The excitement around the Black Hawk War marked the beginning of Native American tribes’ decline in Indiana. Although these Indians were peaceful and had nothing to do with the Black Hawk War, white settlers in Indiana never became accustomed to their presence in the community.
As early as 1819, Congress planned to civilize (Christianize) the Indians. That year, a law gave the President power to use $10,000 to pay Indian children’s tuition in mission schools. Several mission schools had been established in Indiana and were said to have done good work. However, the law received no support, so little was accomplished.
In 1822, the system of registering traders with the Indiana government was abolished, and traders were allowed into local Indian tribal areas. As a result, these traders carried whiskey to the tribe and traded it for furs. They were generally regarded as petty thieves.
Various missionaries and other friends of the Indians soon began asking the government for help. Most agreed it would be better to move the tribes beyond the frontier. Jacksonian Democrats adopted a policy of moving them out of the way of white settlers. The law of May 28, 1830, allowed any tribe to trade its land for land beyond the Mississippi River. The law of July 9, 1832, which provided for a complete reorganization of the Indian service, also appropriated $20,000 to hold councils among the Indiana tribes and encourage migration beyond the Mississippi.
During the summer of 1833 and later, agents were busy along the upper Wabash and on the Eel River gathering parties of Indians and transporting them to the West. A common plan was to give horses to several chiefs and pay them to ride out to the new country on a tour of inspection. If necessary, they were then persuaded to give a favorable report of the country they had seen, and the Indians were then persuaded to emigrate.
The best illustration of the hostility that Indiana settlers bore toward the Indians is their treatment of the Potawatomi, whom they forcibly expelled from Indiana in the summer of 1838. The Potawatomi originally hunted in the region south of Lake Michigan, north of the Wabash, and west of the St. Joseph and St. Mary’s rivers.
They were usually hostile to the Americans in wartime. They led the attack on Fort Dearborn and those on Fort Wayne and Fort Harrison. Most of the warriors under the famous Prophet at Tippecanoe, as well as those who perpetrated the Pigeon Roost murders and harassed the White River border from Callonia to the Wabash above Vincennes in the following years, were thought to be Potawatomi. On the other hand, they had given the settlers the land for the Michigan road—a body of land equal to a strip a mile wide from the Ohio to Lake Michigan.
Colonel Abel C. Pepper of Lawrenceburg, then Indian agent, succeeded in 1836 in buying the Indians out at $1 per acre, giving them the privilege of remaining on the lands for two years. The Indians asserted that this cession was obtained by unfair means, but it seemed to have been accomplished as most others had been.A squatter named Waters was especially persistent in demanding possession of a quarter section of land he had claimed. About the middle of August, some Indians battered down his cabin door with an ax. In return, the squatters joined together and burned eight or ten wigwams.
The Potawatomi Trail of Death Association (PTDA) was established in 2005 to preserve and promote the history of the Potawatomi people, with a focus on their forced removal in 1838.1
Their website provides a great interactive map of the removal.
Click Here to view the map.
As soon as Colonel Pepper of Logansport had heard of the first Indian refusal to move-and he heard as soon as a courier from the squatters could reach him, August 26, 1838-he at once sent a dispatch by mounted courier to Governor David Wallace asking for a good general and at least one hundred soldiers. He reported that the Potawatomies on Yellow River were in arms and an outbreak was expected at any moment. This message reached Governor Wallace the next day. That same day, he received word, and the Governor sent an order by courier to John Tipton of Logansport, ordering him to muster the Cass and Miami County militia and proceed quickly to the scene of trouble.
Tipton lost no time in enrolling the militia. They left Logansport at 1 p.m. August 29. At 10 p.m., they went into camp at Chippewa. Breaking camp at 3 a.m., they reached Twin Lakes and found Colonel Pepper and the Indians in council. Tipton at once stated his business and scolded the chiefs for the violence. The Indians made no excuses for the outbreaks and again refused to leave their homes. From the report, the whites were the aggressors and had done nearly all the damage. Tipton wasted no words, but established a camp on an island in the lake and detained all the Indian chiefs present, which numbered about 200. With all the leaders present, it was easy to control the rest. All were disarmed as soon as they were found.
Squads of soldiers patrolled northern Indiana in all directions looking for the Indians and driving them to the Twin Lakes area. Many, fearing harm to those chiefs at the council, came in to see what was wrong. By September 1st, they had rounded up more than 700. They destroyed all the Indian wigwams and cabins. They brought their horses and property into camp.
Early on the morning of September 4th, Tipton commenced loading 13 army wagons with the Indians personal property. About 400 horses were found and kept on the island until Tipton was ready to start.
The procession left the Twin Lakes,Indiana, area on September 4th and dragged its mournful way south over the Michigan Road through Chippewa, traveling 21 miles before establishing camp. Father Petit, the missionary Bishop Brute had stationed there, was allowed to gather the Indians in the little chapel and conduct a farewell mass before they started. The first day’s march was excessively tiring. They found no water to drink, and the road was dusty. They traveled from 9 a.m. to sunset, the mounted militia prodding on the stragglers. The next day, 41 Indians could not move. Others had to wait on the sick. Beef, flour and bacon had been ordered from Logansport, 46 miles away, but only a little had reached them.
On September 5th they reached Mud Creek. Twenty guards deserted during the day, stealing Indian horses on which to get away. On September 6th the Indians marched 17 miles, reaching Logansport, about 800 strong. They waited near the town for three days for government agents to arrange better travel. One-half of the militia was discharged and half were kept to accompany the Indians to the Indiana state line.
By this time the Indian children and older adults were completely worn out. The children, especially, were dying in great numbers, not being used to such rigorous work. Physicians from Logansport reached the Indians on September 9th and reported three hundred unfit for travel. The march from this time was not so rapid. William Polke took a small detachment of troops and revisited the abandoned villages to see if any Potawatomies had returned. Several children died during the stay at Logansport.
On September 10th, they started at 9 a.m. and skirted the north bank of the Wabash all day, reaching Winamac’s old village by 5 p.m. Food was very scarce. The priest was permitted to say Mass every evening. They left Winamac at 10 a.m., marched seventeen miles on the 11th, and camped at Pleasant Run at 5 p.m.
The next day the haggard group forded the Tippecanoe River at 11 a.m. and passed Tippecanoe Battlefield at noon. There, Tipton distributed $5,000 worth of dry goods, hoping to lift the Indians’ spirits.
Chief Wewissa’s mother died on the 12th at the extreme age of 100. She had asked to be killed and buried with her father at the Mission and the chief had decided to humor her, but the white authorities would not permit it.
On September 13th the group reached Lagrange on the Wabash, a short distance below Lafayette, marching eighteen miles. Dr. Ritchie and his son, the attending physicians, cared for 160. They were almost entirely out of medicine. The children were dying at the rate of 3 to 5 a day. On the 14th they reached Williamsport. On the 16th they reached Danville, Illinois. The heat and dust worsened. Many of the sick had to be left on the road. Horses were worn out, and nearly all the guards were sick and unable to proceed.
At Sandusky Point, Illinois, on September 18th, Tipton turned command of the group over to Judge William Polke, whom the national government had appointed to oversee the removal. Judge Polke, Father Petit, and an escort of fifteen men continued with the broken tribe to their destination on the Osage River in Kansas. The journey required about two months with the cost the lives at one-fifth of the tribe.
A few Potawatomi remained in Indiana scattered on small reservations in various parts of the State. The larger numbers lived on the lower Mississinewa, around Maxinkuckee Lake, and around small lakes in Kosciusko County. The introduction of settlers, whiskey, and white culture practically annihilated a native culture. Northern Indiana has kept many place names with Native American influence, but has made no room for modern tribal representation.
The Trail of Death, as it became known, was not a shining moment in Indiana history.2
