For thousands of years, Native tribes settled the region of present-day Chicago. Chegago is a Potawatomi word that described the area’s smell, commonly thought to be wild onions. The land was secured in the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, with the goal of controlling the strategic portage of Lake Michigan to the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase. Built by Captain Joh Whistler …
Led by prominent warriors Mackisabe, the elder Winemac and Madouche, the Potawatomi, along with allied France and other Great Lakes nations, enlisted to quell disruptive Meskwaki [Fox] attacks on the lucrative western fur trade and neighboring tribes. Angered that their Siouan enemies acquired weapons and supplies via the trade network, the Meskwaki [Fox] raided, killed and pillaged villages, merchants, and …
As the British colonies expanded and outgrew their western borders, expeditions to secure and safeguard land and resources developed into regional battles between the colonies of New France and Great Britain. The mid-18th century was a violent period for Potawatomi and other Woodland tribes. As British colonies spilled into eastern lands, western expeditions to secure territory and resources for Great …
Potawatomi made first contact with Europeans indirectly through warfare. By the 1600s, the Anglo-Dutch allied Iroquois Confederacy had depleted all the valuable pelts east of the St. Lawrence River and began raiding Algonquin tribes in Michigan. The invaders were looking to control the untapped resources of the western Great Lakes. Outmatched by superior weaponry, the Potawatomi and other tribes of …