Potawatomi
, a word of uncertain meaning. The commonly ascribed translation, "People of the Place of Fire" or "Keeper of the Fire" is probably apocryphal and refers to their traditional obligation to maintain a council fire uniting them with the Ottawa and Anishinabe. Their own self-designation was Weshnabek, "the People." See also
Location In the early seventeenth century, the Potawatomi lived in southwest Michigan. The people were located west of Lake Michigan, near Green Bay, in the later seventeenth century. By 1800, they lived all around the lower part of Lake Michigan; from Green Bay south and west to the Mississippi River; east into northern Illinois, Indiana, and extreme northwestern Ohio; and north to the Grand River and Detroit. Today, most Potawatomis live in Kansas and Oklahoma, with other communities in Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ontario, Canada.
Population There were about 8,000 Potawatomis in the early seventeenth century and at least 10,000 in the early nineteenth century. In the mid-1990s there were some 22,000 Potawatomis in the United States and Canada. This number included almost 1,100 on the Kansas reservation; 836 members of the Hannaville Community; almost 18,000 members of the Citizen Band; roughly 750 members of the Wisconsin Band; and several hundred living in southern Michigan.
Language Potawatomi is an Algonquian language.
Historical Information
History Tradition has the people, once united with the Anishinabe and the Ottawa, coming to their historical territory from the northeast. Driven from southwest Michigan around 1640 by the Iroquois, Huron, and others, the Potawatomi took refuge in upper Michigan and then the Green Bay area, where they met other refugee groups and built advantageous alliances and partnerships, notably with the French but also with other tribes. At this time they occupied a single village and became known to history as a single tribe with their present name.
By the late seventeenth century, however, having consolidated their position as French trade and political allies, the single village had collapsed, mainly under trade pressures. Forced by Dakota raiding parties, Potawatomi groups began moving southward to occupy former lands of the Illinois Confederacy and the Miami. By the early eighteenth century there were multiclan Potawatomi villages in northern Illinois and southern Michigan. By the mid-eighteenth century, southern groups had acquired enough horses to make buffalo hunting a significant activity.
The French alliance remained in effect until 1763. The Potawatomi fought the British in Pontiac’s rebellion. They also joined the coalition of tribes to administer the final defeat to the Illinois about that time, evicting them from northern Illinois and moving into the region themselves. The Potawatomi fought on the side of the British, however, in the Revolutionary War and continued to fight the American invasion of their territory in a series of wars in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries that included Little Turtle’s war (1790-1794); Tecumseh’s rebellion (1809-1811), and the Black Hawk war of 1832. By that time, many southern Potawatomis had intermarried with non-natives.
After all these Indian losses, the victorious non-natives demanded and won significant land cessions (the people ultimately signed at least 53 treaties with the United States). The Potawatomis were forced to remove west of the Mississippi. Bands from the Illinois-Wisconsin area went to southwest Iowa while Michigan and Indiana Potawatomis went to eastern Kansas. In 1846 both groups were placed on a reservation near Topeka, Kansas. Some remained in Michigan and Wisconsin, however, and some managed to return there from the west. Others joined the Kickapoo in Mexico, and still other went to Canada.
Some Potawatomi in Kansas became relatively successful merchants and farmers. In 1861, a group of these people formed the Citizen Band as a separate entity from the Prairie Band. They were moved to Indian Territory in the 1870s, and their land there was allotted by 1890. Since much of the land was of marginal quality, however, people tended to leave the community in the early to mid-twentieth century.
Many Citizen Band Potawatomis were educated in Catholic boarding schools in the early twentieth century.
The Prairie Potawatomi remained in Kansas. Despite their strong resistance, lands along the Kaw River in Kansas were allotted by 1895. The tribal council disbanded by 1900, and all government annuities ended in 1909. By 1962, less than one-quarter of their former lands remained in their possession, and much of this was leased to non-natives. The tribe rejected the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) and was able to avoid termination in the 1950s.
Among those who refused to leave their homelands, a large group of Potawatomi refugees was still in Wisconsin in the mid-nineteenth century. These people had been joined by several Ottawa and Anishinabe families. With the help of an Anishinabe man, they obtained land and money to build a community, called Hannaville, in the 1880s. The U.S. Congress purchased additional land for them in 1913. The community adopted an IRA constitution and bylaws in 1936. Most people were farmers, and many also worked seasonally in the lumber industry. By the early twentieth century, the land was exhausted, the lumber industry had declined, and the state refused them all services, contributing to the onset of widespread poverty and exacerbating anti-Indian prejudice.
In 1839, Huron Potawatomis who had escaped removal purchased land for a community. The state of Michigan added another 40 acres in 1848. The Methodist Episcopal church served as the focus of community life. Near Waterviliet, Michigan, members of the future Pokagon Band bought land near Catholic churches. They continued a subsistence economy based on small-game hunting; gathering berries, maple sap, and other resources; and small-scale farming. They also worked on nearby farms when necessary. They created a formal government as early as 1866, which later pursued land claims against the United States. They and the Huron Potawatomis were denied federal recognition in the 1940s based on an arbitrary administrative ruling.
Religion The people may have recognized a chief deity that corresponded with the sun. Religion was based mainly on obtaining guardian spirits through fasting. Sacred bundles were probably part of religious practice from prehistoric times on; at some point they became associated with the supernatural power of clans. There were three types of shamans: doctors, diviners, and adviser-magicians. The people observed the calumet (peace pipe) ceremony. Other festivals included the Midewiwin Dance, the War Dance, and the Sacred Bundle ceremony.
Government There were clan chiefs, but the decision makers were generally the clan’s warriors, elders, and shamans. Chiefs of semiautonomous villages, who were chosen from among several candidates of the appropriate clans, lacked authority, since the democratic impulse was strong among the Potawatomi. There was no overall tribal chief, although a village chief, through his personal prestige, might lead a large number of villages. The chief was aided by a council of men. Women occasionally served as village chiefs. There was also an intratribal warrior society that exercised police functions in the villages.
Customs At least 30 patrilineal clans owned certain supernatural powers, names, and ritual items. Over time, clans died out, and new ones were created. They were a source of a child’s name as well as part of his or her personal spirit power. They also had important ceremonial functions. A dual division by birth order had significance in games and some rituals. Lacrosse was a popular game, as were the woman’s double ball game and dice games.
After the harvest, people generally broke into small hunting camps for the winter. Polygyny was common. Marriages were formalized by gift exchange between clans and by the approval of senior clan members. After the wedding, a man lived with his wife’s family for a year, after which time the couple established their own household.
Women gave birth assisted by other women in special huts. They remained secluded with the infant for a month. Babies were named after a year and weaned after several years. Both sexes were recognized as adults at puberty. Both were isolated around that time, women during their periods and men to fast and seek a vision. Young women might also have visions at this time.
Corpses were dressed in their best clothes and buried in an east-west alignment (one clan practiced cremation) with considerable grave goods that included food, tools, and weapons. Graves were marked with painted or incised posts. Souls were said to travel to an afterworld located to the west.
Dwellings Summer villages, numbering up to 1,500 people of several clans, were built along lakes and rivers and often contained members of Anishinabe and Ottawa groups. Small winter camps lay in sheltered valleys. Some villages may have been palisaded.
Summer houses were bark-covered rectangular structures with peaked roofs. The people built smaller, dome-shaped wigwams with mats covering a pole framework for their winter dwellings. They also built ramadas with roofs of bark or limbs for use as cooking shelters. Rush-mat menstrual huts were built away from the main part of the village. There was also a nearby playing field.
Diet Women grew corn, beans, squash, and tobacco. Squash and meat were smoked or sun dried. Women also gathered wild rice, maple sap for sugar, beechnuts (which were pounded into flour), berries, roots, and other wild plant foods. Cranberries were smoked, as were fowl, after first being pickled. Men fished and hunted buffalo (especially from the eighteenth century on), deer, bear, elk, beaver, and many other animals, including fowl. Dogs were eaten mainly at rituals.
Key Technology Men hunted mainly with bows and arrows. Fishing equipment included nets, weirs and traps, hooks, and harpoons. People also made bark food storage containers, pottery, and stone or fired-clay pipes with wooden or reed stems. Pictographs on birch-bark scrolls served as mnemonic devices.
Trade Potawatomis imported copper and Atlantic coast shells. Intervillage trade helped to keep the people’s identity intact.
Notable Arts Clothing was decorated with quillwork and paint. Silk applique was an important art from the mid-eighteenth century on.
Transportation Potawatomis used both dugout and bark-frame canoes. The latter were up to 25 feet long; construction and ownership of these vessels were limited. Horses were acquired well before 1800. A litter slung between two horses could carry materials or ill people; woven rush-mat saddlebags also held goods.
Dress Clothing was made of skins and furs. Men were tattooed. Both sexes painted their bodies. They wore personal adornments made of native copper and shell.
War and Weapons Potawatomi warriors fought with bows and arrows, war clubs, and hide shields. Allies included the Ottawa and other neighboring Algonquian tribes. Enemies included the Iroquois and the Dakota.
Contemporary Information
Government/Reservations The Potawatomi Reservation (Prairie Band), located in Jackson County, Kansas, consists of 121 square miles of land. The 1976 constitution calls for a tribal council. The 1990 Indian population was 503 (less than half of the total enrolled population).
The Citizen Band of Potawatomis owns land south of Shawnee, Oklahoma. Tribal lands consist of roughly 300 acres held in trust. They are governed by a five-person tribal council and an elected business committee.
The Pine Creek Reservation, Huron (Nottawaseppi-huron) Band and Allegan Counties, Michigan (established in 1845), consists of 120 acres of land. The 1990 Indian population was 20. The community is governed by an elected band council.
The Pokagon (Potawatomi Indian Nation) Potawatomi live in Berrien, Cass, and Van Buren Counties, Michigan, and St. Joseph County, Indiana. They are governed by a band council.
Hannaville community and trust lands, Delta and Menominee Counties, Michigan (established in 1913), contain roughly 3,200 acres of trust land. The 1990 Indian population was 173. They are governed by an elected tribal council.
The Forest County Potawatomi, Wisconsin, have almost 12,000 acres of land, most of which is tribally owned. About 460 Indians live in the three towns of Stone Lake, Blackwell, and Wabeno/Carter (mid-1990s). The general council elects an executive council annually.
Potawatomi women replaced porcupine quillwork in geometric designs with ribbon appliques on their garments during the nineteenth century, as shown in this circa 1870 photograph. They also used metal brooches to decorate their blouses.
There are numerous Potawatomi communities in Ontario, including Walpole Island, Sarnia, Saugeen, Kettle Point, Manitoulin Island, and Cape Croker. There are also other groups of Potawatomi living in the region.
Economy The Kansas Potawatomi own a bingo establishment and are seeking to build a casino. Unemployment is chronically high. Hannaville has important farm, wildlife, and forest resources. A casino provides regular employment. The Citizen
Band owns several businesses, including a bank, a museum and gift shop, a restaurant, and a golf course. It also owns a bingo establishment and is building a casino. The Wisconsin Potawatomi own two casinos and several small businesses. Tourism and lumbering are also important economic activities.
Legal Status The Prairie Band of Potawatomi, the Citizen Band Potawatomi, the Hannaville Indian Community, the Nottawaseppi-Huron Potawatomi Band, the Potawatomi Indian Nation (Pokagon Band), and the Forest County Potawatomi Community are federally recognized tribal entities. The Mash-she-pe-nash-she-wish Indian Tribe (Michigan) has been granted provisional federal recognition (1998).
Daily Life Income and educational levels among the Prairie Band remain low. The band is considered culturally conservative: Many people still speak the native language, and most belong either to the Drum religion, the Dream Dance, or the Native American Church.
The Hannaville Community maintains various social service programs. Grounded in traditional precepts and culture, they are expanding the number of native language speakers beyond a core of elders. People practice traditional or quasi-traditional religions as well as Christianity. They host the Great Lakes powwow.
The Methodist Episcopal Church still serves as a focus of the Huron Potawatomi. The band also hosts an annual powwow. Among the Pokagon band, the Catholic church has served as a similar focus. The band has worked hard for over 100 years to reestablish a government-to-government relationship with the United States. In addition to political considerations, both band councils emphasize economic development and social programs for their members.
In Oklahoma, the Citizen Band is noted for its entrepreneurial ethos. In addition to its many businesses, the tribe administers a variety of social and health services, including a summer program for young people. Most of the people are Christian and relatively assimilated. There are a tribal museum, a tribal newsletter, and an annual powwow held in June.
The Forest County Potawatomi retain a significant measure of their traditional culture. Many people speak the native language, and many traditional and semitraditional religions and ceremonies, such as the Medicine Drum Society, Native American Church, Dream Dance, War Dance, and naming feasts, remain vibrant.
