The Indians of Iowa

POTAWATOMI

POTAWATOMI Name means: “Keepers of the Fire,” derived from Ojibwa Other names: Pottawatomie They call themselves: Neshnabek, “The People” Language spoken/language family: Potawatomi/Algonkian Residence in Iowa: 1833 to 1846 Location today: Prairie Band Potawatomi near Mayetta, Kansas    Because many Potawatomi names are preserved in place-names of southwest Iowa, the Potawatomi are one of the better-known tribes that lived in Iowa, even though they resided in the state for only about thirteen years. Potawatomi tradition says that the Potawatomi, the Chippewa (or Ojibwa), and the Ottawa were once one nation living on Lake Huron. The Potawatomi got their name from the Ojibwa word potawatomink , “Keepers of the Fire.” There was a continuing association among the Potawatomi, Ottawa, and Ojibwa. The Potawatomi helped stop the Iroquois advance from the east. By 1700 the Potawatomi had moved south and taken possession of Illinois. Some Potawatomi joined Pontiac in 1763. They moved into Indiana by 1775 after the Illinois were defeated. In 1789 the Potawatomi signed a treaty of friendship with the United States, and in 1812 they joined Tecumseh and the British. They signed a treaty in 1821 that surrendered part of southern Michigan. Their remaining Michigan lands were ceded in the Treaty of 1833 that was ratified in 1835. After signing the Treaty of 1833, the Potawatomi moved west of the Mississippi. A band of these Potawatomi, with a small number 62 Potawatomi of intermarried Ottawa and Ojibwa, settled in southwest Iowa near Council Bluffs, becoming known as the Prairie Band. The Potawatomi agency and trading post was at Trader’s Point on the Missouri River in Mills County, later renamed St. Mary’s. The subagency was at Council Bluffs. One of their villages in Iowa was on the Nishnabotna River near Lewis in Cass County. Other favorite camping places were on the Nodaway River and in Coe’s Grove between Stennett and Elliott. By the provisions of the Treaty of 1846, the Prairie Band were moved from Iowa onto a reservation in Kansas, in 1846 and 1847, along with a few other families of Potawatomi, Chippewa, and Ottawa . They remained in Kansas, although for many years they returned to old sites and family graves in Iowa. The Prairie Band of Kansas, near Holton, is the Potawatomi group associated with Iowa. Other Potawatomi groups, not connected with Iowa, are in Michigan (Hannaville Potawatomi, Huron Potawatomi, and Pokagon Potawatomi), Oklahoma (Citizen Band Potawatomi), and Wisconsin (Forest County Potawatomi). Traditional Culture Originally part of an ancestral Algonquian group that divided into the Potawatomi, Ojibwa, and Ottawa, the Potawatomi were known as “Keepers of the Fire.” There were many different groups of Potawatomi , and their location had much influence on their way of life. Subsistence patterns were typical of Iowa’s tribes since everyone depended on the same resource base. The Potawatomi were divided into patrilineal clans. The Midewiwin (or Medicine Dance) and the Drum (or Dream) Dance were two ceremonies at the heart of traditional Potawatomi religious life. Famous Potawatomi Spelled in different ways, Wabaunsee or Wabansi was perhaps the most famous leader of the Potawatomi during their time in Iowa. Potawatomi 63 Shabona or Shabonee, actually Ottawa by birth, is most famous for warning settlers in northern Illinois of the imminent war by Black Hawk. Ojibwa by birth, Che-Neuse or Johnny Green, leader of a small family band that lived near Marshalltown, convinced the Sioux not to attack settlers in central Iowa in 1855. ...