Trail of Tears, November 2, 1838

Potawatomi Trail of Death - Diary of William Polke, 2 Nov. 1838:

"Left Independence  a little after 9 oclk—one hour or so having been allowed the Indians for their religious exercises. This morning broke upon us rainy and disagreeable. Anxious to complete the journey now so near at an end."

"The rain increasing as we advanced. We crossed the (Kansas) boundary line, and found ourselves in the heart of a prairie, with scarcely any traces to mark our route. The journey was continued and at 12 rock  a large portion of the emigrants on horseback became detached from the wagons, and wandered over the prairie four hours in search of the trace of the wagons. It was found at length, and we reached the camp ground set-out for at 3 o'clk."

"We are now but twelve miles from the encampment of yesterday. Our encampment is known as the North Fork of Blue River. Subsistence beef and corn."
 
Drawing by Candi Wesaw.


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sacred - a definition - and the Eagle (Kno)

Image
I  want to clarify what I see with the word ‘sacred,’ as used in our stories.  Some people mistakenly think that we worship all things labeled sacred, and that there are multiple gods - not true.  My little granddaughter even asked me, “What about the rain god?”  I don’t know where she got that idea, but I told her we only have Creator, with lots of different words for that concept, like Mnedo (spirit), Shemendo (great spirit), Mamogosnan (father of us all), God.  Sacred, whether Eagle, the four medicines, or others are due the highest respect. We give thanks to them, but we don’t ‘worship’ them, if that distinction makes sense. For example, the drum is sacred; it is blessed with tobacco before being played to welcome the voice and heartbeat of our ancestors. With that in mind, a story about the importance of Eagle (directly from potawatomi.org) Long ago Creator, Mamogosnan (our great father), became angry with mankind because they  did not live i...
Read more

Sweat Lodge

Yes, I have done sweat lodge.  Once.  And I plan to attend again. And I recommend it. When I was invited, the message was very respectful, “I want you to know that this is a very protected space, no creepy folks, no nakedness, I know everyone attending and I can vouch for each one.” The space is on Cowlitz tribal land and there is much symbolism in the layout. The structure is a dome wigwam; the number of ribs (five) is symbolic; heavy blankets make the walls; the opening is to the east (the direction of sunrise; the direction of new beginnings); there is an ‘umbilical’ line to the east of the opening that you should not cross because it leads to the fire where the stones — and the stones are the ancestors — are being heated. Since I’ve only been once, I can only describe how this program was run.  I have been told that another type, a “warrior sweat” is a crazy situation where they bring in a ton of stones (like 40) at a time and pour a whole bucket of water on... ...
Read more

Naming ceremony

I hope to have a naming ceremony sometime before October 1 to receive my Native name. Everyone is welcome to attend (at my home) and I will publicize the date as soon as I know. What happens in the ceremony?  I haven’t seen one, but this is directly from our CPN web site: An aspect of traditional Potawatomi culture, the naming ceremony, has reemerged in recent years. Traditionally, Potawatomi believe that when a child is born, the Creator cannot see their face. In order to show the child to the Creator, the tribe would have a ceremony and the child was given a name. Centuries of forced removals and interactions with missionaries curbed the practice, but in an effort to strengthen our tribal bonds, members of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation have conducted several ceremonies in recent years. Before a naming ceremony takes place, an individual seeking to be named must find two sponsors, a man and a woman, who will go through the ceremony with them. The sponsors are like godpare...
Read more