Potawatomi Removal from Illinois
The area that is currently Galesburg was ceded by the Potawatomi to the U.S. government in the Treaty of St. Louis (1816). The treaty, which was made between the U.S. government and all three nations within the Council of Three Fires (the Ojibwe and the Odawa, along with the Potawatomi). The treaty called for the three nations to “relinquish, to the United States, all their right, claim, and title” to the land that is currently Galesburg.1 This land had previously been ceded to the government by the Sauk and Meskwaki in the Treaty of St. Louis (1804), but the Potawatomi, who had previously been unaware of the transaction, did not recognize this treaty as giving the U.S. a valid claim to the land since they too resided on the land and therefore held just as much “ownership” over it, despite the government initially recognizing the territory as Sauk and Meskwaki land only.2 This treaty was the first occasion of the Potawatomi ceding any of their land to the U.S. government.3 While calling for the relinquishing of legal ownership of the land, the Treaty of St. Louis (1816) allowed the Potawatomi to retain hunting and fishing rights on the land, crucially allowing them to continue living in the area despite the presence of settlers. However, the two often struggled to coexist, with settlers’ agricultural land encroaching on Potawatomi hunting grounds, and Potawatomi presence on the land preventing settlers from accessing their crops.4
George Winter's sketch of three Potawatomi riding horses at the Indian agency in Logansport, Indiana. Winter arrived at Logansport in 1837 and spent a year studying and artistically depicting the Potawatomi who lived there, just before their forced removal west in 1838. His sketches are noted for being incredibly detailed and accurate accounts of Potawatomi culture.
Things came to a head in 1832. The previous winter had been a particularly difficult one, and settlers blamed the presence of the Potawatomi for their lack of success with crops, which increased demand for their removal. However, it was the Black Hawk War of 1832 that served as the final straw.5 The war was fought between the U.S. military and the Sauk and Meskwaki nations. The Potawatomi did not participate in the war and, true to their history of attempting to ally with settlers, expressed loyalty to the United States and even urged the Sauk nation against taking violent action.6 This, however, did not matter to the settlers. They placed the blame for the war on “Indians” in the most generic sense, lumping all the surrounding nations into one guilty party upon whom they could exact their anger over the events of the war. Settlers falsified claims about Potawatomi involvement, sometimes drawing upon unrelated and isolated occasions of Potawatomi violence as evidence, and used the war as a scapegoat to push their already strong agenda for removal.7
Facing pressure and increasing hostility from the surrounding settlers as well as diminishing access to the resources on their land, the Potawatomi were left with little choice.8 Along with the Ojibwe and the Odawa, they signed the Treaty of Chicago (1833), in which the three nations ceded 5 million acres of the land to the U.S. government, including all of their remaining land in Illinois. While they had previously been allowed to remain on their ceded land, this treaty also demanded that they vacate the territory and relocate to a designated reservation west of the Mississippi River, “as soon as conveniently can be done.”9 To avoid forced removal west, the Prairie Potawatomi escaped Illinois and instead sought refuge at the Indian agency in Logansport, Indiana.10 They lived relatively peacefully at Logansport for some years, but in 1838 were forcibly relocated to reservations in Kansas on a forced march at gunpoint known as the Potawatomi Trail of Death. Lasting from September to November of 1838, the march caused the death of over 40 Potawatomi during its 660 miles, the majority of whom were children.11
Other than a few bands who resisted removal and still remain in present-day Michigan, Chicago, and Canada respectively, the majority of the Potawatomi nation now lives on the land that is currently Kansas. Were it not for the Potawatomi’s forced removal from their homeland in Illinois, white Europeans would never have settled in Galesburg, and the founding of Knox College would not have been possible.
By Maggie Cheng
1 United States Government, "Ratified Indian Treaty 82: Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi - St. Louis, August 24, 1816." Series: Indian Treaties, Record Group 11: General Records of the United States Government, 1778-2006, National Archives, Washington D.C. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/170281487.
2 James A. Clifton, The Prairie People: Continuity and Change in Potawatomi Indian Culture 1665-1965, Lawrence, KS: The Regents Press of Kansas, 1977, 222.
3 David R. Edmunds, The Potawatomis: Keepers of the Fire. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1978, 218.
4 David R. Edmunds, “The Prairie Potawatomi Removal of 1833,” Indiana Magazine of History 68, vol. 3 (September 1972): 241.
5 Edmunds, “The Prairie Potawatomi Removal of 1833,” 241.
6 Bonnie Lynn-Sherow, “Exercising the Pencil: George Winter and the Potawatomis Removal to Kansas,” Kansas History 41, vol. 4 (Fall/Winter 2019): 216.
7 Edmunds, “The Prairie Potawatomi Removal of 1833,” 242.
8 Edmunds, “The Prairie Potawatomi Removal of 1833,” 245.
9 United States Government, “Treaty Between the United States and the United Chippewa, Ottawa and Potawatomi Indians Signed at Chicago, Illinois.” Series: Indian Treaties, Record Group 11: General Records of the United States Government, 1778-2006, National Archives, Washington D.C. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155390893.
10 Edmunds, “The Prairie Potawatomi Removal of 1833,” 246.
11 John N. Low, Imprints: The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and the City of Chicago, East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 2016.
Image: Winter, George. Logansport Indiana, July 8, 1837 (Couple on white horse; second man leading gray horse). 1837. Watercolor with ink on paper; pencil undersketching. 12 x 18 cm. George Winter Collection, Purdue University. Accessed May 18th, 2021, https://earchives.lib.purdue.edu/digital/collection/gwinter/id/945.