New Year, same damn lies about the history of Grand Rapids

Last September I wrote about a new group called Believe in Our City, which is combining the 175th anniversary of the founding of Grand Rapids with the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America.

The steering committee for this groups is made up of people that represents the Grand Rapids Power Structure, which you can see at this link.

The group’s Facebook page is GR A250, and their two most recent posts/lies tells us a great deal about what they want to celebrate and what they want to ignore.

Lie #1

On December 31st, the GR A250 Facebook post read:

The name “Grand Rapids” seems pretty obvious, but have you ever thought about what was here before our beautiful bridges and sleek skyscrapers?

It’s widely known we were called after the Grand River, now popular for fishing and tourism, which was vital for floating logs for the lumber industry in the early 1800’s. The area was dubbed “Grand Rapids” by the settler Louis Campau in 1831 when he purchased the land and the village was officially given it’s title in 1838!

The post included 3 photos – loggers using the Grand River to transport trees, Louis Campau, and a map of the Grand River. It is interesting that this post omitted the fact that Indigenous people lived along the Grand River before settlers like Campau took their land. A more honest reflection of what was here before bridges and sleek skyscrapers would be to acknowledge the history of Settler Colonialism, which is exactly what Grand Rapids was founded on.

As a foundational framework, it is vital that we come to terms with the fact that Grand Rapids, like virtually all US cities were founded on what Native scholar Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz calls Settler Colonialism. Settler Colonialism in West Michigan is the result of a larger White Supremacist strategy that included legal means (treaties), forced relocation, spiritual violence (role of churches) and cultural imperialism, most radically seen with the policy of putting Native children in boarding schools with the goal of, “Killing the Indian, Saving the Man.”

Lie #2

Then on January 1st, 2026, the GR A250 Facebook post read:

Picture this: It’s December 31, 1975. The weather is bitterly cold and snowy and most of the community is celebrating close to home — gathering in living rooms, heading to neighborhood bars or hosting simple dinner parties. Grand Rapids had a big year economically, standing at the heart of America’s office furniture industry. And just down the road from where it all began, Gerald R. Ford was focused on healing a nation after Watergate — steady leadership in uncertain times. Different decade. Same spirit. When times are tough, communities come together and the future is shaped by the resolve of everyday people.

The photo that accompanied this post was of President Ford in Grand Rapids on New Year’s eve 1975.

Probably the biggest reference being made about former President Ford when he died in December of 2006, was that he “healed the nation.” Not surprising, this is the title of his memoirs, but what exactly does that mean when pundits and politicians say he healed the nation? It means that Ford pardoned Nixon, which is to say that he did not seek an indictment of Nixon for illegal activities during what is now known as the Watergate scandal.

The Ford museum literature says that by pardoning Nixon, Ford helped restore confidence in the office of the presidency that was viewed negatively under the Nixon administration. Is this the reality or was it a way to sidestep any serious investigation of the illegal practices of the Nixon administration, which ultimately would lead people to see the very nature of the US Imperial Project? When Nixon’s crimes are mentioned what most people think of was the wiretapping of the Democrats before the election. What is usually omitted from the official record are Nixon’s war crimes in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. This is what “official historians” mean when they say Ford healed the nation, that the American public was protected from the ugly realities of US foreign policy. Well, what are we being protected from? Looking at the brief history of the Ford administration might help us to answer that question.

Ford became Nixon’s Vice President in October of 1973 and was sworn in as President in August of 1974. He served as President until Carter took the oval office in January of 1977. Ford supported the repressive government in the Philippines in its counterinsurgency war against rebels. During the coup in Argentina in 1976, Ford supported the generals who took power and slaughtered thousands of dissidents. Under Ford the US provided millions of dollars in military aid to the right-wing movement in Angola known as UNITA. He negotiated military bases in Spain with the fascist dictator Franco. Ford maintained the illegal terror war and embargo against Cuba and was president during the final days of the US occupation of South Vietnam. But probably the foreign policy that best defines Ford was his support of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.

Much has been written about what took place in the meeting between Ford, Henry Kissinger, and Indonesian President Suharto on December 5th and 6th in 1975, but it wasn’t until December of 2001 when the National Security Archives finally obtained declassified documentation of what took place. What we now know is that Ford and Kissinger not only knew of the Indonesian plans to invade East Timor, but that they offered diplomatic and military support for the invasion, which became a multi-year and bloody genocidal campaign. In fact, the US role in the murderous campaign by the Indonesia military against the East Timorese people was one of the proportionately worst genocides of the 20th Century.

Photo – Ford and Kissinger meeting with Suharto just prior to the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.

For additional information on this topic, see the video, The untold history of Gerald Ford 

The National Security Archives FOIA documents on Ford & Kissinger’s visit with Indonesian President Suharto, just prior to their invasion of East Timor. 

895 Days That Changed the World: The presidency of Gerald R. Ford, by Graeme Mount.