Indymonks Trail of Tears - Potawatomi Indians Traditional Cache
Indymonks Trail of Tears - Potawatomi Indians
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Cache is placed with permission of the owner. Do not try to access this cache from the Interstate. Number one of twelve caches on Indymonks Trail of Tears. Indiana the state name means Land of Indians, and it was at one time. These caches are to celebrate their rich heritage, and our great loss. Indiana was a paradise that provided for all the needs of its tribal inhabitants. There were only about 20,000 people living in the area around the year 1600.
The Potawatomi, meaning “people of the place of the fire,” occupied lands in Michigan, but extended their settlements into northern Indiana in the 1700s. The Potawatomi were part of a long-term alliance, called the Council of Three Fires, with the Ojibwe and Ottawa. In the Council of Three Fires, the Potawatomi were considered the "youngest brother." The Potawatomi are first mentioned in French records, which suggest that in the early 17th century, they lived in what is now southwestern Michigan. During the Beaver Wars, they fled to the area around Green Bay to escape attacks by both the Iroquois and the Neutral Nation.
Potawatomi warriors were an important part of Tecumseh's Confederacy and took part in Tecumseh's War, the War of 1812 and the Peoria War, although their allegiance switched repeatedly between the British and the Americans.
At the time of the War of 1812, a band of Potawatomi were present near Fort Dearborn, in the current location of Chicago. Led by chiefs Blackbird and Nuscotomeg (Mad Sturgeon), a force of about 500 warriors attacked the evacuation column leaving Fort Dearborn; they killed a majority of the civilians and 54 of Captain Nathan Heald's force, and wounded many others. This attack is referred to as the Battle of Fort Dearborn. A Potawatomi chief named Mucktypoke (Makdébki, Black Partridge), counseled against the attack and later saved some of the civilians who were being ransomed by the Potawatomi.
The Potawatomi spoke a form of Algonquian language. They were farmers, growing mostly corn and beans. They also were proficient hunters.
Bark was an essential element of the Potawatomi tribe. They used it to cover their wigwams and also made substantial baskets from bark. Cooking with bark and using bark for utensils they also had canoes covered with bark.
The Potawatomi were removed to Kansas and Oklahoma. Some left by treaty and others were marched at gunpoint. Nearly 900 people were rounded up and marched for 61 days to Kansas. So many died along the way that the march was referred to as the "Trail of Death".
There were no horses in Indiana when the white man first came here and they had not yet invented the wheel; the natives traveled by foot and canoe.
Indiana's waterways gave them the ability to travel from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and beyond. Without roads for horse drawn wagons, the Indians had no practical use for the wheel.
The Native American Hoosiers created paths called portages between the lakes, streams, and rivers. They built light weight canoes and carried them from waterway to waterway. This is one of the reasons the tribes built villages near rivers and creeks.
The Indians also followed animal trails, the most famous in Indiana being the Buffalo Trace. It ran from the grassy plains of Illinois, crossing the Wabash River at Vincennes, going across Indiana to Clarksville Indiana across the Ohio River into Kentucky. US 150 in Indiana is based on the Buffalo Trace.
The Buffalo Trace was dangerous to travel. Cougars often attacked travelers and Indians and thieves also set up ambushes along the trail. When a family was attacked in 1807 by Indians, US soldiers began to patrol the Buffalo Trace. During the War of 1812 William Henry Harrison sent 150 men to protect the travelers. Washington County resident Major George Beck's letter to William Henry Harrison, (the governor of the Indiana Territory who later became Indiana's only US President) requested more patrol of the area after the Pigeon Roost Massacre.
The Delaware and the Shawnee Indians are not indigenous to Indiana but had moved to Indiana from Ohio as the settlers moved West into their tribal grounds. They were allowed to settle there by the Miami Tribe. Indiana was under the rule of Miami Chief Little Turtle, who had many tribes under his rule. It is difficult to accurately depict the area each tribe occupied. They weren't at war and made their villages near each other in a spotty fashion.
The Indians had their own commerce system and transportation system with connected communities throughout Indiana. The tribes traded goods with each other and Indian businessmen were plenty. Although they didn't use money, the Indian Trader was a profit seeking businessman who didn't hunt or farm to make a living.
This cache was relocated on September 26th, 2011.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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