The Potawatomi Trail of Death was the forced removal by United States forces from 4 September to 4 November 1838, of 859 members of the Potawatomi nation from Twin Lakes, now known as Myers Lake and Cook Lake, near Plymouth, Indiana, to the location of present-day Osawatomie, Kansas, a distance of 660 miles (1,060 km). Typhoid fever and the stress of the forced march led to the death of over 40 individuals, mostly children.
Fr. Benjamin Marie Petit, who marched with his congregation of natives, died in St. Louis on February 10, 1839, in part exhausted by the rigors of the journey.
Read more about Potawatomi Trail Of Death: Background, Removal, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words trail and/or death:
“In one notable instance, where the United States Army and a hundred years of persuasion failed, a highway has succeeded. The Seminole Indians surrendered to the Tamiami Trail. From the Everglades the remnants of this race emerged, soon after the trail was built, to set up their palm-thatched villages along the road and to hoist tribal flags as a lure to passing motorists.”
—For the State of Florida, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Human life consists in mutual service. No grief, pain, misfortune, or “broken heart,” is excuse for cutting off one’s life while any power of service remains. But when all usefulness is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one.”
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935)