Post revolution America was riddled with conflict as settlers began encroaching on Native lands, unlawfully ceded to the United States by Great Britain. Rejecting American control and settlement in the Northwest Territory, a confederation of Great Lakes tribes, including Detroit and St. Joseph Potawatomi, engaged in a campaign of violent raids that culminated into a series of battles, ultimately warranting …
The Northwest Territory was the first organized territory created by the Northwest Ordinance in 1787. The territory was defined as east of the Mississippi River, northwest of the Ohio River, south of the Great Lakes, and west of Pennsylvania. The Northwest Territory included what is now Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and the northeast part of Minnesota. History of the …
In the wake of the Land Rush, greater numbers of settlers were living in the Indian-Oklahoma Territories than ever before. Calls from these settlers soon followed for the territory to be admitted into the Unites States, relying on the inclusion of Kansas in 1861 and Arkansas earlier in 1836 as precedence. At the same time Oklahoma Territory vied for inclusion, …
By the late-19th century, more settlers than ever flooded into the Indian and Oklahoma Territories. With the first of the land runs occurring in 1889, greater numbers of settlers were staking a claim to “Unoccupied Lands” west of Indian Territory. Amid the increase in white settlement, Congress began discussions about establishing a new territory to encompass the rising population of …
Until the mid-1800’s, the region later known as “Oklahoma” was called home by the Quapaw, Caddo, Osage, Waco, Apache, Kiowa, and Comanche peoples, among others. As the United States’ border shifted further west, greater numbers of settlers sought out more “unoccupied” lands in these region beyond America’s eastern boundary. Settlement by non-Indians was later stimulated through Abraham Lincoln’s 1862 Homestead …
Intent on protecting the bustling creole commerce of the Louisiana Territory from Osage incursions, Spanish officials exploited the traditional Osage/Potawatomi blood feud and enlisted feared Muskodan warriors Main Poc, Nuscotomek and Segnak, among others, to purge all militant Osage from New Spain.
Peashwah was a warrior among the Wabash Potawatomi and husband to Mary Ann Benache, daughter of headman Benache or Segnak.
The forerunner of lacrosse, stickball is considered one the oldest American Indian sports, played in various forms by woodland tribes for centuries. The sport has three distinct regional styles [Northeast; Southeast; Great Lakes], with equipment, gameplay and fundamentals varying for each. Known to the Potawatomi as pegnegewen [stickball], games are played for recreation, communal prestige, spiritual reverence and healing. Exclusively …
Similar to pegnegewen [stick ball], péski’a or double-ball is a Potawatomi sport played traditionally by women. Played for recreation, communal prestige, spiritual reverence and healing, bagjegejek [players] are equipped with their own bagwzhanatek [ball stick] and divided amongst two even teams based on their moiety, shkesh [first-born] and kishko [second-born]. Péski’a [double-ball] is played on a large open field, with …
The Treaty of Chicago was signed on Sept. 26 and 27, 1833, and proved to be a watershed agreement in the dealings between the Potawatomi and the U.S. government. Prior to this treaty, land cessions were relatively small and included land set aside as private reserves for certain signatories. The Treaty of Chicago, however, ensured a substantial land cession of …