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The Last Blackrobe of Indiana and the Potawatomi Trail of Death: Reverend Benjamin Petit and the Potawatomi Indians of Indiana, John William McMullen, Bird Brain Productions, 2010, 0982625561, 9780982625569, 442 pages. From the forgotten history of 1830s Indiana, John William McMullen unearths the true story of Benjamin Petit, a French Attorney turned missionary priest, and his mission to the Potawatomi People in the Diocese of Vincennes, Indiana. Under the urging of the saintly Bishop Simon Brut, Petit joined the northern Indiana Potawatomi tribes in 1837, a year before their forced removal west. McMullen retells the incredible journey of Petit who traveled with the Potawatomi People and became part of their history. "The deportation of Chief Menominee and his tribe of Potawatomi Indians from their reservation at Twin Lakes in Marshall County, in September, 1838, is one of the darkest pages in the history of Indiana. The farther in time we get away from this event the clearer this will appear and the more interest will be attached to the route which is consecrated by the blood of that helpless people at the hands of a civilized and Christian state: The Potawatomi Trail. "Of all the names connected with this crime, there is one, Father Benjamin Petit, the Christian martyr, which stands like a star in the firmament, growing brighter and it will shine on through for ages to come." - Benjamin Stuart, Indiana journalist, early 20th century "For American Indians the scars of injustice inflicted upon them in the past are deep, painful, and, tragically, are inherited from one generation to the next. Those injustices have become ghosts in the cultural memory of a people crying out for justice. We must fully disclose the past in order to deal with the many years and generations of unresolved grief and distrust." -Thomas Hamilton, member of Citizen Potawatomi Nation. John William McMullen resides in Evansville, Indiana with his wife and children. DOWNLOAD HERE Blood Destiny A Blood Curse Novel, Tessa Dawn, Dec 1, 2010, , 406 pages. He was a lethal vampire bound by an ancient curse.She was an agent of homeland security, investigating a dangerous cult.Theirs was a Blood Destiny about to unfoldЕјDescended .... Roman Unparalleled Outrage, John William McMullen, Apr 1, 2003, Fiction, 400 pages. An account of the accusations of rape faced by Father Roman Weinzoepfel, OSB, in Evansville, Indiana during the 1840's.. The Long, Bitter Trail Andrew Jackson and the Indians, Anthony Wallace, Jul 1, 1993, Biography & Autobiography, 143 pages. Looks at President Andrew Jackson's Indian policies, and describes how Indian tribes were forced to move to reservations in the Oklahoma Territory. Boston Creme Curley , Mike Ryan, Nov 12, 2008, , 190 pages. 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He was recruited by Bishop Simon Brute to come to America and be a missionary to the Indians in Indiana. Petit arrived as the Catholic missionary to the Potawatomi Indians in northern Indiana in November 1837, replacing Father Louis Deseille, who had died among the Potawatomi. By June 1838 Petit had learned much of their difficult language and their culture, and had instructed and baptized many. Father Petit wrote to this mother in France: “We were orphans,” they said to me, “and as if in darkness, but you appeared among us like a great light and we live.” A man of small stature, he became their beloved Chichipe-Outipe, which is Potawaomi for Little Duck. He wrote many letters home to his family in France, describing everything he encountered, including his broken-down old horse, and kept an account of the money he spent. Thus we know that he purchased a black straw hat for $1.25 on June 13, 1838. He carefully recorded the baptisms and marriages he performed. These records are now in the University of Notre Dame Library at South Bend, Indiana. The Indians begged their “Father Black Robe” to accompany them on their forced removal from Indiana in September 1838. His superior, Bishop Brute of Vincennes, Indiana, finally consented in time for him to join them enroute at Danville, Illinois. From then on he ministered to their needs, both spiritual and material on their march to Kansas territory. “Often throughout the entire night, around a blazing fire, before a tent in which a solitary candle burned, 15 or 20 Indians would sing hymns and tell their beads. One of their friends who had died was laid out in the tent; they performed the last religious rites for him in this way. The next morning the grave would be dug; the family, sad but tearless, stayed after the general departure. The priest attired in his stole, recited prayers, blessed the grave, and cast the first shovelful of earth on the rude coffin; the pit was filled and a little cross placed there.” Petit described the march as follows: “The United States flag, carried by a dragoon; then one of the principal officers, next the staff baggage carts, then the carriage, which during the whole trip was kept for the use of the Indian chiefs; then one or two chiefs on horseback led a line of 250 or 300 horses ridden by men, women, children singled file, after the manner of savages. On the flanks of the line at equal distance from each other were the dragoons and volunteers, hastening the stragglers, often with severe gestures and bitter words. After this cavalry came a file of 40 baggage wagons filled with luggage and Indians. The sick were lying in them, rudely jolted, under a canvas which, far from protecting them from the dust and heat, only deprived them of air, for they were as if buried under this burning canopy - several died thus.” He mentioned that by 8 o’clock they were usually in the saddle and headed west. After General John Tipton went back to Indiana, he left the emigration in the charge of William Polke, Rochester, Indiana. Polke placed Father Petit in charge of the sick. They did the best they could but lacking modern medicine, they could give them only tea and sugar and rest. There were doctors hired to accompany the emigration, but the Potawatomi preferred Father Petit. He baptized the dying children, among then newly born “who with their first step passed from earthly exile to the heavenly sojourn,” according to one of his letters, which were published as a book, The Trail of Death Letters of Benjamin Marie Petit, by the Indiana Historical Society in 1941. (This book is out of print but the whole is included in the new book, Potawatomi Trail of Death - Indiana to Kansas, published by Fulton County Historical Society, Rochester, Indiana, in 2003.) In them he vividly describes the hardships and the anguish of “my poor Christians, under a burning noonday sun, amidst clouds of dust, marching in line, surrounded by soldiers who were hurrying their steps” and the heartbreak of the Indians as they buried their loved ones and marched on.

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