Here’s a photo of the Spokesrider from August, on a day ride from Bremen to Bruce Lake to Rochester, IN.  I picked this photo for today, September 14, because today a ceremony was held there to place a Trail of Death marker.  (The Trail of Death is also known as the Trail of Courage in local events commemorating it.)  The man depicted in the statue is Menominee, a Potawatomi leader who refused to sign the treaty by which the last remaining land in Indiana was taken from them.   He wouldn’t really have worn a headress like that, but this statue is from a time when that was the standard image of an Indian chief.

Most of the treaties the U.S. made with native peoples were honored.  Well, maybe honored is not a good word.  Let’s say the letter of the treaties was adhered to.   The dishonesty and sleaze was usually in the means used to get the Indian leaders to sign.  But in this case Menominee didn’t sign, so the U.S. simply used naked force to take his reserve and evict him from Indiana.

Here is what John Tipton, Indian agent in charge, wrote about it immediately after the roundup:

Every thing seems to justify the belief that these unhappy people will yet learn to appreciate the interest which government has ever taken in their situations, and teach themselves that a yielding compliance to such interest, will but secure the comfort and enjoyment which for years they have failed to experience in Indiana–”

–Tipton to David Wallace, September 3, 1838, Tipton Papers, Volume 3, page 690.  

Noblesse oblige, anyone?

If you google for information about it on the web, you’ll find that a lot of the writing and research has been done by Shirley Willard, County Historian for Fulton County.  She has done much over the years to raise awareness of this whole historical episode, and also to bring Potawatomi people from Kansas to meet with non-Anishinabe people for a time of remembering  at an annual “Trail of Courage” weekend.    I had an opportunity to talk with her Tuesday, and she invited me to come to the events.    But it hardly ever works for me to attend such things unless they’re really close to home.