Potawatomi Resistance, Renewal, and Removal

The Potawatomis made the Lake Michigan shorelands their home over four centuries ago. Until 1815 the nation prospered, trading on favorable terms with Euro-Americans and choosing allies carefully in an era of imperial warfare. As American power grew, Potawatomi leaders adapted to some of the republic’s demands. They ceded some of their lands but held onto their core settlements and old lifeways. In the 1830s, however, the aggressively expansionist Jackson administration forced Potawatomi chiefs to sign Removal treaties and give up all their homeland for western reservations. A series of coerced removals began in 1833 and continued for the rest of the decade. The deadliest of these involuntary emigrations took place in 1838, when the Indiana and American governments deported several hundred Potawatomis from the town of chief Menominee. At least 300 members of the removal party became seriously ill and more than 40 died during the trek to Kansas. The journal of the 1838 removal and letters of conductor William Polke convey the perils of the journey and the determination of Potawatomi men and women to survive.