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The report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1861 does not have any report whatever of the Pottawatomies. There is nothing to show who was the agent or the location of the agency. The commissioner had himself visited the Pottawatomies during the year. The account of his council with them is as follows:

"My council with the Pottawatomies lasted two full days, and was to me particularly interesting. I found them intelligent and apparently happy. They have a reservation thirty miles square, rich in soil, and beautifully located on the Kansas river, near Topeka, the present seat of government for the state. A large majority of the tribe, usually denominated the 'Mission band,' are far advanced in civilization, and are anxious to abandon their tribal condition and have a suitable portion of their lands allotted to them in severalty, and the remainder sold to the government at a fair price, to create a fund to enable them to commence agricultural pursuits under favorable auspices. This policy is, however, strenuously opposed by the wild, or 'Prairie band' of the tribe, who look with jealousy upon any innovation upon their traditional customs. I assured the 'Mission band' that their desire to adopt the principle of individual property, and to rely for support upon the cultivation of the soil, rather than the chase, was warmly approved by the government, and that in case proper efforts and a reasonable time for reflection should fail to induce the rest of the tribe to adopt this mode of life, measures would be adopted to relieve them from the incubus which now binds them to an uncivilized life. This tribe has had the advantage of good schools, there being two upon the reservation--one under the charge of St. Marys Mission of the Catholic Church, and the other under that of the Baptist Church, South. St Marys Mission school seemed to be in a prosperous condition, popular with the Indians, and doing much good. The female department deserves particular mention for its efficiency in teaching the different branches of education. The exhibition of plain and fancy needlework and embroidery, executed by the pupils, creditably attests the care and attention bestowed by the sisters upon these children of the forest. It was plain to me that their hearts are in the work. I cannot speak so favorably of the school for boys, but assurances were given by the present conductor, who has recently taken charge of it, that its de-

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ficiencies should be remedied. Much of the improvement in the mode of life observable among the Pottawatomies is attributable to the schools. The Baptist school, being closed on account of its connection with the southern board, was not visited, but I was informed that it had been the means of much good."

The origin of the present reservation in Jackson county will be found in a treaty made with the Pottawatomie tribe at the Pottawatomie agency, November 15, 1861. It was therein provided that those who had adopted the customs of the whites and desired to have their lands allotted in separate tracts should so have their lands in severalty. Those members of the tribe desiring to retain their lands in common and still maintain their tribal relations should be allotted their lands to be held in common. It was made the duty of the agent to prepare two lists of the members of the tribe. One lists was to show the names and ages of those desiring their lands in severalty. The other list was to show the names and ages of those members of the tribe desiring their lands in common. Chiefs and headmen were to be designated for each class. Each chief who had signed the treaty was to receive one section of land, containing 640 acres. Each headman was to receive one-half section, or three hundred and twenty acres. Each head of a family was entitled to one quarter section, containing 160 acres, and each other person should have eighty acres of land. Each adult was to choose his own land (or her own land), and the heads of families were to choose the land for minor children. Orphans and incompetent persons were to be assigned their portions by the agent.

The lands given to those desiring to hold them in common were to be selected in a single body. These members of the tribe relinquished their interest in the severalty allotments of the other members of the tribe, who, in turn, gave up their interest in that portion of the reservation to be held in common. All were to retain an equal right in the proceeds of the surplus land, which, by the treaty, was to be sold to the Leavenworth, Pawnee and Western Railroad. None of the allotted lands were to be subject to taxation or court process for the time being.

The census contemplated by the treaty--or the lists, rather--was taken on the 17th of May, 1862. It showed a total tribal population of 2,259--648 men, 588 women, and 1,023 children. The report of the agent does not contain the lists. And from the report it is impossible to determine what steps, if any, had been taken to carry out the provisions of the treaty. Some lands had been taken in severalty, which fact was mentioned as an incentive to individual effort. Sixty houses (log dwellings) were built. Wheat to the amount of 4,000 bushels was harvested; 51,000 bushels of corn and 100 acres of other products were produced. Individuals of the tribe owned 600 ponies, 800 cattle, 1,000 hogs, and 50 sheep. The total personal property of the tribe was set down at $62,670.

In the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1863, the agency report of W. W. Ross shows that "the allotment of land under their treaty of the 15th of November, 1861, has been completed." There

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seems to have been but one agency for the tribe. It was recommended that those holding their land in common should be permitted to sell their reservation and buy a home in the Indian territory. The report says: "I cannot but think it is for the interest of both portions of the tribe, and to the government, for them to be separated."

This was the old argument. It was always invoked in some form to the detriment of the Indians. The white man wanted the Indian's land.

WAH-BOX-SE-QUAH AND DAUGHTER ELIZABETH. Prairie band, Pottawatomie Indians.

He did not care how he got it--just so he got it. While many Indian agents were upright men, having the good of the Indians at heart, a great majority of them were against the Indians and for the speculators.

It is well to say at this point that the Pottawatomie tribe was at that time (in the sixties) composed of three bands or divisions, as follows:

1. Pottawatomies of the Woods.
2. Pottawatomies of the Prairie.
3. The Christian band.

The Pottawatomies of the Prairie, the Prairie band, the ancient Mas-

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kotens, took their land in common, in a body, and must have established the present reservation in Jackson county, Kansas, before the date of the agent's report--September 30, 1863. They are known as the Prairie band of Pottawatomies. They have the true conception of what is the best form of Indian life, and it was hoped that they never would be forced to accept their lands in severalty. Community life is the only life by which the Indian can survive as a people. He is an enemy of the Indian who advocates any other mode of life or form of society for him.

The other bands, the Forest or Woods band, and the Christian band, accepted their lands in severalty in accordance with the terms of the treaty. Soon they had sold their allotments, had lost the money received for them, and were in want. The government was compelled to provide a new reservation for them in the Indian territory. Thus was the judgment and course of the Prairie band vindicated and confirmed.

While the reservation of the Prairie band was well defined by the year 1863, it was by no means so firmly fixed as to be certain of continual existence. It had not become associated as a fixed fact in the minds of the Indians themselves. The vital principle--the idea of communal life-- was still uppermost. This was the hope of the band. There existed, however, uncertainty as to the future. There had not yet been the complete assembly at one point of all the members of the Prairie band. Perhaps this never was achieved to the last member. But in 1864 a portion of the band lived on Mill creek, in Wabaunsee county. They were known as Shanques, and their headman was one Captain John. About the first of August, 1864, some forty of this settlement-- men, women and children--went to the Osage and Cherokee country to remain for the winter, and possibly to settle permanently. They were assured by the agent that if they found a country to suit them the government would secure it for them, believing that the whole tribe would be drawn to settle about them.

The Prairie band living on Soldier creek (Jackson county) were also unsettled to some extent. Many of them had gone before the middle of September to Iowa and Wisconsin to spend the winter. It was their intention to return in the spring. At that time there were two causes for the unsettled condition of this band. One was the disturbed condition of the border due to the Civil War. The other was the warlike attitude maintained toward them by the wild tribes, natives to the plains. The Pottawatomies had never succeeded in establishing cordial relations with the plains Indians. As a consequence they could not go into the habitat of the buffalo, the only hope for an adequate supply of meat. This year of 1864 was one of trouble and uncertainty for the Prairie band.

The year 1865 was one of demoralization for the Pottawatomies. The ending of the Civil War did not bring immediate tranquillity to the border, and the Indians themselves showed little progress in the matter of pulling the scattered fragments of the tribe together. Those hunters who went in pursuit of the buffalo found that the military force of the government made no distinction between them and the wild and hostile tribes

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whom they were in pursuit. More than four hundred of the Prairie band left the reservation. Forty of them went with a large band of Kickapoos south to Red river to hunt during the winter, and four hundred went north and scattered through Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan. In Wisconsin they were the subjects of misrepresentation and the victims of malice. The board of supervisors of Waupaca county, Wisconsin, sent a communication which finally reached the Indian Office at Washington,

MARY MAH-KUK Prairie band, Pottawatomie Indians. Mayetta, Kan., 1917.

complaining that a large band of Indians had settled in that county, near the town of Little Wolf. It was not denied that they were civil and friendly, but they were accused of begging and of stealing potatoes and other crops from the fields. It was charged that they were destroying all the game of the county, that their ponies were devouring feed needed for cattle, sometimes breaking into fields, and that their dogs were troublesome among the sheep. It was affirmed that some of them, and perhaps all of them, were from Kansas. It was urged that they be removed.

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This was the old form of creating a feeling against the Indians in pioneer settlements, sometimes resulting in bloodshed. A special agent of the Indian Office was sent to investigate the matter. His report shows that the respectable citizens of the county had consented that the Indians camp among them; that they were orderly and had molested no one nor any property; and that only one complaint was registered against them, that being of ponies breaking into one field. No objection among the people was found to the presence of the Indians. While it was not shown that they were from Kansas, some of them were probably Pottawatomies from the Soldier creek reservation.

Seventy-one members of the tribe had enlisted in the Union armies, where they made excellent soldiers. Many of them met death on the battle field; others died of sickness. The survivors were reaching home in the summer of 1865.

The year 1866 can not be set down as a prosperous year for the Pottawatomies. There was an increase in the population of the reservation, the census giving this result: men, 512; women, 501; children 979; total, 1,992. This census included the Pottawatomies of all bands. Only a few of the four hundred who had gone north had returned. Ninety-two of them were in Marshall and Tama counties, Iowa, under a chief called Johnny Green by the white people. He was about seventy years old. He said that 887 of his people were then in Wisconsin, but that they would move to Iowa the next spring.

The whole reservation of the Pottawatomies in Kansas was occupied, and there is no word that the members of the Prairie band were assembling on Soldier creek.

Up to the middle of August, 1867, only 190 patents had been issued to Pottawatomies for lands taken in severalty. The tribe still occupied the whole of the old reservation with the agency possibly at what is now Rossville. The agent reported that there was much trouble over depredations committed by white men against the Indians. And there was no recourse for the Indian. The officers of the state courts declined to assume jurisdiction of Indian matters. The United States courts would hear only such cases as originated on the reservation. The Indian was despoiled with impunity.

The agent recommended that a new home for the Pottawatomies be secured. In 1866 an effort to do this had failed because the senate had not ratified a treaty made with southern tribes.

In 1868 we find the first evidences of an assembling of the Prairie band of Pottawatomies on what was then designated as the diminished reservation, on Soldier creek. The agent has the following in relation to the present reservation there:

"The Prairie band, who hold their diminished reserve in common, are, many of them, beginning to realize that they must soon change their mode of life or look out for another home. They are not generally prepared for

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a distribution of their lands in severalty among the members of their band and to become citizens. Being fully conscious of that fact, the desire a separation of their funds from the funds of the sectionizing party, so that they may enjoy among themselves what is their own, and still live on as Indians, according to their ancient customs.

"It is only necessary to state that they are occupying eleven miles square of a good farming land, with a fair proportion of timber, surrounded by a country as well settled by farmers as any part of Kansas, and in the neighborhood of several small towns or villages, to make it apparent that they are not always at peace with all the world, nor is it probable they ever will be again until they find a home where there are no whites, or where whites are less aggressive than they are in Kansas.

"I have to suggest that an effort should be made at once to treat with the Prairie Pottawatomies, to buy out their lands in Kansas and induce them to seek a home elsewhere."

It will be observed that the agent did not fail to embrace the opportunity to recommend that the reservation be sold and the Prairie band removed.

The surplus lands of the Pottawatomies had finally been sold to the Atchison, Tokeka & Santa Fe Railway Company for one dollar an acre. The Pottawatomies of the Woods and the Mission band began the movement (finally successful) to secure a tract of land for a home in the Indian territory. The Prairie band, having now became firmly seated on the reservation on Soldier creek, took no part in this movement. The members of the band were devoting themselves more and more to agriculture. They had trouble with white settlers about them. The report says:

"The idea seems to prevail among the white settlers that that particular reserve, with its valuable timber, pure water, and rich prairie soil, containing over seventy-five thousand acres within an hour's ride from the dome of our State capital, could never have been intended as a home for the Indian, the land to remain, to a great extent, uncultivated, and forever free from taxation. They enter upon these lands stealthily and take away timber, or make a contract with some worthless Indian for such timber as they want (the land being held in common they can buy of the same Indian in one part of the reserve as well as another), and under this contract they go on defiantly cutting and destroying. While the contract furnishes a sort of pretext, they very well know it confers no right; but they at the same time know that the United States district court for the district of Kansas never did, and probably never will, convict a white man for depredating upon Indian lands. I know of no way of remedying the evil, except by prevailing upon white men to be honest and just toward the Indian, or seeing that the laws are rigidly enforced against them. One other means may be tried with perhaps a more certain prospect of success--to move the Indian to some country where he would be free from such annoyances. The state of things existing between the Indians on the reserve and the whites outside of it has often been reported to the department and made a subject of complaint on the part of the Indians. The question of treating away their reserve and going to the Indian territory with a portion of the sectionizers has sometimes been proposed to the Prairie band of Pottawatomies, and a considerable number of them are reported to be in favor of such a movement; but that sentiment never finds expression in a council with an agent of the government, the chiefs and principal headmen being the only parties heard, and they are believed to be acting under outside influences which determine their course. . . ."

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The Prairie band made an effort to have the old Baptist Mission, five miles west of Topeka, revived for the use of their children, but the plan failed after an expense of $2,000 had been incurred.

There was a change of agents for the Pottawatomies this year, Joel H. Morris succeeding L. R. Palmer. The Woods band and the Christians were moving away from the old reservation. The Prairie band, with its reservation, occupies a large part of the report of the agent. The following quotation from it will describe the progress and condition of this band:

"This much we have said in regard to that portion of the Pottawatomies who have or are gradually passing from under the supervision of an agent, leaving only those who have heretofore been known as the 'Prairie band,' comprising, according to the census recently taken, 419 souls, and now living in separate lodges as follows, to wit, one frame house, fourteen log cabins, and thirty-five bark lodges, as the only representatives in Kansas of the once powerful tribe of Pottawatomie Indians. They are located on a reservation in Jackson county, state of Kansas, fourteen miles north of Topeka, the capital of the state. Their reserve comprises an area of eleven miles square of beautiful rolling prairie, well watered by two beautiful streams known as Big and Little Soldier creeks, along which the Indians' houses and lodges are located. The rich bottoms of these streams afford an abundance of the very best farming lands, with a reasonable portion of rail and saw timber, and quantities of small undergrowth, that affords comfortable retreats in winter for themselves and stock, while the rolling prairie lands abound with excellent building stone and a reasonable supply of stone coal. This portion of the tribe adheres tenaciously to their ancient Indian customs, habits and superstitions, although much effort has been made to educate them to leave off their old habits of hunting, particularly now that the game has almost entirely disappeared, and idly passing away their time, to resort to the cultivating of their soil for a support. But they still continue to cling to their old flag and bark lodges, after the customs of their fathers. Their furniture consists principally of a few rusty kettles, dirty blankets, and the usual equipage necessary for a savage life. The women mostly tend their little patches of corn after the men break the ground and garden, cook the victuals, and get their own wood, often carrying it a considerable distance upon their backs, although there may be several horses running at large and a wagon standing in the yard, or wood rotting for the want of care, while the young lords of the manor are engaged in card playing or other similarly degrading sports. It is gratifying however, to note that many of them have yielded to the oft-repeated wishes of the government and turned their attention more to agricultural pursuits than in former years, by raising horses, cattle, sheep, hogs and corn; in fact, most of the varieties of grain produced by experienced farmers, with the usual products of the garden."

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

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