Remembering the Potawatomi Trail of Death
(Room JW Grand Ballroom 2)
06 Jul 18
3:00 PM
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4:15 PM
In the fall of 1838, the U.S. government ordered the forcible removal of 859 members of the Potawatomi Indian nation from northern Indiana to eastern Kansas. The resulting 660-mile forced march caused the death of 42 deportees, who were buried along the way in unmarked graves, and came to be known as the Potawatomi Trail of Death, a shameful yet little-known chapter of Indiana and American history. This is the story of the Potawatomi and Father Benjamin Petit, who assisted the Indians during their long, bitter journey and then died on his way back to Indiana. He was 28. The exiles became the Citizen Potawatomi Nation of Shawnee, Okla. The presenter, Shirley Willard, is an Indiana county historian who organized Trail of Death Commemorative Caravans every five years from 1988 to 2013. Willard enlisted the aid of local residents along the trail to erect 80 historical markers and 150 historic highway signs, helped create the Potawatomi Trail of Death Association, edits its newsletters, co-authored a book with original sources in 2003, narrated the documentary Like Birds in a Wind Storm in 2016, and organized Indiana Indian Day in 2017. She will be joined by Tracy Locke, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and a descendant of Abram Burnett, a survivor of the 1838 removal.