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“We soon found ourselves on the grand prairies
of Illinois, under a burning sun and without shade from one camp to
another. They are vast as the ocean, and the eye seeks in vain for a tree.
Not a drop of water can be found there — it was a veritable torture
for our poor sick, some of whom died each day from weakness and
fatigue.” — Letter of Father
Benjamin Marie Petit to Bishop Simon William Gabriel Bruté de
Rémur, Nov. 13, 1838
Riding my bicycle through
the rolling countryside on a beautiful summer evening, I decided to take a
short break at the New Salem United Methodist Church, just west of
Springfield on the Old Jacksonville Road. As I admired the small old white wooden sanctuary and
strolled along the grounds, I spotted a couple of markers. One, a plaque
mounted on a boulder, noted that Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had camped here in
1861, but it was the second, a small granite marker, that sent a chill down
my back: It identified this location as the McCoy’s Mill Encampment
on the Potawatomi Trail of Death. I was standing in the general vicinity where 800
American Indians had passed in the fall of 1838 as they were tragically
— and, some claim, illegally — removed from their homes and
hunting grounds in northern Indiana. They were forced on a 600-mile journey
that took them through Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri to their newly
designated home along what became known as the Pottawatomie Creek, near
today’s town of Osawatomie, Kan.
I was familiar with the Trail of Tears, the removal
of the Cherokees, but remarkably, after living in Springfield nearly 30
years, this was the first that I had heard of the Potawatomi Trail of
Death.
First, a little background on frontier America and the
mindset of our government in that era. In 1830, the population in the U.S. was 6.5 million;
within 10 years it had climbed to 8.6 million, according to the U.S.
Census. As families moved west, toward the Mississippi River, the only
things in their way were the people who were already living there. One tribe, known as the Potawatomi, was an East Coast
tribe that had settled in the Great Lakes Region in the early 1600s,
inhabiting areas stretching from Green Bay, Wis., to Chicago, eastern
Illinois, northern Indiana, southern Michigan, and northwestern Ohio. The
Potawatomis relied on hunting, farming, fishing, and trading to sustain
themselves. In the early 1800s, numerous treaties were signed with
various tribes and their chiefs, allowing the U.S. government to take
control of their lands — lands that were the traditional hunting and
fishing grounds of American Indians. The treaties allowed individuals to
purchase and to settle the lands once used by the tribes. As a result, various conflicts between settlers and
American Indians erupted around the country. Arguments were made in
Washington, D.C., that many of the treaties were illegal or had not been
signed by the proper tribe officials who claimed jurisdiction over the
lands. With the growing U.S. population and continuing conflicts between
some tribes and settlers, a solution was needed by the U.S. government.
Along came a plan for the young and growing nation: the Indian Removal Act,
signed on May 28, 1830, by President Andrew Jackson. This act gave the government the authority to compel
the relocation of American Indians east of the Mississippi River to areas
west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their lands that they once
occupied, hunted, fished, and lived on. This allowed the settlers to move
in and purchase the land and opened up vast lands to be developed in the
Eastern states. In Jackson’s Second Annual Message to Congress,
delivered on Dec. 6, 1830, he outlined the policy of the government on the
removal of the Indians: “It will separate the Indians from immediate
contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the States;
enable them to pursue happiness in their own way, and under their own rude
institutions; will retard the progress of decay, which is lessening their
numbers; and perhaps cause them gradually, under the protection of the
Government, and through the influence of good counsels, to cast off their
savage habits, and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian
community.”
So U.S. policy in regard to American Indians at that
time was clear: The government thought that it was important for them to
become civilized in the way the government thought best. That brings us to the Potawatomi. Irving McKee’s examination of the removal, The Trail of Death: Letters of Benjamin Petit, describes how the Potawatomi were first exposed to
Christianity: “The first white men to befriend the Potawatomi were
Jesuit missionaries, and it was in these ‘black robes’ that
they placed their greatest trust.”
When Father Benjamin Marie Petit, a missionary from
France, came to Indiana in 1837, he was assigned by Simon William Gabriel
Bruté de Rémur, the Roman Catholic bishop of Vincennes, Ind.,
to serve the Potawatomi Indians. As it turned out, Petit not only served
them closely over the next year but was also witness to the conflict
between the Indians and the U.S. government. Petit was allowed to travel with the Potawatomi on
their journey from Indiana to Kansas during their removal, and during that
time he wrote numerous letters to Bruté in which he offered a
fascinating account of the forced march to Kansas. Another contemporaneous
account is the journal kept by J.C. Douglas, who chronicled the forced
march for William Polke, the conductor of the removal of Indians from
northern Indiana. Along the Trail of Death, the group ran into water
shortages, sickness, death, heat, exhaustion, and grief. One bright moment
was the group’s passage through Springfield, according to
Douglas’ journal. On Sept. 28, 1838, he wrote: “Judge Polke, the
Conductor, on the occasion of passing through a village of the character of
Springfield, requested I-o-weh, one of the principal chiefs, so to arrange
and accouter the Indians as to insure a good appearance.”
The next day, Douglas writes: “In order to pass
Springfield at as early an hour as possible, we rose before light, and at 8
o’clock were on our way. The Indians amongst whom a degree of pride
was excited, arranged themselves into line with an unusual display of
finery and gaudy trumpery marched through the streets of Springfield. The
wayfares were covered with anxious spectators, so indeed as to threaten for
a time to impede the progress of Emigration. We passed clearly through
however, and that too without the detention of a single Indian.”
In 1838, the population of Springfield was a booming
2,500 people, as noted in The Sangamon Journal. At that time, the Old State Capitol was under
construction. A marker at the entrance to the parking garage on the south
side of the Old State Capitol states: “Jared P. Irwin, a stone mason
working on the construction of the Old State Capitol building, recorded in
his journal that he saw the Indians marching by.”
The next encampment after Springfield was
McCoy’s Mill, about 1.5 miles northwest of where the marker is
located at New Salem Methodist Church. The Potawatomi made it to their new home in Kansas on
Nov. 4, 1838. Their two-month trek took them through four states. Petit
continued praying with his flock and burying the dead. In a letter to
Bruté on Nov. 13, 1838, Petit reported that of the 800 Indians who
left Indiana no more than 650 arrived in Kansas. About 30 had died; others
escaped. Petit stayed with his flock for two months and then
was summoned back to Indiana. On his return trip he became ill, and he died
in St. Louis in February 1839. Today his body lies in a chapel on the
campus of the University of Notre Dame. The Potawatomi did not stay put in
the Osawatomie area long, and ultimately they left for Sugar Creek and
other locations in Kansas. Some eventually moved to Oklahoma.
Shirley Willard, of Rochester, Ind., has been active
with the Fulton County Historical Society since 1963. She is credited with
helping keep the story of the Trail of Death alive. In the mid-1970s, she recounts, her son was in the Boy
Scouts “and was looking for a historic trail to work on to get their
Bicentennial badges.” A few miles from the Willard’s house in
northern Indiana, along Mud Creek, was the site of the first death on the
Trail of Death. Willard’s son put a marker there. George Godfrey of Athens, Ill., has also helped
promote awareness of the Trail of Death. In 1988, Godfrey wrote a letter to
the Citizen Potawatomi Nation newspaper, HowNiKan, suggesting that the 150th anniversary of the Trail of
Death be commemorated. His letter got Willard’s attention, and
Godfrey and Willard began working together on caravan journeys, research on
the march, and installation of trail markers. In fact, Godfrey, whose
ancestry is part Potawatomi, was instrumental in researching the march and
encampments across Illinois. Beginning 20 years ago, Willard and Godfrey started
laying the foundation for a series of markers to be installed at or near
the campsites along the length of the march. “Today there are 78 markers along the length of
the trail,” Willard says. “The markers were installed with
donations at no expense to taxpayers, and 30 markers were installed with
the help of local Boy Scouts.”
Willard was also responsible for organizing a
commemorative caravan that traveled the route. The Indian Awareness Center,
a branch of the Fulton County Historical Society, sponsors this caravan
every five years; all are welcome to join the trek or meet it at its stops.
Today the memory of what the Potawatomi endured on the
Trail of Death lives on with the help of Willard, Godfrey, the Fulton
County Historical Society, the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, the Prairie Band
Potawatomi Nation, and others. The Trail of Death has also been designated a regional
historic trail by each state it passes through. “Our plan is to have Trail of Death highway
signs erected along the entire length of the march,” Godfrey says.
For additional information on the Trail of Death,
contact the Fulton County Historical Society in Rochester, Ind., at
574-223-4436 or go to www.htctech.net/~fchs. Other resources include
www.potawatomi-tda.org; the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, www.potawatomi.org;
and the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, www.pbpnation.org. For information
on the 2008 Trail of Death caravan, contact the Fulton County Historical
Society, or George Godfrey, who is the 2008 caravan coordinator, at
pggg-92@sbcglobal.net. The 2008 Trail of Death Caravan will take place
Sept. 22-28 in conjunction with the Fulton County Trail of Courage Living
Historical Festival.
Walt Zyznieuski is a regular contributor to Illinois Times.
This article appears in May 15-21, 2008.
