Springwells Village is an Arbitrary name change, admittedly, a rebranding effort by Urban Neighborhood Initiatives to attract new residents and apply for more foundation dollars. This process hasnt included local residents. While we might debate wether or not gentrificaiton is happening there, not including the local residents in a name change and working to rebrand/market with focus on new residents is a good way to kick off the process of gentrification. I actaully like alot of the staff of Uni Detroit. I think many are well intentioned and are making a positive impact on the community. Particularly Christine Bell and Krista Dover. Shaming UNI is not the point of this article. Ive been a part of the ad/hoc committee Enclave for the past few months. Big shout out Raul Echevarria Amelita Mely Duran Mary A. Luevanos IshKote Nene Erik Howard John Cummings Meghan Sobocienski and the others who were involved in this work. Enclave focuses on engaging with SW Detroit on the topics of gentrification and development. This week passed we delivered a petition with over 300 signatures requesting a review/meeting regarding their unilateral rebranding of West Vernor (or whatever you call the patton park side of the Vernor strip) dubbing the community Springwells Village. The Metro Times Detroit took my comment about Detroit’s current development schemes and takeovers as a “necolonial moment,” way out of context. I wanted to write something about this, but more on that neocolonial development scheme to come later. Today I want to focus on the history. I’ve been doing alot of research on the community over the past 6 months or so. I want to dispel the historical validation the article below and many others, links also posted below, gives the to the rebranding efforts of UNI. Unequivocally, Springwells Village never existed in the section of Southwest Detroit that UNI wants to rebrand Springwells Village. Yes, as Dennis Nordmoe, Director of UNI points out, a community named Springwells Township once existed outside of the growing City of Detroit. However, upon closer inspection this historical basis is very weak. Indeed the choice of Springwells Village is very arbitrary with any real sense of the history. Started in 1818 with vague borders until officially mapped out 1827, Springwells Township was an enormous swath of land stretching as far north as Warren Road, as far East as Greenfield road and Dearborn, south to present day Melvindale along the Rouge and Detroit river, and Livernois on the West. The name for this area Springwells lasted for about 80-100 years (depending on how you measure it) as a township as it was slowly swallowed by Detroit, chunk by chunk. It also contained a number of villages that more accurately circumscribe the area UNI wants to rebrand as Springwells Village, including the two villages of Woodmere and Delray both of which were settled and named at the same time as the larger Springwells Township that contained them. Springwells Village is different than the larger Springwells Township. Springwells Village actually existed as a real village for 5 or 6 years, officially created in 1919 from what was left of the huge Springwells Township; west of Wyoming road, south of Tireman and north of Michigan Avenue (again, notice that this historic Springwells Village is outside the area UNI currently serves). Springwells Village, then changed to City, would ultimately be renamed Fordson before being split by Detroit and Dearborn in 1928. Springwells Village never existed in the section of Southwest Detroit UNI wants to rebrand Springwells Village. The name Springwells then still remains relevant right? No. Yet again, I point to the fact that this name for this land existed only for 100 years, during the time of British settlement. Before that the land was controlled by the British, it spent about 100 years in French hands. The French referred to the area in question as BelleFountaine, or beautiful fountain. The British word Springwells was based on the French naming of this area, which came from the natural springs that occurred in the community of Delray. Geologically, Delray was a large sand bank deposited by receding glaciers, along side a delta with the River Rouge emptying into the Strait of Detroit. Behind this sand bank was a large swamp, whose water flowed through the sand bank, creating a fresh water spring on the other side… hence the name. Another irony in all this, UNI has no interest in helping Delray, the community that has the fountains from which the name Springwellls is based. But back to history, The French, who were less interested in settling and more in strategic control of the water way and trade, created Detroit; dividing the land into ribbon farms, building Fort Ponchutrain, and constructing a shipyard on the Rouge River in the 1700’s(currently near Woodmere cemetary) thus begining european settlement of this community. The French also invited the Potawatomi to help facilitate that trade relationship, overwhelmingly focused on fur. But natives had been coming to this land for thousands of years before the French invented the Potawatomi settlement near current West Vernor hood in question. There is evidence to prove this in the burial mounds desecrated by French and British settlement. In fact, Springwells and BelleFountaine are build on Sacred Ojibwe land. You dont hear much about that.... but ask anyone who genuinely cares about the history of this area..... As the British came to settle the local Ojibwe people sided with the French, who ultimately lost in 1760 in the French and Indian War. After that the Ojibwe leader Pontiac took almost all the forts in Michigan, except Fort Detroit. But this history is always marginalized and never uplifted in development schemes that I would argue can be likened to neocolonial projects. More on the colonization of SW Detroit later…. To summarize, natives controlled the West Vernor area for thousands of years. The French settled for trade and control desecrating sacred native mounds, naming the area BelleFountain, this name lasted about 100 years. The British fought the french, took the land and named it Springwells based on the Delray springs. Uni wants nothing to do with Delray… Springwells township only existed 100 years and was huge, way bigger than West Vernor. Springwellls Village did legitmately exist... for 6 years, but far outside of the neighborhood UNI cares about. All that is to say..... This name is not historically legitimate. Please stay tuned for more on this topic. But for now... Who wants to publish this??? Daily Detroit Detroit Free Press Critical Moment Michigan Citizen for more info..... #raizup #swdetroit #decolonizeswdetroit metrotimes/detroit/welcome-to-springwells-village-a-southwest-detroit-neighborhood-most-of-its-own-residents-have-never-heard-of/Content?oid=2277537 puredetroit/index.php/history/a-tale-two-villages-324.html dailydetroit/2015/01/07/southwest-detroit-was-originally-springwells-township-with-lots-of-maps/
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 05:37:01 +0000
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