The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians live in a ten county area of southwestern Michigan and northern Indiana. Their tribal headquarters are located in Dowagiac, MI. The tribal membership in 1999 listed 2,541 members with an unemployment rate of 26% and of those working, 40% living below the poverty guidelines.

The Pokagon Potawatomi have a land base of 4,700 acres which they have purchased at three different sites for reservation development in 1997. The tribe received their federal recognition/reaffirmation of status in September, 1994.

The Pokagon have been residing on their now greatly diminished tribal ancestral lands for over 500 years. Along with the Ojibwa and Ottawa, the Potawatomi formed the Council of the Three Fires for mutual protection, defense, trade, social and cultural interactions. They too are Anishnabek, of the Algonquian linguistic stock and call themselves Nishnabek or “The People”. The Tribal name of Potawatomi means People of the Fire or Keepers of the Sacred Fire, depending on what translation is being used. As part of the 3 Fires Confederacy, along with the Ojibwa and Ottawa, they are considered the Younger Brother, and Keepers of the Sacred Fire.

Prior to 1450 it has been reported that they lived further north then their present home range but migrated south to settle in warmer climates. The rich soils near the eastern shores of Lake Michigan and into northern Indiana, Illinois and southeastern Wisconsin was much more conducive for agriculture and a lot longer growing season. By 1550 they had established dozens of villages is what is now Michigan from Ludington to the north to the St. Joseph River in the south. They first encountered the French explorer Jean Nicolet in 1634 and referred to the French as “hairy faces” or Wemitigoji.

Their traditional means of subsistence included farming, hunting, fishing, gathering of wild fruits and berries and later lumbering. The bands lived in clan-based villages with a more complex dodem (clan) system then the Ojibwa or Ottawa since their villages were larger.

The clan systems establish leadership for both external and internal affairs, provides for extended family structures, roles and responsibilities, social interactions protocol, and philosophy of their views of cosmology and mankind’s relationship with the earth and all of creation which are expressed in spiritual teachings and religious rites.

The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi were party to 11 treaties with the federal government with the major land cession being the 1833 Treaty of Chicago. It was negotiated during the Andrew Jackson era of the Removal Policy, when all Indians living east of the Mississippi were slated to be forcibly relocated to Indian Territory, i.e. Kansas and Oklahoma. The Potawatomi as a whole, but not the Pokagon Band, were much more impacted by the Removal Policy then were their brethren to the north, the Ottawa and Ojibwa.

Their lands were of rich soil and highly coveted for agricultural purposes, as well as their forest for the clearing for new farms and the beginnings of a flourishing lumbering industry. These Potawatomi treasures were also offered as lures with the promise of permanent and privately owned farmlands for new immigrants from western Europe.

The immigrants came by the hundreds of thousands along with a migrating population of the rather new Americans, primarily from New York to establish their foothold on traditional Potawatomi lands. After the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, then Michigan Territory was really pushing for new statehood to the union as the 26th state and needed a population increase to achieve this goal. They got the new settlers and statehood was established in 1837. The push for Michigan statehood was greatly aided during this period by the completion of the Erie Canal in upper state New York and the extension of railroads into southern Michigan adjacent to the northern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois borders.

Following the 1833 Treaty all of the other Potawatomi Bands in MI, IN, IL and WI were impacted quite severely by the Removal Policy, and were forcibly moved to Kansas and Oklahoma, while some sought refuge in northern Wisconsin Territory and some fled to their brethren relatives in Ontario, Canada, specifically Walpole Island, Kettle Point and Manitoulin Island.

Chief Leopold Pokagon was able to negotiate to keep his Potawatomi band of 280 people in southwestern Michigan, leaving them the only Potawatomi legally in the State of Michigan at that time.

The band became known as the Pokagon Band Potawatomi, primarily of Roman Catholic faith and established ongoing close ties with the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. In 1935, The Pokagon Band petitioned for federal status under the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act terms and conditions. It was not granted, because it was rationalized, that they didn’t have a federal land base and besides, the federal government was running out of money to fully implement the IRA in Michigan. With the exception of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe at Mt. Pleasant, the rest of the Indians in the Power Peninsula were left to fend for themselves.

The Pokagon Potawatomi managed to exist as a distinct community despite these set backs for another 60 years before they finally received their long overdue federal recognition or reaffirmation of status in September, 1994.

Since then, they have laid the groundwork for strengthened their tribal infrastructure, adoption a tribal constitution, bylaws and corporate charter and expanded membership services. They continue to seek diversification of their tribal economic base and they are planning to open a gaming operation in the near future with the hopes of job opportunity and economic expansion and security to ensue.

The continue with efforts to preserve and incorporate their Potawatomi dialect, culture and traditions with the large framework of the Anishnabek peoples while continuing to establish programs in education, health services, behavioral health and substance abuse services, child welfare and protection, tribal courts and tribal law enforcement, among others.

The Pokagon Potawatomi plan for the future while remembering their past and focusing on the needs of the next seven generations to come; the traditional fires continue to burn in Potawatomi lands.