards where we were having an anti-urban renewal meeting [we won that campaign in due course] with his two bodyguards.  In the church, one bodyguard's pistol fell onto the floor with a loud thump.  The priest, from Spain, ordered the bodyguards out -- and they complied.  

H

Indianz.Com. In Print.
http://www.indianz.com/News/2012/005959.asp 

City official criticized for 'peace pipe' comments during meeting 
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Filed Under: National 
More on: bozos, illinois, potawatomi, wars
  
A city alderman in Chicago, Illinois, is coming under fire for comments he made about a "peace pipe" during a council meeting on Tuesday. 

Ald. Edward M. Burke (D) wants to host a Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation at Fort Dearborn. The fort was the site of a battle during the War of 1812 in which as many as 15 Potawatomi warriors were killed while defending their ancestral territory. 

As part of the 200th commemoration of the August 15, 1812, battle, Burke suggested that Potawatomi descendants "smoke a peace pipe" with descendants of fort residents. He made the comments during a city council meeting -- even after Joseph Podlasek, the executive and technical director of the American Indian Center of Chicago, had already warned him not to do so. 

"That's very offensive. Our pipes are very sacred items to us," Podlasek told The Chicago Tribune. He said Burke previously brought up the "peace pipe" during a telephone conservation. 

Podlasek also noted that the commemoration proposed by Burke ignores the Indian perspective of the battle. 

Get the Story:
Burke's 'peace pipe' comment blows up in his face (The Chicago Tribune 6/6)
Ald. Ed Burke's 'peace pipe' remark offends Native Americans (The Chicago Sun-Times 6/5) 

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis 
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk 
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ 
and Ohkwari' 
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org 
(much social justice material)
 
See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Expanded much in May/June 2012 -- and also some photos.)
 
For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated
edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- 
with a new and substantial introduction by me.  We are now at 
the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of
1962-63.
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
 
Ghosts  (Near death experience in Sycamore Canyon Wilderness --
with an Arizona labor note): http://hunterbear.org/ghosts.htm