Potawatomi Nation Case Study

How did members of the Potawatomi Nation, who originally lived in Michigan, end up living in Oklahoma? These sources allow you to further investigate this story of American Indian removal.

The Potawatomi Nation's Trail of Death began when 100 armed soldiers arrived at Chief Menominee's village, called Twin Lakes, to forcibly remove his people to Osawatomie in Indian Territory (Kansas). It took the 850 Potawatomi two months to complete the journey, during which 42 people died.

Be the Geographer

What does this map of the Potawatomi Nation's Trail of Death tell you?

  1. Where did the Potawatomi Nation's Trail of Death start and where did it end?
  2. How many states did the Potawatomi removal cross and what were they?
  3. How many miles did the Potawatomi have to travel and how long did it take?
    4. Challenge Question
  4. How many miles per day on average did the Potawatomi people have to travel to get to Indian Territory?
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Potawatomi map

Removal became known as the Trail of Death to the Potawatomi Nation. It also was a forced march, in which people were forced to go somewhere new, even though they didn't want to go.

Gene Thorp/Cartographic Concepts, Inc. © Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of the American Indian.

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