Talk:Grand Rapids, Michigan

Erasure of Native American history

This edit would have left readers wondering who Chief Noonday is and why we mention the formation of a Native American village under the title of European-American settlement. Whether intended or not this is an erasure of Native American and Grand Rapids history and leaves the article without context. I have boldly added a new section for the Native American settlement and moved relevant content to it giving it the context it deserves. I also fixed links to sources left broken during the sweeping number of deletions made to the article. I believe these deletions should not have been made without discussion on this talk page. The version that we had before the deletions was, by Wikipedia policy, the consensus agreed upon version. Most of the content removed was sourced and added in good faith. --ARoseWolf 17:14, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

@ARoseWolf: You have re-insterted the following into the article:

In 1740, an Odawa man who would later be known as Chief Noonday or Nowaquakezick and become the future chief of the Odawa, was born. Between 1761 and 1763, Chief Pontiac, a prominent Odawa war chief at the time, visited the area annually, gathering over 3,000 natives and asking them to volunteer to lay siege to the British fort in Detroit, which would culminate into Pontiac's War. By the end of the 1700s, there were an estimated 1,000 Odawa in the Kent County area.

What is the relevance of including Chief Noonday's birth year? Thank you. Magnolia677 (talk) 18:13, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Magnolia677, your deletions removed any context for Chief Noonday and also introduced errors in the references that you should have taken a few moments to correct. I did that for you and I also added context back to the article so our readers wont be left puzzled by the broken state you left it in. I removed the birth year reference but included further context in the second paragraph. This area did not begin with colonial occupation and removal of sourced Native American history or removal of the context surrounding it is disruptive and damaging to the encyclopedia even if it is done in good faith which I believe it to be so. It causes the article to become unstable. Our mission as defined by the ones who came before us is to improve the encyclopedia. Whether you will admit it or not, your deletions have the opposite affect and are leaving articles incomplete, without context and in worse condition. When in doubt, do no harm. That is why we have templates to add to articles to bring attention to problem areas and also why we have article talk pages for discussion. Thank you. --ARoseWolf 19:25, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

@ARoseWolf: You also wrote, "Chief Pontiac, a prominent Odawa war chief at the time, visited the area annually". Visited what area? The source cited says he "visited the Grand river valley in 1761, and spoke at a meeting of some 3,000 Indians." The Grand River (Michigan) is 252 miles long, and along its route are 15 cities with Wikipedia articles. Unless you have a source that specifically states Pontiac visited "Grand Rapids", then your edit is unsourced and will need to be removed. Magnolia677 (talk) 19:42, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Grand River valley runs through Grand Rapids. No source is going to specifically say he visited "Grand Rapids" because the town didn't exist in name at that time but there were Odawa settlements in the area of Grand Rapids that he visited to raise an army to besiege Ft. Detroit as it says. So you refuse to address the damage you are causing the encyclopedia with your faulty logic, erasure of Native American history and failure to clean up your mess? And you can stop pinging me, I have to article watchlisted. Thank you. --ARoseWolf 20:06, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

@ARoseWolf: Please provide a source to support that Pontiac visited the Odawa settlement at what is now Grand Rapids. Because Wikipedia does not accept original research, I will remove this unsourced content until then. Magnolia677 (talk) 21:03, 27 December 2023 (UTC)