Trail of Death Sept 6 & 7, 1838



 

Potawatomi Trail of Death, September 6: They reached Logansport, Indiana, where the encampment was described as "a scene of desolation". That fall, there was a terrible drought and what little water they found was usually stagnant, causing many of them to get sick with what was probably typhoid. 4 children died. Sympathetic white settlers gave them hoe-cakes to eat.

The tribe was accompanied by a young priest, Father Benjamin M. Petit. One of the first things he did was to get the chiefs in the jail wagon released: “On my word the six chiefs who had till now been treated as prisoners of war were released and given the same kind of freedom which the rest of the tribe enjoyed.”

Father Petit said Mass every day and baptized the babies who died, in his own words, “who with their first step passed from earthly exit to the heavenly sojourn.” Along the way, he kept a diary of the march, ministered to the tribe spiritually, emotionally and tending to the sick. The group remained at Logansport until September 9. 

Sketch of Ma-ta-wa-ah and Otch-che-ma near Eeel River, George Winter 1838



Potawatomi Trail of Death - Diary of William Polke, 7 Sept. 1838

“Two wagons with the thirteen persons left at Chippeway arrived in camp today. Kock-koch-kee, with his party consisting of fifteen persons, as also Co-co-ta, Che-shaw-gen, Way-wa-he-as-shuk and Pawk-shuk, with their families, making in all eighteen persons, came into camp today. A child died this morning.”  Portrait of Ma-ga-zee, a Potawatomi chief


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