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The Pottawatomie, Ottawa and Chippewa tribes were formerly one tribe or people. When the Pottawatomies drew off and separated from the main body it was said of them that they had gone to build their own fire--a fire for themselves. This, in the fine figures of the Indian tongue, meant that they had withdrawn from the parent tribe to become a tribe unto themselves; that is, the Pottawatomi--the Fire People.

The meaning of the word Pottawatomie (or Pottawatomi) is "one who builds a fire for himself." Of course, at the time when this term was first used to designate a people the form of the word may have been somewhat different from the form found in use to-day, "Potawatamink" being given as a possible form of it in the ancient days. It was said to mean "people of the place of the fire."¹

There are two principal divisions of the Pottawatomie people-- the Pottawatomies of the Woods, and the Pottawatomies of the Prairie. The second division is more frequently spoken of as the "Prairie band" of Pottawatomies. The people of this band or division still bear the ancient name of "Maskotens," the modified form of the name "Makskouteng," found by the French in 1670 applied to a people living on what is now Fox river, Wisconsin.

The Pottawatomies acted in concert with the other tribes in the old Northwest. They usually favored the French, and when the English succeeded the French the Pottawatomies transferred their allegiance to the new masters of the country. They were a party to the Northwestern Confederacy of Indian tribes, the council fire of which was in the keeping of the Wyandots.

The last great treaty with the Indians east of the Mississippi was held at Chicago with the Pottawatomies, Chippewas and Ottawas in September, 1833. These tribes there gave up their holdings to the amount of some five million acres of land for a consideration of insignificant account. They were coerced and consented to the cession for the simple reason that they were helpless and knew it. They protested that they did not wish to sell their land, but they were unable to stand against the power of the government.

This treaty of 1833 caused the contracting tribes to move west of the Mississippi--that is, the great majority of each of the tribes. In the years 1835 and 1836 many of the Pottawatomies moved to the "Platte Purchase"--that part of north Missouri west of a line drawn due north through the mouth of the Kansas river. These were principally of the Prairie band. They were permitted to remain there but a short time. The white settlers were pressing westward through Missouri, and soon demanded the Platte Purchase, which was made a part of the state of Mis-

1. See "Handbook of American Indians" vol. 2. p. 289.

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CHIEF KACK-KACK Of the Prairie band of Pottawatomie Indians, Jackson county, Kansas Died Feb. 16, 1917.

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souri. The Pottawatomies were then settled in southwestern Iowa, most of them living in the vicinity of the present Council Bluffs.

In February, 1837, by treaty, the United States agreed to convey to the Pottawatomies a tract of land on the Osage or Marais des Cygnes river, in Kansas, sufficient for their needs. The Pottawatomies of the Woods, and what was then known as the Mission band, settled on this tract, in what became Miami and Linn counties, Kansas, the same year.

MINNIE KA-KAQUE Daughter-in-law of Chief Kack kack. Reservation, Prairie band, Pottawatomie Indians, Mayetta, Kan.

They improved their lands and made progress generally. During this time there developed a desire to reunite the whole kindred, which had separated into the Chippewa, Ottawa and Pottawatomi tribes; also to assemble all the divisions and bands of these tribes.

The reservation on the Osage river was deemed too small to accommodate so large a number as these reunited tribes and bands would make, many of whom yet remained hunters. Representatives of all these tribes

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met commissioners of the United States at the agency on the Missouri river, near Council Bluffs, and on the 5th of June, 1846, concluded a treaty by which these united peoples should have the east thirty miles of the old Kansas reservation, then recently taken over by the government. This treaty was ratified at a council of the Kansas portion of the Pottawatomies, on Pottawatomie creek, on the 17th of June, 1846. The tract of land given to the Indians lay in the present counties of Shawnee, Wabaunsee, Jackson and Pottawatomie. It was agreed that the Indians should move to the new reservation within two years after the ratification of the treaty. The Kansas Pottawatomies began to move in 1847, some of them arriving in what is now Shawnee county in that year. The arrival of the Indians on their new reservation will be noted in the years in which they came.

That portion of the treaty adopted at the Kansas agency on Pottawatomie creek recites that there is a Prairie band in all the three tribes of Ottawas, Chippewas and Pottawatomies. But no member of the Ottawa and Chippewa tribes, or at most very few such members, settled in the reservation on the Kansas river.

The Michigan Pottawatomies did not come to the Kansas river reservation until 1850, when a band of some 650 arrived, and these settled about the Catholic mission of St. Marys.

A brief review by years, made up from information contained in the official reports, will constitute the form of this paper from this point and it has been thought best to include in this review some account of the tribe from the year 1846. It will show the means used to induce the Pottawatomies to make the treaty of 1861.

In his report for 1846, Thomas H. Harvey, superintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis, said that he believed the Pottawatomies, both of the Osage and the Council Bluffs agencies, during the winter and the next spring would move to their new home on the Kansas river. He urged that the $50,000 for improvements be paid them as soon as possible, also the amount provided for their emigration.

Thomas Hurlburt was the resident missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, among the Pottawatomies on the Osage. It seems that the mission was on what is now Pottawatomie creek, for he says: "A few of the Pottawatomies on this creek are men of intelligence and worth--an honor to their tribe and to the churches to which they are attached; but as regards the greater part of them, I cannot say that I see any improvement among them."

There was no school attached to the mission, and some of the Pottawatomie children were sent to the Shawnee Manual Labor School, conducted by Rev. Thomas Johnson.

E. McCoy (Elizabeth McCoy) was, in 1846, a teacher in the Pottawatomie Baptist mission station in Iowa territory. She made a report of the school maintained there by the Board of the American Indian Mission Association. The report was made August 20, 1846. Because of the contemplated removal of the Pottawatomies (Prairie band) to their

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new home on the Kansas river, the design to erect a manual labor school was abandoned. The enrollment of the school was twenty--fifteen boys between the ages of seven and eighteen, and five girls between the ages of eight and eighteen--"Eleven of the whole in reading, the balance in spelling more or less."

Thomas H. Harvey was superintendent of Indian affairs at Fort Leavenworth agency in 1847. His report is dated on the 29th of October. He had attended the payment of annuities to the Prairie band at the Council Bluffs subagency. Immediately after the payment the Prairie band started for the new reservation on the Kansas river. They traveled in large parties. These parties did not all take the same route. They crossed the Missouri river at several different points. It is the right of the Indian to do as he wills in performing any task in which he alone is interested. These parties acted on that principle, each one taking what route the members chose.

From the report of Alfred J. Vaughan, Indian subagent at the Osage river agency, it appears that the Pottawatomies there had not yet migrated to the Kansas river reservation. The report was made September 1, 1847. Some of them may have moved later in the year. He said:

"The Pottawatomies have been more unsettled and more unsteady in their habits this year than formerly. This must, in some measure, be attributed to their contemplated removal to the Kanzas country. Some have planted and will raise a limited quantity of corn and esculent fruits; others again have not applied themselves to farming at all this year. Those who have planted, speaking generally, will not raise a sufficiency to carry them through this coming winter, provided they remain; but they have pledged themselves, in council assembled, that they will remove this fall in the event of the payment being early enough for them to get off. I said the Pottawatomies have been more than usually unsteady. Drunkenness, and its dire companion, murder, have prevailed to a greater extent this year than for years previous. Even the hitherto exemplary Indians on Sugar creek have not escaped the infection. I am, however, happy to state that a reaction is taking place. Some of the old and steady denizens of Sugar creek have taken the matter in hand. They have called councils, invited the attendance of their brethren on Pottawatomie creek, and mutually have pledged themselves to adopt rules, fines and penalties for the introduction of spirituous liquors within their limits."

The Office of Indian Affairs was a part of the War Department in 1848. W. Medill was commissioner of Indian affairs, and his report bears date of November 30, 1848. He says that "within the past year the Pottawatomies, who have heretofore been separated (the larger portion being in Iowa, and the others on the Osage river) have completed their removal to their new country on the Kanzas river."

The Prairie band were the last Indians residing in Iowa, the commissioner said. When they left, Iowa was free of Indian population.

The agent at the Fort Leavenworth agency for 1848 was Richard W. Cummins. The tribes under his charge were the Kickapoos, Stockbridges,

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Delawares and Munsees, Christian Indians and Shawnees, and the reunited Pottawatomies. The last-named had been assigned him early the previous spring; so they must have completed their removal during the winter of 1847-1848. A few had not left the Osage river, and a small band lived among the Kickapoos on the Nemaha. The following from the report of Agent Cummins will prove of interest:

"Pottawatomies--This large tribe, formerly divided into several distinct bands, each antagonistical to the other, each claiming interests denied by the others--the dire cause of jealousies and alienation--are, in virtue of their last favorable treaty, happily brought to assemble around one council fire and to speak with one tongue. To your untiring exertions and fatherly interest in the future welfare of this people is this result mainly to be attributed. It affords me much pleasure to state that the last spring semipayment, made in May, terminated in the most quiet and orderly manner. I had the satisfaction of seeing the two bands, viz., that from Council Bluffs and that from the Osage river, mingle with each other on the most friendly terms. I could discover no signs of a desire by either party to domineer or dictate. They sat promiscuously together and exchanged their opinions with urbanity and good will. You will remember that immediately before payment, and in your presence, the head man of the upper band, or Council Bluffs party, made an effort to revive those jealousies that have for so many years alienated the upper and the lower people. Your firmness and decision alone, and the just censure with which you met the scurrilous speech of the old chief, frustrated his unworthy design. It had a most beneficial effect, and I am free to say that there was not one Indian but was glad in his heart that this matter was put to rest so auspiciously.

"Great attention was given in taking the pay roll at the last spring payment. The united band numbers 3,235. I am informed that in former years the aggregate of the two bands, viz., that from Council bluffs and that from the Osage river, amounted to upwards of 4,000. It would appear, then, that there is a material decrease in the united nation of Pottawatomies; but this is evidently not the case, for I have learned that in former payments, particularly at Council Bluffs, the Indians were permitted to include in the pay roll many of their relatives who were non- residents--those who live in Wisconsin and Michigan, and who never emigrated. A decision was made to exclude nonresidents, and the rule in future to be strictly adhered to; for these nonresidents, were they even included in the roll, would never receive the benefits thereof, as their proxies have never been known to send them a dollar.

"I am happy to state that the prejudices of the Pottawatomies, as regards their new homes, are fast disappearing. They begin to be convinced that it is a good country, with timber sufficient for all purposes. They cling with much tenacity to their prejudgement of the land, and would have it, nolens volens, a barren, timberless tract. They are at last compelled to admit that they were mistaken; and I hope they will not be slow, by a judicious cultivation of the soil, to prove the extreme fertility of some of the finest land of the West.

"The Pottawatomies are a quick and lively race. A greater portion of the lower band (from the Osage) had, previous to their departure from their old homes, made considerable progress in farming. With the advantages secured to them by treaty, and the ample agricultural fund to which they are entitled, they may, coupled with exertions on their own part, become a thriving and prosperous people.

"While on the subject of these Indians I may as well allude to a rather untoward event which took place last summer--July. It seems that a small party of Pottawatomies, connected with the family of old Pai-dah-

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go-shuk, together with a like number of Kickapoos and Sacs, went on an excursion to the plains to kill buffalo. In the course of their journey westward they fell in with the main body of the Kanzas Indians, who were then on the summer hunt, and camped in their vicinity. It happened that the Pawnees, roving that way, came upon the parties named, but probably ascertaining their numerical strength, were of necessity disposed to be friendly. The Pawnees despatched a messenger to the camps of the Pottawatomies, Kickapoos and Sacs, with assurances of friendship and an invitation to smoke. The message was well received, but as the herald was returning he was fired upon and killed by a young Kanzas Indian. The main body of the Pawnees, who were in sight, seeing the fate of their messenger, made an attack on the four camps. An engagement ensued, which resulted in the death of five Pawnees, whose scalps were brought in by the Pottawatomies and Kickapoos. I am inclined to think that blame in this matter ought not to be attached to the Pottawatomies or Kickapoos. That they fought in self- defense is evident; but it is in every way unfortunate, as it has led to reprisals and may end in further bloodshed, for since the above collision took place the Pawnees have lifted forty horses from the Pottawatomie settlements on Kanzas river.

"Information as regards the education of youth and the management of schools will be found in the reports and schedules of the various missionary stations throughout this agency. These reports and schedules not having all come in, will probably not accompany the one I am now transmitting; but when they shall have been collected they will be immediately laid before you, and that in a very short time. For the Pottawatomies, owing to their not being as yet permanently settled, no school report can be rendered; neither for the Kickapoos, the latter having no school amongst them. They are, however, very anxious to have a standing establishment for education in their settlement, and a short time back spoke to me favorably on the subject. I hope their wishes may be acceded to.

"The blacksmiths among the Shawnees, Delawares and Pottawatomie, the other tribes within this agency not being entitled to smith, have been employed in the making and repairing of agricultural implements and useful mechanical tools; and with one single exception, I have every reason to be satisfied with them."

E. McCoy, teacher, reported for the school founded by the Baptists in the Pottawatomie reservation. The school taught by her in Iowa had been resumed on the new reservation on the 20th of March. The term ended the 20th of August. The report is dated "Kansas River, Pottawatomie Country, September 25, 1848."

Introduction nIshnabe'k The People mzenegenek books bode'wadmimo speak Potawatomi

Next section nizhokmake'wen resources/help Home Page: news & updates BWAKA - about us