The city of Detroit turns 321 years old this Sunday, but its history predates the French. To learn more about the land’s Indigenous roots, CultureShift spoke with Karen Marrero, Associate Professor at Wayne State University and author of “Detroit’s Hidden Channels: The Power of French-Indigenous Families in the Eighteenth Century.” She researches, writes and teaches early North American and Indigenous history.

She says a lot of what was once here was erased by the settler presence at the turn of the nineteenth century. Indigenous peoples continue to maintain their connection to the land through oral histories passed down within their nations, but physical reminders of the past are scarce.

“There isn’t much left.”

(Click through to source for audio)