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The Treaty at Fort Meig
The government adopted the policy of making special reservations for Indian chiefs who refused to join the tribes that were selling land. It caused them to make special reservations for the Indians, which they later took away. -
Indian Removal Act
Congress created the Indian Removal Act and Andrew Jackson signed it. The law authorized the president to negotiate with southern Indian tribes for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their ancestral homelands. -
Negotiations
Negotiations with various Potawatomi bands began in 1832 to move them from their homelands in Indiana to lands in Kansas. While many of them complied over the next several years, Chief Menominee and his band at Twin Lakes, Indiana, refused to sign the treaties. -
The Last of the Land
The Indiana Potawatomi signed nine treaties in 1836, and these treaties gave the U.S. federal government the last remaining land that the Potawatomi owned. The U.S. paid them $1 an acre, and gave them two years to move west. Chief Menominee did not know about these treaties, and was outraged. He even went as far as to accuse the soldiers of getting the young chiefs drunk. He then refused to move, but eventually was forced. -
Gunpoint: The Start
On August 30th, General Tipton, along with 100 soldiers, arrived at the Twin Lakes Village and began to round up the tribe, burning their crops and homes to discourage them from trying to return. Five days later, on September 4th, the march began with more than 850 Indians and a caravan of 26 wagons to help transport their goods. -
Disaster in the Making
When they arrived at Osawatomie, Kansas, on November 4, 1838, some of the Potawatomi had died. Making things a lot wore, winter was coming and the houses that the government had promised were not there. -
Letter About the March
Father Petit wrote a letter to Bishop Simon Brute, Vincennes, Indiana, describing the march: "The order of march was as follows: the United States flag, carried by a dragoon; 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. -
New Establishments
Three years after their arrival, Mother Rose Philippine Duchesne came to the mission in 1841, where she taught school to the young members of the tribe. She established the first Indian school for girls west of the Mississippi River. -
More Moving
In 1848 they moved further west to St Marys, Kansas, close to the Prairie Band Potawatomi Reservation at Mayetta, Kansas. During their years at the mission, more than 600 of the Potawatomi died. -
Cruelties Recognized
The Potawatomi Trail of Death has been declared a Regional Historic Trail, and since 1988 a commemorative caravan follows the same trail every five years, starting at the Chief Menominee statue south of Plymouth, Indiana and ending at the St. Philippine Duchesne Memorial Park near Centerville, Kansas.