Potawatomi Trail of Death - Removal

Removal

On August 30, General Tipton and one hundred soldiers (volunteer militia) surrounded Twin Lakes and began to round up the natives, 859 in all. They burned the crops and homes of the Potawatomi to discourage them from trying to return. On September 4, the march to Kansas began. The state supplied a caravan of twenty-six wagons to help transport their goods. In the first day they traveled twenty-one miles and camped at the Tippecanoe River north of Rochester. The second day they reached Mud Creek in Fulton County, where a baby died - the first casualty. By the third day they reached Logansport. Several of the sick and elderly were left at Logansport to recover, and several of the dead were buried there. They traveled along the Michigan Road, which the tribe had granted permission for Indiana to build only a few years earlier.

On September 10 the march resumed from Logansport, and the caravan moved along the north side of the Wabash River. They passed through present-day Pittsburg, Battle Ground, Lafayette, and Williamsport, with two or more deaths occurring nearly every day. Their last camp in Indiana was near the Gopher Hill Cemetery one and one-half miles from the Indiana - Illinois state line. On Sept. 16 the caravan crossed into Illinois, and camped at Danville, where four more Potawatomi died and were buried. In Danville the caravan was joined by Father Benjamin Petit, who kept a journal; he traveled with the tribe the rest of the way to help care for the sick. He wrote on September 16:

On Sunday, September 16, I came in sight of my Christians, under a burning noonday sun, amidst clouds of dust, marching in a line, surrounded by soldiers who were hurrying their steps.... Nearly all the children, weakened by the heat, had fallen into a state of complete languor and depression. I baptized several who were newly born -- happy Christians, who with their first step passed from earthly exile to the heavenly sojourn." .

In a letter to Bishop Simon Brute, at Vincennes, Indiana, November 13, 1838, from the Osage River country of Missouri, Father Petit described the order of march:

"The order of march was as follows: the United States flag, carried by a dragoon; (mounted soldier) then one of the principal officers, next the staff baggage carts, then the carriage, which during the whole trip was kept for the use of the Indian chiefs, then one or two chiefs on horseback led a line of 250 to 300 horses ridden by men, women, children in single file, after the manner of savages. On the flanks of the line at equal distance from each other were the dragoons and volunteers, hastening the stragglers, often with severe gestures and bitter words. After this cavalry came a file of forty baggage wagons filled with luggage and Indians. The sick were lying in them, rudely jolted, under a canvas which, far from protecting them from the dust and heat, only deprived them of air, for they were as if buried under this burning canopy - several died."

At Danville, they resupplied and rested, adding a couple of ox teams and wagons. On September 20, General Tipton and all but fifteen of the Hoosiers returned to Indiana and left the tribe under the control of Judge William Polke of Rochester, who was the federal conductor. Polke led the Potawatomi the rest of the way to their new reservation. From Catlin (known as Sandusky Point, Illinois, the tribe passed through Monticello, Decatur, Springfield, Jacksonville, Exeter, and Naples, where they crossed the Illinois River on a ferry. On October 10 the tribe left Illinois at Quincy, crossing the Mississippi River on steam ferry boats, and crossed into Missouri.

Marching through Missouri, the tribe passed through West Quincy, Palmyra, Paris, Moberly, Huntsville, Salisbury, Keatsville (now spelled Keytesville), Brunswick, DeWitt, Carrollton, Richmond, crossed the Missouri River at Lexington, Wellington, Napoleon, near Buckner and Lake City, Independence, and Grand View. They crossed into Kansas Nov. 2 and camped at Oak Grove (probably Elm Grove because there is no Oak Grove here), then went on Nov. 3 to Bulltown (present Paola). On November 4 they reached the end of their journey, Osawatomie, Kansas, having traveled 660 miles (1,060 km). On arrival 756 Potawatomi remained of the 859 who had started the journey. Forty-two were recorded as having died; the remainder escaped.

Father Petit died two months after the march from illness, believed to be typhoid, and contributed to by exhaustion. Chief Menominee died three years later, never returning to Indiana. Many of the exiles tried to return to Indiana. Kansas named a county after the tribe and a reservation for Prairie Band Potawatomi is at Mayetta, Kansas.