The Peter Kinney place
From Black Hawk Slept Here
In 1840 most of the Potawatomi people in Michigan were rounded by the U.S. Army and evicted from the state. An anecdote in the Eaton County history that was published in 1880 seems to be a glimpse of a moment in this episode. It took place in Sunfield Township.
In 1840, [Edward O.] Mr. Smith moved to the Peter Kinne place, on section 21, on which were better improvements than his own, and allowed a man named Knapp to occupy the farm he had temporarily vacated until the latter could build for himself on land he had purchased across the line in Vermontville. While residing on the Kinne farm, Mrs. Smith was one day very much frightened by seeing a band of 260 Pottawattomie Indians pass by, on their way to reservations beyond the Mississippi. Their dress was different from that of the Ottawas who resided in the neighborhood. The latter wore white blankets, while the Pottawattomies mostly had on red blankets and red leggins, furnished them by the British.
Some comments and observations on this anecdote:
Edward Smith could have been the person who provided this information for the county history. He was still alive at the time of publication, 38 years after the event. His wife had died in 1842.
It is stated that the Indians were passing by, almost as if it was of their own volition. But it was a forced eviction. Elsewhere in the same volume the process of removal is described: Soldiers and other government agents scouring the woods for Indians, surrounding them them where they had hidden in a swamp. The Indians held out for a 2-3 days before being taken.
It is not clear why the Potawatomi people would have been dressed differently from the Ottawa. Both Potawatomi and Ottawa people in Michigan would make annual trips to the British in Canada for the annual distribution of presents, at least in the 1820s and early 1830s.
It is possible that the Potawatomi seen by Mrs. Smith people were those who had fled from a village 20 to the south, at present-day Bellevue, when they received word of the soldiers' coming. The same county history that tells her story also states elsewhere (page 350) that some of those at Bellevue fled to the north, taking with them a sick woman who impeded their travel. These were were soon surrounded and taken from a swamp.
According to that account, after they were captured, the Indians were taken to Marshall, and then to the Chicago Road and to a route along the Illinois River.
But one wonders if what Mrs. Smith saw was not the people after they had been captured, but when they had been fleeing to the north. It seems unlikely that she would had reason to fear a captured people being marched at gunpoint. Stories told at third hand 38 years after the event can sometimes get a little garbled.
There was a major Indian trail leading through the Kinne property on Section 21.
Questions
- How many Potawatomi people in Michigan were captured in the roundup?
- Would these have been the people in Saubee's band? (Also spelled Sobby and Soby)
- Were the Potawatomi and Ottawa people making visits to the British as late as 1840?
