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The Potawatomi Trail of Death was the forced removal of 859 members of the Potawatomi nation from Indiana to reservation lands in what is now eastern Kansas in 1838. Under an armed escort of volunteer militia, the march began at Twin Lakes, Indiana, (Myers Lake and Cook Lake, near Plymouth, Indiana) on September 4, 1838, and ended on November 4, 1838, along the western bank of the Osage River, near present-day Osawatomie, Kansas. During the journey of approximately over 61 days, more than 40 persons died, most of them children. It marked the single largest Indian removal in Indiana history. Although the Potawatomi had ceded their lands in Indiana to the federal government under a series of treaties made between 1818 and 1837, Chief Menominee and his Yellow River band at Twin Lakes refused to leave, even after the August 5, 1838, deadline had passed. Indiana governor David Wallace authorized General John Tipton to mobilize a local militia of one hundred volunteers to forcibly remove the Potawatomi from the state. On August 30, 1838, Tipton and his men surprised the Potawatomi at Twin Lakes, where they surrounded the village and gathered the remaining Potawatomi together for their removal to Kansas. Reverend Benjamin Marie Petit, who was a Catholic missionary at Twin Lakes, also joined his parishioners on their difficult journey from Indiana, across Illinois and Missouri, into Kansas. Historian Jacob Piatt Dunn is credited for naming the Potawatomi's forced march "The Trail of Death" in his book, ''True Indian Stories'' (1909). The Trail of Death was declared a Regional Historic Trail by the states legislatures of Indiana, Illinois, and Kansas in 1994; Missouri passed similar legislation in 1996. As of 2013, there were 80 Trail of Death markers along the route, at each campsite every 15 to 20 miles, in all four states. See www.potawatomi-tda.org for photos, 1838 diary, GPS locations, history. Historic highway signs have been placed across Indiana in Marshall, Fulton, Cass, Carroll, Tippecanoe and Warren counties, signaling each turn. Many signs have been erected in Illinois and Missouri. Kansas has completed placing highway signs in the three counties crossed by the Trail of Death. ==Background== The Potawatomi, who became the second largest tribal group in Indiana, moved south from northern Wisconsin and Michigan and occupied land from the southern tip of Lake Michigan to Lake Erie, an area encompassing northern Illinois, north central Indiana, and a strip across southern Michigan. Although the land in what became known as Indiana once belonged to the Miami, the Potawatomi were also recognized as one of its landowners under the Northwest Ordinance (1787) and in subsequent treaties. Following the War of 1812, when the tribe had allied with the British against the Americans, the Potawatomi lived in relative peace with their white neighbors. In 1817, a year after Indiana became a state, an estimated 2000 Potawatomi had settled along the rivers and lakes north of the Wabash River and south of Lake Michigan. Around the same time, the state and federal government became eager to open the northern parts of Indiana to further settlement and development.〔Glenn and Rafert, p. 51.〕 Treaties with the Potawatomi in 1818, 1821, 1826, and 1828 ceded large portions of their lands in Indiana to the federal government in exchange for annuities in cash and goods, reservation lands within the state, and other provisions. Some tribal members also received individual grants of northern Indiana land.〔McKee, "The Trail of Death, Letters of Benjamin Marie Petit," p. 17.〕 The passage of the Indian Removal Act (1830) enabled the federal government to offer reservation land in the West in exchange for the purchase of tribal lands east of the Mississippi River. The government's intent was to extinguish the land claims of Indian nations in the East, and to remove them from the populated eastern states to the remote and relatively unpopulated lands west of the Mississippi River, where other Indian tribes controlled large territories.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url= http://www.pbpindiantribe.com/tribal-history.aspx )〕 The Act specifically targeted the Five Civilized Tribes in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee, but also led to treaties with other tribes living east of the Mississippi, including several in the former Northwest Territory, south of the Great Lakes. In three treaties signed in October 1832, at the Tippecanoe River north of Rochester, Indiana, the Potawatomi ceded to the federal government most of their remaining lands in northwestern and north central Indiana in exchange for annuities, small reservation lands in Indiana, and scattered allotments to individuals. They also received the federal government's agreement to provide goods to support the Potawatomi's migration efforts, should they decide to relocate. These treaties also reduced Potawatomi reservations in Indiana that included land along the Yellow River.〔 Under the terms of a treaty made on October 26, 1832, the federal government established Potawatomi reservation lands within the boundaries of their previously ceded lands in Indiana and Illinois in exchange for annuities, cash and goods, and payment of tribal debts, among other provisions. This treaty also provided the bands under Potawatomi chiefs Menominee, Peepinohwaw, Notawkah, and Muckkahtahmoway with a joint grant of 22 sections (14,080 acres) of reservation land. Chief Menominee's signature was recorded with an "x" on the treaty of 1832, but he and his Yellow River band at Twin Lakes, Indiana, southwest of present-day Plymouth, would be forced to remove from these reservation lands on the "Trail of Death" to Kansas in 1838.〔〔〔McDonald, p. 13.〕 Increased pressure from federal government negotiators, especially Colonel Abel C. Pepper, succeeded in getting the Potawatomi to sign more treaties that relinquished their lands and obtained their agreement to remove to reservations in the West.〔 In treaties negotiated with the Potawatomi over four years, from December 4, 1834 to February 11, 1837, the Potawatomi ceded the remaining reservation lands in Indiana to the federal government. In 1836 alone the Potawatomi signed nine treaties, including the Treaty of Yellow River in Marshall County, Indiana; five treaties on the Tippecanoe River north of Rochester, Indiana; two treaties in Logansport, Indiana; and one treaty at Turkey Creek in Kosciusko County, Indiana. These agreement were called the Whiskey Treaties because whiskey was given to get the Indians to sign. Under the terms of these treaties the Potawatomi agreed to sell their Indiana land to the federal government and remove to reservation lands in the West within two years. One treaty that directly led to the forced removal of the Potawatomi from Twin Lakes was made at Yellow River on August 5, 1836. Under its terms the Potawatomi ceded the Menominee Reserve, established under a treaty made on October 26, 1832, to the federal government and agreed to remove west of the Mississippi River within two years. In exchange, the Potawatomi would receive $14,080 for the sale of their 14,080 acres of Indiana reservation lands, after payment of tribal debts were deducted from the proceeds.〔McDonald, p. 14.〕 Chief Menominee and seventeen of the Yellow River band refused to take part in the negotiations and did not recognize the treaty's authority over their land. In a petition dated November 4, 1837, Chief Menominee and other Potawatomi submitted a formal protest to John Tipton. The chiefs claimed that their signatures on the August 5, 1836, treaty had been forged (Menominee’s had been omitted) and the names of other individuals who did not represent the tribe had been added. There is no record of a reply to their petition.〔McKee, "The Centennial of 'The Trail of Death'," pp. 34–35.〕 Additional petitions were sent to President Martin Van Buren and Secretary of War Lewis Cass in 1836 and 1837, but the federal government refused to change its position.〔McKee, "The Trail of Death, Letters of Benjamin Marie Petit," pp. 25–26.〕 By 1837 some of the Potawatomi bands had peacefully removed to their new lands in Kansas. On August 5, 1838, the deadline for removal from Indiana, most of the Potawatomi had already gone, but Chief Menominee and his band at Twin Lakes refused to leave.〔 The following day, August 6, 1838, Col. Pepper called a council at Menominee's village at Twin Lakes, where he explained that the Potawatomi had relinquished their land in Indiana under the treaty. The land now belonged to the federal government and the Potawatomi had to remove.〔McKee, "The Centennial of 'The Trail of Death'," p. 36.〕 Chief Menominee responded through an interpreter: My brother, the President is just, but he listens to the word of young chiefs who have lied; and when he knows the truth, he will leave me to my own. I have not sold my lands. I will not sell them. I have not signed any treaty, and will not sign any. I am not going to leave my lands, and I do not want to hear anything more about it.〔 After the council meeting, tensions increased between the Potawatomi and the white settlers who wanted to occupy the reservation lands. Fear of violence caused some settlers to petition Indiana governor David Wallace for protection. Wallace authorized General John Tipton to mobilize a militia of one hundred volunteers to forcibly remove the Potawatomi from their Indiana reservation lands.〔〔McDonald, p. 16.〕〔Funk, 46〕 Reverend Louis Deseille, a Catholic missionary at Twin Lakes in the 1830s, denounced the Yellow River treaty (1836) as a fraud and argued, "this band of Indians believe that they have not sold their reservation and that it will remain theirs as long as they live and their children."〔 In response to his support of the Potawatomi’s resistance efforts, Col. Pepper ordered Father Deseille to leave the mission at Twin Lakes, or risk arrest for interfering in Indian affairs. Father Deseille went to South Bend, Indiana, although not without protest, and intended to return to Twin Lakes, but died at South Bend on September 26, 1837.〔McKee, "The Centennial of 'The Trail of Death'," p. 35.〕 Father Deseille’s replacement, Reverend Benjamin Marie Petit, arrived at Twin Lakes in November 1837. Within a few months Father Petit had resigned himself to the Potawatomi’s removal from Twin Lakes.〔 Father Petit received permission to join his parishioners on the forced march to Kansas in 1838.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url= http://www.tolatsga.org/pota.html )〕〔McDonald, p. 36.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Potawatomi Trail of Death」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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