Potawatomi Trail of Death

The Potawatomi language is of Algonquian descent. The tribe moved south from northern Wisconsin and Michigan and historically occupied land from the southern tip of Lake Michigan to Lake Erie, an area encompassing northern Illinois, north central Indiana, and a strip across southern Michigan. Although the land in what became Indiana was long occupied by the Miami, the Potawatomi were also recognized as traditional owners under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and in subsequent treaties. They had become the second-largest Native American tribal group in Indiana. During the War of 1812, the tribe allied with the British Empire in the hope of expelling American settlers encroaching on their lands. The Potawatomi subsequently lived in relative peace with their white neighbors. In 1817, one year after Indiana became a U.S. state, an estimated 2,000 Potawatomi settled along the rivers and lakes north of the Wabash River and south of Lake Michigan. Around then, the state and federal government became eager to open the northern parts of Indiana to settlement and development by European Americans. Under treaties between the US government and the Potawatomi in 1818, 1821, 1826, and 1828, the native people ceded large portions of their lands in Indiana to the federal government in exchange for annuities in cash and goods, reservation lands within the state, and other provisions. Some tribal members also received individual grants of northern Indiana land. The passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830 enabled the federal government to offer reservation land in the West in exchange for the purchase of tribal lands east of the Mississippi River. The government's intent during Indian Removal of the 1830s was to extinguish the land claims of Indian nations in the East, and to remove them from the populated eastern states to the remote and relatively unpopulated lands west of the Mississippi River. Other Indian tribes already controlled large territories there. The Act specifically targeted the Five Civilized Tribes of the Southeast in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. It was also used to arrange removal of other tribes living east of the Mississippi, including several in the former Northwest Territory, south of the Great Lakes. In three treaties signed in October 1832, at the Tippecanoe River north of Rochester, Indiana, the Potawatomi ceded to the federal government most of their remaining lands in northwestern and north central Indiana in exchange for annuities, small reservation lands in Indiana, and scattered allotments to individuals. They also received the federal government's agreement to provide goods to support the Potawatomi migration efforts, should they decide to relocate. These treaties reduced Potawatomi reservations in Indiana, which included land along the Yellow River. Under the terms of a treaty made on October 26, 1832, the federal government established Potawatomi reservation lands within the boundaries of their previously ceded lands in Indiana and Illinois in exchange for annuities, cash and goods, and payment of tribal debts, among other provisions. This treaty provided the bands under Potawatomi chiefs Menominee, Peepinohwaw, Notawkah, Mas-saw and Muckkahtahmoway, with a joint grant of 22 sections (14,080 acres) of reservation land. Chief Menominee's signature was recorded with an "x" on the treaty of 1832. He and his Yellow River band at Twin Lakes, Indiana, southwest of present-day Plymouth, would be forced to remove from these reservation lands on the Trail of Death to Kansas in 1838. Increased pressure from federal government negotiators, especially Colonel Abel C. Pepper, succeeded in getting the Potawatomi to sign more treaties that ceded their lands and obtained their agreement to move to reservations in the West. One treaty that directly led to the forced removal of the Potawatomi from Twin Lakes was made at Yellow River on August 5, 1836. Under its terms, the Potawatomi ceded the Menominee Reserve, established under an 1832 treaty, to the federal government and agreed to remove west of the Mississippi River within two years. In exchange, the Potawatomi would receive $14,080 for the sale of their 14,080 acres of Indiana reservation lands, after payment of tribal debts were deducted from the proceeds. Chief Menominee and seventeen of the Yellow River band refused to take part in the negotiations and did not recognize the treaty's authority over their land. In a petition dated November 4, 1837, Chief Menominee and other Potawatomi submitted a formal protest to General John Tipton. The chiefs claimed that their signatures on the August 5, 1836, treaty had been forged (Menominee's had been omitted) and the names of other individuals who did not represent the tribe had been added. There is no record of a reply to their petition. They sent additional petitions to President Martin Van Buren and Secretary of War Lewis Cass in 1836 and 1837, but the federal government refused to change its position. By 1837, some of the Potawatomi bands had peacefully removed to their new lands in Kansas. By August 5, 1838, the deadline for removal from Indiana, most of the Potawatomi had already left, but Chief Menominee and his band at Twin Lakes refused. The following day, August 6, 1838, Col. Pepper called a council at Menominee's village at Twin Lakes, where he explained that the Potawatomi had ceded land in Indiana under the treaty, and they had to remove. Chief Menominee responded through an interpreter: After the council meeting, tensions increased between the Potawatomi and the white settlers who wanted to occupy the reservation lands. Fear of violence caused some settlers to petition Indiana governor David Wallace for protection. Wallace authorized General John Tipton to mobilize a militia of one hundred volunteers to forcibly remove the Potawatomi from their Indiana reservation lands. Reverend Louis Deseille, a Catholic missionary at Twin Lakes in the 1830s, denounced the Yellow River treaty of 1836 as a fraud and argued, "this band of Indians believe that they have not sold their reservation and that it will remain theirs as long as they live and their children". Father Deseille's replacement, Reverend Benjamin Marie Petit, arrived at Twin Lakes in November 1837. Within a few months Father Petit had resigned himself to the Potawatomi's removal from Twin Lakes. ==Removal==

. On August 30, 1838, General Tipton and his volunteer militia surprised the Potawatomi village at Twin Lakes. When Makkahtahmoway, Chief Black Wolf's elderly mother, heard the soldiers firing their rifles she was so badly frightened that she hid in the nearby woods for six days. Unable to walk with a wounded foot, she was found by another Indian, who was looking for his horse, and brought to South Bend. Upon his arrival Tipton allegedly called for a meeting at the village chapel, where he detained the Potawatomi chiefs as prisoners. Although Father Petit was in South Bend at the time of the militia's arrival, he later protested that the Potawatomi had been taken by surprise under "the ruse of calling a council". Tipton reported that several of the Potawatomi had already gathered near the chapel when he arrived, but acknowledged that the Potawatomi were not allowed to leave "until matters were amicably settled" and they had agreed to give up their Indiana land. Between Thursday, August 30, and Monday, September 3, 1838, the day before their departure, Tipton and his militia surrounded Menominee's village at Twin Lakes, gathered the remaining Potawatomi together, and made preparations for their removal to Kansas. The names of the Potawatomi heads of families and other individuals, which numbered 859 in all, were recorded on tribal registration rolls. In addition, the soldiers burned the crops and destroyed the Potawatomi village, which consisted of approximately 100 structures, to discourage them from trying to return. Father Petit closed the mission church at Menominee's village, explaining in a letter to his family dated September 14, 1838, "It is sad, I assure you, for a missionary to see a young and vigorous work expire in his arms." The journey from Twin Lakes, Indiana, to Osawatomie, Kansas, began on September 4, 1838. It covered about across 61 days, often under hot, dry, and dusty conditions. The caravan of 859 Potawatomi also included 286 horses, 26 wagons, and an armed escort of one hundred soldiers. The first confirmed death was of a Native child in Mud Creek, Indiana. During the journey to Kansas, 42 people died, 28 of them children. Historian Jacob Piatt Dunn is credited for naming the Potawatomi's forced march "The Trail of Death" in his book, True Indian Stories (1909). Journals, letters, and newspaper accounts of the journey provide details of the route, weather, and living conditions. Eyewitness accounts from those who accompanied the Potawatomi on the march, including as John Tipton, Father Petit, and Judge William Polke (although Polke's journal was written by his agent, Jesse C. Douglass), provide day-to-day descriptions of their experiences. Tipton led the militia as the group's military escort. Judge Polke, from Rochester, Indiana, served as the federal agent for the group and conducted the caravan to Kansas. Father Petit led religious services and administered to the sick and dying. The caravan also had an attending physician, Dr. Jerolaman, who joined the group in Logansport, Indiana. Local physicians occasionally visited the encampments as the group journeyed west. ==March==

On September 4, the march to Kansas began. Father Petit later described the caravan in a letter to Bishop Simon Brute at Vincennes, Indiana, dated November 13, 1838, from the Osage River country of Missouri: On the first day, September 4, 1838, the group traveled and camped at Chippeway village on the Tippecanoe River, north of Rochester. They camped from William Polke's house to his trading post on the Tippecanoe River, a mile long of campfires. The second day they left 51 sick persons at Chippeway. They marched single file down Rochester's Main Street, at gunpoint. Ten year old William Ward followed them to a mile south of Rochester, wishing to go west with his little friends, but his mother caught up with him and took him home. They reached Mud Creek in Fulton County, where one infant died–the caravan's first casualty. By the third day, September 6, they reached Logansport, Indiana, where the encampment was described as "a scene of desolation; on all sides were the sick and dying". The group remained at Logansport until September 9. About 50 of the sick and elderly and their caregivers were left at Logansport to recover; most of them were well enough to rejoin the group within a few days. During this part of the journey the group traveled along the Michigan Road on land the tribe had ceded to the federal government for its construction in 1826. On September 10, the march resumed from Logansport and continued along the north side of the Wabash River, passing through present-day Pittsburg, Battle Ground, and Lafayette to reach Williamsport, Indiana, on September 14. Two or more deaths occurring nearly every day. Their last encampment in Indiana was along an "unhealthy and filthy looking stream", near the Indiana-Illinois state line. On September 16, the caravan crossed into Illinois and camped at Danville, where four more Potawatomi died and were buried. According to Tipton's written comments, Father Petit, "produced a very favorable change in the morals and industry of the Indians". Father Petit described his arrival at the camp in his journal: After their arrival at Danville, the group traveled to Sandusky Point (which became Catlin, Illinois), where the caravan resupplied and rested from September 17–20 before continuing their journey. On September 20, General Tipton left fifteen of his soldiers with the caravan and departed with the remainder of the militia on a return trip to Indiana. Judge Polke led the Potawatomi the rest of the way to their new reservation. Between September 20 and October 10, the Potawatomi traveled through the Illinois prairie, passing Monticello, Decatur, Springfield, New Berlin, Jacksonville, Exeter, and Naples, where they ferried across the Illinois River. On October 10, the group left Illinois, crossed the Mississippi River into Missouri on steam-powered ferry boats from Quincy, Illinois. According to Father Petit's accounts, "After arriving in Missouri, we had hardly any sick", and the Indians were allowed to hunt for wild game to supplement their diet. Marching through Missouri, the Potawatomi passed through West Quincy, Palmyra, Paris, Moberly, Huntsville, Salisbury, Keatsville (Keytesville), Brunswick, De Witt, Carrollton, and Richmond, Missouri. At Lexington they crossed the Missouri River and continued on to Wellington, Napoleon, near Buckner and Lake City, Independence, and Grandview. On November 2, the group crossed the north fork of the Blue River into Kansas and camped at Oak Grove, which was probably renamed Elm Grove. On November 3, they reached Bull Creek, near Bulltown (which became Paola, Kansas). The group reached the end of the journey, on the western bank of the Osage River, at Osawatomie, Kansas, on November 4, 1838. After having traveled the Potawatomi were placed under the supervision of the local Indian agent and Reverend Christian Hoecken. Of the 859 who began the journey, 756 Potawatomi survived; 42 were recorded as having died; the remainder escaped. The Potawatomi of the Woods, or Mission Band, remained in eastern Kansas for ten years. In March 1839, they moved about south to Sugar Creek mission in Linn County, Kansas. In 1840 more Potawatomi from Indiana arrived to settle on the Kansas reservation. The following year, on April 15, 1841, Chief Menominee died and was buried in Kansas; After the Civil War, the Potawatomi scattered; many of them moved to other reservations in Kansas and Oklahoma. ==Route details==

Numerous groups have placed commemorative markers along the route in tribute to those who marched to Kansas and as a memorial to those who died along the way. In 1994, the Trail of Death was declared a Regional Historic Trail by the state legislatures of Indiana, Illinois, and Kansas; Missouri passed similar legislation in 1996. , the Trail of Death had 74 markers along the route. Indiana At Twin Lakes, the march began on September 4, 1838, from Menominee's village. In 1909, a statue of Chief Menominee was erected near Twin Lakes, on South Peach Road, west of US 31. It is the first statue to a Native American erected under a state or federal legislative enactment. Dedicated in 1909, boulder with a metal plaque marks the site of the Potawatomi's log chapel and village at Twin Lakes. File:Chief_Menominee_Statue_Plymouth_Indiana.JPG|Memorial to Chief Menominee File:Chief Menominee Statue Plymouth Indiana closeup.jpg|Chief Menominee north of Rochester, on September 4, 1838, the Potawatomi passed through Chippeway village on the Tippecanoe River, on the Michigan Road (Old US 31). About 50 who were severely ill were left here with their attendants; most joined the caravan later, but some escaped. On September 5, they marched down Rochester's Main Street, and camped at Mud Creek, north of Fulton. Historical markers include a boulder with metal plaque, erected in 1922 by Manitou Chapter of the Daughters of American Revolution; Near Delphi, historical markers in Carroll County, Indiana, mark the route. Old Winnemac's village on Towpath Road in rural Carroll County was the campsite for September 10, 1838. A wooden sign erected in 1988 by the Carroll County Historical Society near the route of the march northeast of Delphi, near the intersection of County Roads 800 West and 700 North, as a commemoration "of the Trail of Death removal of Potawatomi and Miami Indians". A metal sign on Pleasant Run, north of Pittsburg, Indiana, near the intersection of County Roads 800 West and 550 North, was erected by Boy Scout Kris Cannon, Troop 144, in 1996. A plaque and map on a boulder at the Tippecanoe Battlefield Museum was placed by Girl Scout Troop 219 in 1996. A plaque attached to a boulder along the north side of County Road 500 North, between Morehouse Road and County Road 225 West, just west of the Mt. Zion Church. It was placed by the Tippecanoe County Historical Association in 1998. File:Trail_Of_Death_Memorial_Tippecanoe_SHS.JPG File:Potawatomi Trail of Death battleground plaque.jpg Past Lafayette, the caravan traveled west and encamped near LaGrange on September 13, 1838. File:Trail_of_Death,_500N,_W_Lafayette.jpg|Marker on 500 N, NW of West Lafayette File:Plaque_on_Trail_Of_Death_Marker_West_Lafayette_Indiana.jpg North of Independence is a marker at Zachariah Cicott Park, commemorating passage through the area. The marker was sponsored by John Henry and Warren County Park board in 1993. Near Williamsport, they camped on September 14, 1838; on September 15, their encampment was along a stream, near the Indiana-Illinois state line. The caravan did not cross the Wabash River; it zigzagged across Warren County, Indiana. A metal sign at Old Town Park, on Main and Old 2nd streets, was placed in 1996 by Phil High and Boy Scout Troop 344. A marker at Gopher Hill Cemetery, near the Gopher Hill encampment of 1838, in Warren County, Indiana, is southeast of the Indiana-Illinois state line. Illinois Near Danville, on Sunday, September 16, 1838, at their camp near Indiana-Illinois state line, the Indians were allowed to go hunting. Two small children died along the road. "The heat along with the dust is daily rendering our marches more distressing." Catlin was named Sandusky Point in 1838. On September 17, the group traveled to reach Sandusky Point, where they camped until September 20. A marker on the grounds of the Catlin Historical Museum at Catlin, Illinois, southwest of Danville, was sponsored by Paul Quick, the Society of Indian Lore, and a local Boy Scout troop. It was erected in 1993. A bronze marker on North Paris Street in Catlin was erected in 1993 by the descendants of the Potawatomi. A marker at Davis Point, near Homer, Illinois, commemorates the campsite of September 20, 1838. Boy Scout Andy Chase erected the marker in 1991, east of Homer. In Sidney, Illinois, on September 21, 1838, Chief Muk-kose and a child died. On September 22, 1838, further west at the Sadorus Grove encampment, three men were jailed for drunkenness. Two Potawatomi were put under armed guard; the other man, a wagoner, was discharged from his duties. A plaque embedded in a boulder in Dunlop Woods Park was erected in 1991 by Boy Scout Any Chase to commemorate the Sidney camp. The group camped along the Sangamon River on September 24 and 25, where two more children and one adult died. The sick who had been left behind to recover rejoined the group. The men were allowed to go hunting for food. A trail marker was placed at the corner of Dunbar and Caleb roads in Monticello by Boy Scout Ryan Berg in 1993. A trail marker at Monticello's old City Cemetery on Railroad Street was placed by Boy Scout David Moody in 1998. At Niantic or Long Point, about from their campsite near Decatur, the encampment provided more opportunities for the Indians to hunt game. Water was also more plentiful. "Their success has been such as to supersede entirely the necessity of issuing rations. The camp is now full of venison." A marker in the town park, by a water tower, was erected in 2000 by Boy Scout Griffin Smith, and sponsored by the Gerald and Tom Wesaw families, Pokagon Potawatomi. At Springfield, the Potawatomi men were promised tobacco if they made a good appearance while passing through. Chief Ioway (I-o-weh) took charge of making everyone presentable. They were able to find plenty of food this day by foraging through the countryside, but two children died overnight. At New Berlin, a marker at Old Jacksonville Road and New Salem Church Road marks the McCoy's Mill encampment. The marker was erected in 1995 by Rainbow Dancers, Pow Wow Committee, and Clayville Folk Arts Guild. A marker at Old Jacksonville Road, near Peters Road (Island Grove Methodist Church/Woodwreath Cemetery), identifies the Island Grove encampment, where a child died a few hours after making camp and is buried near this spot. The marker was erected in 1995 by Rainbow Dancers, Pow Wow Committee, and the Clayville Folk Arts Guild. At Jacksonville, Illinois, on Monday, October 1, 1838, a child fell from a wagon and was crushed under the wheels. It was believed that the child would probably die. Late at night the camp was serenaded by the Jacksonville Band. On Tuesday, October 2, they marched into Jacksonville's town square, escorted by the town's band. Local citizens presented them with tobacco and pipes. A marker in the town square was erected 1993 by Morgan County Historical Society. A marker in the town park was dedicated in 1993 by Mayor Roger Lovelace and the people of Exeter. A marker was dedicated in Quincy's Quinsippi Island Park on September 15, 2003. Missouri Approximately from Palmyra, the group camped at See's Creek from Friday, October 12, through Sunday, October 14, 1838. A marker was placed on the property of the Mount Vernon Methodist Church, near the encampment site. At Paris, the caravan encamped on October 15, 1838, and the next day traveled to Barkhart's encampment, about away. A marker is in the courtyard of the Monroe County Courthouse at Huntsville. Near Huntsville, a marker at Salisbury City Park was dedicated in 1998. In Keytesville, a marker at Sterling Price Park was dedicated in 1993. A marker at Keytesville commemorates the Thomas encampment near De Witt (Carroll County, Missouri). It was placed at the Carroll County Historical Society Museum and dedicated on September 28, 1998. The group passed Carrollton and Lexington. A marker was placed next to the Madonna of the Trail statue in 2000 by the local Boy Scout troop, in memory of Ka-Beam-Sa. In Wellington, a marker was placed in the town square by the local Boy Scout troop in 2000, in memory of Ka-Beam-Sa. In Napoleon, a marker was placed in the town park, noting that the Potawatomi had camped east of town at Fire Prairie Creek. In Independence, a trail marker in Pioneer Spring Park was erected by Boy Scout Matt Moreno in 1993. The group passed Grandview. Kansas The group passed Paola. A marker to commemorate the Oak Grove encampment, near the Kansas-Missouri state line, was placed at State Line Road and 215th Street, east of Stilwell. The group passed Osawatomie. A marker in honor of Father Benjamin Petit at St. Philippine Duchesne Park, the site of the Potawatomi's Sugar Creek Mission, includes boulders from Kansas and Missouri and a route map. The memorial was dedicated on September 28, 2003. ==See also==