Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
CONSTRUCTION OF a $150,000 playground is underway next to the Hiawatha statue in Ironwood. The equipment was made possible by a combination of local donations and grant funds from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. From left are Dave Carlson (kneeling); Travis Leppanen (partly hidden) and project manager Ken Carl, standing as they consult on their next steps; and Brayden Dunston at right, all of Penchura, a Michigan playground consulting company.
By PAMELA JANSSON
Ironwood - The Ironwood City Commission rejected a request to rename its 52-foot Hiawatha statue but agreed to authorize plans to develop an educational display at the site.
The action at the commission's Monday evening meeting was in response to a request from the city's Human Relations and Equity Committee.
"We were approached a year ago by people who felt it was time to correct the situation," said Carol Erickson, who leads the committee.
Erickson said that, since then, committee members met with regional bands of American Indians to get their input on issue. She summarized that input as follows: "Hiawatha was a good guy, but he's not our guy."
The name "Hiawatha" is used in the poem "The Song of Hiawatha," written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a 19th Century poet.
Erickson said that Longfellow "culturally appropriated" the name and made mistaken tribal associations with it. Historians associate Hiawatha as a precolonial Native American leader who cofounded the Iroquois Confederacy.
Because Hiawatha had no association to local Chippewa bands, Erickson told commissioners, "We ask that you remove the name of Hiawatha from the statue in the park."
She added that she understood the city's right to make its own decision and acknowledged that, although the city owns the land where the statue sits, off of Burma Road, the Ironwood Chamber of Commerce owns the statue.
"Hopefully, you'll make a decision that will help move Ironwood forward," said Erickson.
Mayor Kim Corcoran said that the city's Parks and Recreation Committee had reviewed the issue but did not make a recommendation to the City Commission.
She referred to an accompanying request by the city's HRE Committee to create a display of panels at the Hiawatha Park site in order to educate visitors on the full history or Hiawatha and its lack of association to local bands of American Indians.
As part of its request, the HRE Committee had submitted a detailed report that included illustrations and wording of the pending panels.
The mayor added, "I'm not in favor of dropping the Hiawatha name, and I have some concerns about the wording in some of the panels."
"We'll see where it goes, but I love the name," said Commissioner James Mildren of the statue.
Included in the city's motion to retain the name of Hiawatha was a provision for HRC members to revise some of the language in the pending educational panels for Hiawatha Park.
Commissioner Rick Semo said the purpose of the display, while still "conceptual," is to educate the public and to acknowledge local bands of American Indians.
Commissioners Lauren Korpi, David Andresen and Semo thanked Erickson for her work on the project.
During the public comment session, Steve Frank of Ironwood had urged commissioners not to change the statue's name. "It's a fiberglass novelty," he said. "Nobody is getting their history from it."
