The Potawatomi Indians were a tribe separated into several bands, until they were forced on to a reservation in Kansas, in the mid 1800s. They survived as foragers, hunters, gathers, fishermen, and as farmers. They have been moved from area to area in the United States, which in time has caused them to be all these things.
The Potawatomi Names
The Potawatomi were not always known as the Potawatomi, though out their existence they have had a few different names. At first, they were known as the Neshnabek, translated means “The People.”
There are a few different views of how they became known as the Potawatomi, which came from the Ojibwe word “Potawatmink” which means “People of the Place of Fire.”
Another more interesting way they got the name is that the first time they met a white man, Jean Nicolet, asked his Indian translator “ Who are these people?” There was a mistake by the translator who thought that Jean Nicolet said, “What are these people doing?” So he answered “They are making fire” which in Ojibwe sounds like “ Pouutouatomi” which really means nothing at all.
Potawatomi also means: “ Fire Nation, Keepers of the Sacred Fire, and People of the Fire place."
The Potawatomi Population
The population for the Potawatomi was around 8,ooo. That was before the 30 years of war, white man disease, reservations, and being relocated by the white people wanting their land. After all that the French believed that there were only around 4,000 left, considering they all lived in a few villages around each other they figured that was a good estimate.
After the Potawatomi spilt up into many bands they were hard to keep count on, but they guessed that there were around 1,200 to 3,400.
The only time they were really sure about the population of the Potawatomi was when they were moved onto a reservation in Kansas. The Indian Bureau counted 3,400 on the reservation, there were some that left the reservation for Canada, and there were 600 “Strolling Potawatomi.”
The Potawatomi Location
The Potawatomi started off living on the north banks of Lake Huron and Superior. Losing their trade with the French to the Ontario tribes, they started moving to the west side of Lake Michigan. This was finished by the 1650s. moving again, after the Iroquois beat the French allies and moved into southern Michigan. In 1716, a lot of the Potawatomi’s were living between Milwaukee and Detroit.
In the 1800s as the whites started moving into the Indian territory, the Potawatomi had to start moving and selling land in treaties that caused them to lose a lot of land and not get much money in return. Between the years of 1834 and 1842 most of the Potawatomi were moved on to a reservation in Kansas.
The Potawatomi Culture
The Potawatomi, while living to far north to have good farm land or good seasons for farming they depended on finding or killing all of their food. They were good at hunting, fishing, or finding what plant life they needed. Most of their diet consisted of wild animals, fish, wild rice, red oak acorns, and maple syrup.
After the Beaver Wars, the Potawatomi were moved to Wisconsin where they learned to farm corn, beans, and squash. Although they had farming in their lives the men still hunted and were the warriors, and the women were still the gathers.
As the Potawatomi became more agricultural they started living in one place for longer amounts of time. They started living more like the white man, in ways like building log cabins and staying in one area for longer, but they still made their long winter hunt.
The Potawatomi were also very good at making and putting to use snowshoes, toboggans, and canoes.
The Potawatomi’s interaction with the FrenchWhen the Potawatomi first saw the French they called them “Hairy Faces” and thought them to be “Supernatural Creatures.” Soon afterward they found out that they were just another type of person.
As more and more of the French men came and spent all their time with other men they got lonely and wanted wives and children. Considering that there were no French women in that part of the country and would not be for a while the traders turned to marrying the Potawatomi women. Thinking that this was a good idea the Indians started setting up marriages with the females in the clan. However this was not as good of a plan it had seemed. The children of these marriages were the ones who paid the price; they could not inherit the family’s clan, and were looked at by the French as “Half-Bloods” and were not accepted.
After the French and Indian War which the Potawatomi allied the French, started signing many treaties which lead them to losing all their land and being placed on a reservation in Kansas.