Potawatomi Trail of Death



The  was the forced removal by militia in 1838 of about 859 members of the nation from  to reservation lands in what is now eastern Kansas. The march began at (Myers Lake and Cook Lake, near ) on November 4, 1838, along the western bank of the, ending near present-day. During the journey of approximately 660 mi over 61 days, more than 40 people died, most of them children. It was the single largest Indian removal in Indiana history.

Quotes

 * Our lands around were wanted by settlers, so in long lines, surrounded by soldiers, we were marched at gunpoint along what became known as the Trail of Death. They took us to a new place, far from our lakes and forests. But someone wanted that land too, so the bedrolls were packed again, thinner this time. In the span of a single generation my ancestors were "removed" three times—Wisconsin to Kansas, points in between, and then to Oklahoma. I wonder if they looked back for a last glimpse of the lakes, glimmering like a mirage. Did they touch the trees in remembrance as they became fewer and fewer, until there was only grass? So much was scattered and left along that trail. Graves of half the people. Language. Knowledge. Names. My great-grandmother Sha-note, "wind blowing through," was renamed Charlotte. Names the soldiers or the missionaries could not pronounce were not permitted.
 * Robin Wall Kimmerer,