Letter To Ypsilanti Historical Society (Pub)

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Ypsilanti Gleanings is the official publication of the Ypsilanti Historical Society. Over its nearly 40 year history, Gleanings has grown from a simple newsletter to the scholarly publication it is today. Through painstakingly-researched articles, first-hand accounts, and historical photographs,Gleanings presents a clear picture of the Ypsilanti that once was and still is all around us. It also serves as a document of the Ypsilanti Historical Society itself and its growth from a small band of devoted historians into the distinguished museum and archives it is today.

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Atten:Tom Dodd,  I want to thank you for publishing A Sanscrainte Timeline, for I have terrible English and spelling an struggle with my blog, never the less i have spent a great amount of time studying my ancestors, my grandmother was a Sancrant (Sans Crainte). I knew well of him and his father from the stories my dad, Dennis Lajiness, told me as a boy some almost 50 years now. The Stories were so amazing that even to us we would joke that this was just another self promoting Lajiness. but as i got older and the age of computers I was instantly immersed in them even building my own with parts from the trash, but the trimming was perfect for me for this was about the time everybody started digitizing historical books and articles. i was on the ground floor and started connecting the dots

and I realized that there was "Truth" to the stories, Sans Crainte was a famous Interpreter (more so the father). The father probably the one that had signed the Treaty of Greenville, the son and father had much influence with the Indian probably because the grandmother Margaret Descomps dit Labadie  Married Claude Solo (1732 - 1799), Jan 22, 1759 and died Apr., 1765 . She Died When his wife (Margaret Solo b 3 May 1761), Is said to have resided at Coast of the Pottawatomies (Denissen), was only 4 so she was raised by her Father Claude Solo second wife was raised by her step mother who was a  Sauteuse Indian and she had a stepbrother by her. Anyway to get back to the story. My father also told me of the story of Pierre Roy and that he was at Detroit  before Cadillac, he even told me driving down I 75 from Detroit one time as a child "There that Island, the one just south of Belle Island, That is where our family comes from. remember this was a long time ago and we were poor and did not travel to go to library to study this and my Dad grew up during the depression, the only time he got out of Luna Pier Mi was to hitch hike to Catholic Central high School in Monroe. even his dad Preston Lajiness walked to Monroe down the tracks to work when he wasn't walking them to pick up coal that fell from the coal cars. So when i found out that everything he had said, and I'm still finding out, has been true, where i find discrepancies i dig tireless to prove them.

   In your article "Have NO FEAR; J.B. Sanscrainte was here!" You write  "Until the Fall 2009 publication of GLEANINGS, most readers were content in their understanding that Gabriel Godfroy was the first European to settle what is now Ypsilanti. All that has changed as..."

"When Karl Williams was a student in EMU’s Historic Preservation Program, he noted in the Fall 2009 GEANINGS, “As indicated in Hugh Heward’s 1790 journal, Gabriel Godfroy was both aware and involved with the trading post established by Jean Baptiste Sanscrainte at Ypsilanti as early as 1790…”   As You can see I Published that and more including the Sans Crainte timeline at my blog "Indian Trader and Interpreter: In 2020 Ypsilanti"    http://indiantraderinterpreter.blogspot.com/2009/05/in-2020-ypsilanti.html This was in May obviously before fall when everything changed, I bring this up for two reasons, one, since I am outside of academia and have problems with English i am often overlooked and I makes it that much harder to access information.
  The Canadian French Metis ( Métis (/meɪˈtiː/; Canadian French: [meˈtsɪs]; Michif: [mɪˈtʃɪf]) are one of the recognized Aboriginal peoples in Canada) as they were squeezed by the Rebels and the British and colonist, many suffering the same fate as the Indians

 In that spirit it has come to my attention of another claim that the story of "Without Fear"  "Digging deeper: Ypsilantian Michael Van Wasshnova, a history buff and member of the Monroe County Historical Society, relayed our “Sanscrainte” story to his compatriots in Monroe who said, “Certainly! Sanscrainte was a promotional alias Jean Baptiste had adopted to further his trading in the American wilderness.” His real name, they reveal, was actually Jean Baptiste Saint Romain." This i find to be totally without Merit!!! Bt Sans Craint as he was known did not in any records I have seen have Saint in his name regardless of where he came from as for the self promoting, he did not have to do that he had influence over tribes of Indians as well as his father. My father said The Indians called him Strong man without fear and it is a mater of fact that this was undoubtedly true in Dappers records when he was begged to go to the falls with Pontiac's son, Dapper himself not favorable to him remarks how he was a big and imposing figure, It is said he saved many life during the war of 1812 and with his influence on the Indian and If there is any Doubt that he was not a strong man without fear as a Boy of eleven he and his father helped set up missions all through out western Lake Erie where only rugged men and Indians ruled.

  Something to note , i have taken a brake from my Genealogy for years to write 300 songs but when i was into the thick of it I studied the first hundred at Quebec and realized they were all almost related, in fact the first permanent settler in Canada Louis Hebert, Champlain's apocrathy, also my ancestor is the father of many that came to Detroit Via the Fur trade and The Jesuits to set up missions and those people part of the Fur trade Dynasty married within that Dynasty as it happen Pierre Roy first at Detroit and Sans Craint at Monroe and many more it is no wonder they are both ancestors, this and a dime will get you a cup of Joe, Not. But for me to Justify an existence, to give reason, to tell the stories and pass them unmolested, and the greatest reward to find that men of Courage and substance place a cross, over looking a cliff, that they say is the most beautiful spot in all of Canada and for me not that it bear at the foot a coat of arms to claim the land but for what that cross represents. Thank You Kindly Happy Hunting   Kevin C Lajiness , edit some mistakes 3/15/2015, sorry wasnt fresh and some of it is confusing, may have to edit again.