Sovereignty and Identity in the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, 1634-1994
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Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 2016 A Fire That Could Not Be Extinguished: Sovereignty and Identity in the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, 1634-1994 Melisa Cushing-Davis Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Indigenous Studies Commons Recommended Citation Cushing-Davis, Melisa, "A Fire That Could Not Be Extinguished: Sovereignty and Identity in the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, 1634-1994" (2016). Dissertations. 2278. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/2278 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact ecommons@luc.edu. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 2016 Melisa Cushing-Davis LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO A FIRE THAT COULD NOT BE EXTINGUISHED: SOVEREIGNTY AND IDENTITY IN THE POKAGON BAND OF POTAWATOMI INDIANS, 1634 – 1994 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY JOINT DOCTORAL PROGRAM IN AMERICAN HISTORY/PUBLIC HISTORY BY MELISA CUSHING DAVIS CHICAGO, IL DECEMBER 2016 Copyright by Melisa Cushing Davis, 2016 All rights reserved. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I’ve come to believe that writing a dissertation is very similar to climbing a mountain. It takes years of preparation, hard work, and dedication. The writing can feel like a solitary endeavor. However, just as the climber could not achieve the summit without the assistance of a dedicated support team, so too would my efforts have been for naught without the help of so many others. This is my attempt to thank them all. First and foremost, I would like to thank Loyola University Chicago and the Department of History for accepting me into their Joint Doctoral Program in American History and Public History. The graduate assistantship awarded provided essential financial support. The pedagogical foundation and practical experiences gained were (and are) invaluable. However, it was the opportunity for personal growth and discovery, at a very difficult time in my life, for which I can never fully express my gratitude. Thank you to all of my committee members. To Dr. John W.W. Mann, it was you who first set me on this path. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, for your support, and for your encouragement throughout both my Master’s and Ph.D. programs. To Dr. Timothy Gilfoyle, thank you for your content input and stylistic recommendations. I hope that I have been able to emulate your effortless writing style. And finally, to Dr. Theodore Karamanski: thank you for your help in developing not only the thesis for this work, but in crafting a sometimes very complex story. Your suggestions, insights, sound iii advice, direction, and gentle prodding propelled me forward. Progress was sometimes very slow in coming, and for your unending patience, above all else, I thank you. I must also thank John Low, Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University at Newark and elder of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians. As my supervisor at the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, John was a mentor and a critical sounding board at the beginning of the dissertation process. By asking the right questions, John set me on the path to discovering my own voice for this project. So many archivists and research librarians were extremely generous with their time. Their expertise and deep knowledge of their collections guided me to documents absolutely vital to this work. My special thanks to: Mary Francis Ronan at the National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC; the staff at Central Michigan University’s Clarke Historical Library; the staff at the University of Notre Dame Archives; the research librarians at Milwaukee Public Library; Dawn Eurich at Detroit Public Library’s Burton Historical Collection; and Sherry Wells, independent researcher and Earl Shaffer, Niles Michigan District Library, who were able to find primary sources where I could not. I am deeply indebted to you all for your assistance. Special thanks are due to Brenda Bowyer, of WNIT Public Television, who went out of her way to provide copies of documentaries from the 1990s produced by her station. These were essential to understanding the late twentieth-century history of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians. Special thanks are also due to Congressman Fred Upton, representative from Michigan’s sixth congressional district, who carved time from his busy schedule to be interviewed for this project. I am grateful for your time and your insights. iv To my friends, to my brother and sister, my son and daughter-in-law, and my two beautiful grandchildren, Michael and Madison, thank you for your support, and for your understanding during those long periods of silence during which it seemed I had fallen off the planet. And finally, a special thank you to Lisa Theo and Lee Lounsbury, who buoyed me in times of sadness; celebrated every achievement with me; and who believed in me even when I had lost faith in myself. Your unwavering confidence in me, and your love, so generously expressed, sustained me. I love you both dearly. v For my grandchildren, Michael and Madison Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................1 CHAPTER TWO: IN THE BEGINNING ........................................................................29 Early Potawatomi History ...............................................................................................30 The Beaver Wars.............................................................................................................33 Potawatomi and the Middle Ground ...............................................................................36 The Potawatomi and the French Alliance .......................................................................43 Intertribal conflict ...........................................................................................................56 Cultural Impact of the Franco/Potawatomi Alliance ......................................................61 Conclusion CHAPTER THREE: IN GOD THEY TRUSTED: LEOPOLD POKAGON, CATHOLICISM AND ADAPTIVE RESISTENCE ......................................................75 Potawatomi Relations with the British ...........................................................................79 The Western Confederacy...............................................................................................81 Genesis of Removal Policy .............................................................................................90 The Potawatomi and the Baptists ....................................................................................93 Who Was Leopold Pokagon?..........................................................................................98 Emergence of the Pokagon Band ..................................................................................106 Renewed Contact with the Roman Catholic Church ....................................................117 Avoiding Removal ........................................................................................................131 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................139 CHAPTER FOUR: ACCOMMODATION AND RESISTANCE IN THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY ..............................................................................142 Pokagon Land Base Threatened....................................................................................144 Intratribal Factions Emerge...........................................................................................151 In Pursuit of Annuities Due, Part 1 ...............................................................................161 Changes to Pokagon Tribal Governance.......................................................................165 The Pokagon and Indian Education ..............................................................................171 Early Life of Simon Pokagon .......................................................................................181 In Pursuit of Annuities Due, Part 2 ...............................................................................183 Simon Pokagon, Assimilation, and Acculturation ........................................................198 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................208 vii CHAPTER FIVE: A TIME OF DARKNESS ................................................................211 Simon Pokagon’s Sand Bar Case ..................................................................................212 An Indian New Deal .....................................................................................................218 The Pokagon Press for Inclusion ..................................................................................227