Honoring the True Name of Our Region

Early last year, I made a decision to purposely change the way I talk about something when I talk about it.

Growing up in Northwest Indiana, I grew up referring to the area of of our state I’m from as “the Region,” as so many other people do and have been doing for years.

Last year, I started making a conscious effort to refer to where we live, work, and raise our families by it’s full name: the “Calumet Region,” or I’ll just say “Calumet.”

I’ve also still said “the Region” more than a few times in print and in conversation, and probably always will too.

I’m proud of where we’re from, and think it’s important to remember it has a real name with a real meaning. Calumet means peace, and it comes not just from the Little and Grand Calumet Rivers that have run through and were literally reshaped through the development of our Region as industries and cities grew up. It’s the word for the tobacco pipe used by many first nations on ceremonial occasions throughout their histories.

As words have a tendency to take on more meanings over time, and as the Calumet Region has become a constellation of many great cities and towns along Mishigami’s southern shore, I’ve increasingly come to think of Calumet as a word that also means unity.

Today, Indiana Senators Todd Young and Jim Banks joined with Illinois Senators Dick Durban and Tammy Duckworth to introduce legislation to designate our Calumet Region as a National Heritage Area, or NHA.

NHA’s are places designated by our United States Congress to recognize where natural, cultural, historic, and recreational resources come together into a place of significance, enhancing efforts to promote them.

To love and to live in Calumet is to understand that it is definitely a place with a unique character shaped by our industrial heritage, which continues on to this day. We are proud to still be building, making, and remaking things here in the the true Crossroads of America, the Heart of Steel County, a lasting and essential piece of our nation’s industrial base and an integral part of its global trade, from our ports, our trains, and highways.

We’re also proud of the jobs and opportunities that this key area has provided for so many of us and our ancestors over the last century, and we’re determined to maintain the advantages and opportunities into the future, for our descendants and for our nation’s future.

We’re also blessed to still have our lake, our dunes, and our other nature features that have made it to now, and we are committed to preserving them for us and our children to continue to explore and play within safely, finding the right harmony between industry and nature.

It’s not always easy, but it’s always worth it. It doesn’t take an act of Congress to know a place is special, or that it’s real, or that it has a name, but it does not hurt, and it might help towards advocating for our Region.

I’m thankful for both our Indiana Senators and their Illinois counterparts for proposing this legislation. At a time when we need more signs of Unity in our country, recognizing the Calumet Region is a great example.

I’m thankful to be a Hoosier too, but I’m just as thankful to have a Calumet heart. I know it might seem like a small thing, especially to people who aren’t from here, but I’m hopeful that many will join in supporting this Congressional recognition of our Calumet Region.