Potawatomi Indians of the West: Origins of the Citizen Band
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This dissertation has been 61-3062 microfilmed exactly as received MURPHY, Joseph Francis, 1910— POTAWATOMI INDIANS OF THE WEST: ORIGINS OF THE CITIZEN BAND. The University of Oklahoma, Ph.D., 1961 History, archaeology University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan Copyright by Joseph Francis Murphy 1961 THE UNIVERSITY OF OKIAHOMA. GRADUATE COLLEGE POTAWATOMI INDIANS OF THE WEST ORIGINS OF THE CITIZEN BAND A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY JOSEPH FRANCIS MURPHY Norman, Oklahoma 1961 POTAWATOMI INDIANS OF THE WEST: ORIGINS OF THE CITIZEN BAND APPROVED BY DISSERTATION COMMITTEE ACKNOWLEDGMENT It is with the deepest sense of gratitude that the àüthdr'"âcknowledges the assistance of Dr. Donald J. Berthrong, Department of History, University of Oklahoma, who gave so unsparingly of his time in directing all phases of the prep aration of this dissertation. The other members of the Dissertation Committee, Dr. Gilbert C. Fite, Dr. W. Eugene Hollon, Dr. Arrell M. Gibson, and Dr. Robert E. Bell were also most kind in performing their services during a very busy season of the year. Many praiseworthy persons contributed to the success of the period of research. Deserving of special mention are: Miss Gladys Opal Carr, Library of the University of Oklahoma; Mrs. 0. C. Cook, Mrs. Relia Looney, and Mrs, Dorothy Williams, all of the Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma Çity; Mrs. Lela Barnes and M r . Robert W. Richmond of the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka; and Father Augustin Wand, S. J., St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas. In Washington, D. C ., iii Miss Carmelita Shea made it possible to fathom the complex ities of the Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This dissertation is in some degree the product of suggestions deriving from the author's experience in his earliest graduate studies in history at the University of Oklahoma. He is particularly grateful to his former profes sors for pointing out the latent potentialities of source materials in American Indian history. Among these, notably, were Dr. Edward Everett Dale, Dr. Asa K. Christian, and the late Dr. Carl Coke Rister. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF MAPS .... ................................ ...... vi PREFACE . ......... vii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ........ 1 II. THE UNITED BAND OF CHIPPEWA, OTTAWA, AND POTAWATOMI IN MISSOURI AND IOWA ............... 17 III. LIFE AND CULTURE AT COUNCIL BLUFFS ............ 60 IV. POTAWATOMI OF THE OSAGE RIVER RESERVATION 96 V. PROGRESS IN CIVILIZATION ON THE OSAGE ........ 138 VI. REMOVAL, RESETTLEMENT, REUNION .............. 209 VII. INTRUSIONS AND AFFLICTIONS ON THE KAW RIVER RESERVATION .............................. 253 VIII. MISSION SCHOOLS ON THE KAW RIVER RESERVATION .. 294 IX. THE ROAD TO AN ALLOTMENT EXPERIMENT ........ 351 X. ALLOTMENT PERIOD: THE CITIZEN BAND COMES INTO BEING ............... 402 XI. CITIZEN BAND RETAINS SOLIDARITY DESPITE KANSAS FAILURE ..... 448 XII. CONCLUSIONS ..... 496 BIBLIOGRAPHY . ......... 503 V LIST OF MAPS Number Page I. Isaac McCoy's Map of Indian Territory, 1838 ... x II. McCoy's Map of Osage River Potawatorai Reservation, 1838 ....................... 208 III. Potawatomi Reservation on the Kaw River ....... 350 IV. Kaw River Potawatomi Allotments ................ 433 V. Potawatomi Reservation in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) ........... 486 vi PREFACE This is a historical study of the Potawatomi Indians after their removal to the Trans-Mississippi West. It has special reference to the origins and roots of the Citizen Band which came into being by provision of the Treaty of 1861. The factors and influences which explain the rise of this highly civilized segment of the Potawatomi are examined with care. Detailed analysis of the Potawatomi in the West will begin with 1834, the year which marked the beginning of their limited occupation of Missouri's Platte Purchase re gion. The narrative then proceeds to the events attendant upon the actual settlement of the Potawatomi reservations in Iowa Territory and the Osage River sub-agency in east-central Kansas. The history of developments in the separate local ities is followed until the two factions of the tribe come to occupy a common reservation on the Kansas River. Thorough attention is given to the tribal division which occurred on the Kansas River Potawatomi Reservation. vii The split resulted in the formation of the Citizen and Prai rie Potawatomi Bands. The background of this parting of the ways is explored in detail. Those accepting•allotments, under government duress, became the charter members of the Citizen Band; those electing to retain lands in common on a diminished reservation in Jackson County, Kansas, constituted the Prairie Band. Then came the actual allotment period, an era requiring special stress. Careful consideration is given to the composition of both bands. Then follows a detailed exposition of the reasons for the failure of the sectionized Indians and of the events leading to a new treaty whereby the Citizen Band acquired a reservation in the Indian Terri tory (Oklahoma). Aspects of Potawatomi history in Oklahoma are presented which will aid in explaining earlier develop ments in Kansas. Additionally, some materials from the Oklahoma period are utilized to clarify the struggle of the Citizen Band to maintain solidarity and to secure and retain official recognition as a unit of the Potawatomi Indian Tribe. The years 1870-1872 saw the first fragmentary move ment of the Citizen Indians to Oklahoma. Minute coverage closes at that point, although some later events on the Indian Territory reservation are selected for the purpose of pointing the way to the nature of the Citizen Band's viii subsequent history. For introductory purposes only, the long epoch of Potawatomi residence in the vicinity of the Great Lakes is summarily sketched. This treatment is given in order to establish the nature of the Potawatomi Indians before and at the time of their removal to the West. Also, the pre-removal resume serves as a brief study of the remote roots of the civilized Indians who later made up the preponderant plural ity of the Citizen Band. To accomplish this aim the point of concentration is almost exclusively upon the period of French ascendancy in the Great Lakes area. ix Map I. Isaac McCoy's map of Indian territory, an excerpt, 1838, courtesy of National Archives, Record Group 75, Map 216. Shows location of Potawatomi in Iowa Territory, upper right; Platte Purchase area; Osage River Potawatomi Reserve, the square, just below right-center. X POTAWATOMI INDIANS OF THE WEST: ORIGINS OF THE CITIZEN BAND CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Indian traditions point to the original unity of the Potawatomi, Chippewa, and Ottawa people as one tribe. Having at an indefinitely early time found their way as a group to the northern shores of Lake Huron, the unified aggregate di vided. During subsequent migrations these diversified groups became aligned into more or less distinctly separate tribal affiliations. The name Potawatomi is usually translated into English as "people of the place of fire.One of the ^Frederick Webb Hodge, ed., Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, 2 Vols. (Washington; Government Printing Office, 1907-1910), II, 289. Hodge's article on the Potawatomi concludes with a listing of the vast number of variations in the spelling of the name of the tribe (Ibid., pp. 291, 292, 293). The version Potawatomi as used throughout the present study has become the standard form adopted by the Department of Indian Affairs, also by eth nologists generally. Former popular and customary spellings early Jesuit missionaries, Claude Jean Allouez, used the term "Nation of Fire" for the Potawatomi and contiguous tribes of 1670.^ One neighboring ethnic group, the Mascoutens (Mas- koutengs), became erroneously identified as a component of the "Fire Nation." In 1671, another Jesuit, Claude Dablon, pointed out the mistake of placing the people of the Mas- coutenech, meaning a "treeless country," in the same classi- 3 fication with the Potawatomi. This confusion of identifi cation endured down to the British and American periods. This came about, no doubt, from the fact of the continued, close association of elements of both tribes. There was some tendency to migrate to and settle in the same areas. For example, Pierre Charlevoix found Mascoutens, in 1721, living in close proximity to the Potawatomi on the St. Joseph River (Michigan).^ In any event, the Mascoutens still persist in the official names of political divisions, county names, in Iowa, Kansas, and Oklahoma. 9 Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents ; Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France, 73 Vols. (Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers Company, 1896-1901), LIV, 211. This work is here after cited as Thwaites, Jesuit Relations. ^Ibid.. LV, 199. ^Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoix, Journal of a Voyage to New France, Louise Phelps Kellog, ed., 2 Vols. (Chicago: The Caxton Club, 1923), I, 286. 3 became generally and officially designated "Fire Nation" people and were the progenitors of at least some portion of the Potawatomi Prairie Band.5 This becomes important to the study of the Potawatomi of the West insofar as the marked divergence of characteristics of the Prairie Band constitutes a fundamental factor in explaining the course of events there. It became particularly decisive in the failure of the Potawatomi aggregate to achieve a genuine or lasting unity on the Kansas River after 1846. The records of the French clearly establish that, in the seventeenth century, the Potawatomi, or portions of their number, undertook a series of migrations. Samuel de Cham plain, in 1616, heard of the "Gens de Feu" as reportedly located ten days journey from Georgian Bay, and somewhere westward of Lake Huron.^ In 1640 Barthélémy Vimont, superior of the Jesuits of New France, stated that the Potawatomi were living near Lake Winnebago in the vicinity of Green Bay.^ ^Hodge, o£. cit., p. 289.