Don Wildman

And even the French weren't really looking at it that way because they believed it was really just about finding resources.

For the Treaty of Greenville, why is it called Greenville, by the way?

And then we throw it out the window.

The takeaway here is, I mean, at this point, obviously, there's no city of Chicago.

And so we're really talking about the vast territories and how the Americans are seeing this new land getting divvied up.

Out of this treaty, Native Americans give up six square miles at the mouth of the Chicago River.

despite not all Native nations agreeing to this, no representative from Chicago being represented at the signing.

This is where Fort Dearborn will be built in 1803 as a military outpost.

It is across the Chicago River from the trading post.

So this is what happens is we've marked this land out.

We say, okay, you're over there now.

See you later.

There's some trading going on.

We pay them off, whatever it might be, but we're going to develop over here and they move.

only to find more and more settlement pushing that line further and further west.

Story of America.

At some point, the Native nations begin to fight back or at least resist.

And this becomes what is known as the Battle of Fort Dearborn, August 15th, 1812, which your book is fully concerned with.

So talk to me how this moment arose.

This is a very important moment.