It's Curious City, where we take your questions about Chicago and the region,

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From WBEZ.

David Stone is standing on the northeast corner of the Michigan Avenue Bridge, looking at a sculpture.

It's a life-sized bronze bust of a distinguished

looking man with a mustache and a little goutique. The bust is of Jean-Baptiste, Pointe Du Sable. Today,

Dussabel is considered the father of Chicago. As the plaque on the bus says, he built his home on this spot in the late 1700s, becoming Chicago's first permanent settler.

Du Sable was likely born in Haiti to a French father and black mother. And David is fascinated by this bust, because when he was going to school in the 60s, he never heard much about Du Sable.

The older history books refer to the father of Chicago as John Kinsey.

John Kinsey was the white guy, who later moved on to DeSable's property.

Even though he arrived after Du Sable, Kinsey got credit for founding the city.

In 1937, a plaque commemorating the site of the Kinsey

mansion was placed near this spot. The plaque called Kinsey Chicago's first civilian. For decades,

a person walking by here might have thought that Chicago's story began with John Kinsey. But then,

in 2009, this bust of Dusababel appeared, changing the narrative about Chicago's

first settler.

So, David wants to know, who decides what statues, plaques, and monuments go up?

For him, it's a question about power.

In George Orwell's 1984, who controls the present, controls the past. Who controls the past, controls the future.

I'm Jake Smith, and today we're going to trace the story behind a particular monument, the

Dusabble Bust.

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