(pg. 31-33)
This treaty negotiation with the Potawatomi on September 20, 1828 ceded to the United States a small section in the extreme southwestern corner of Michigan, bordered on the north by the St. Joseph's River. A small section adjacent to it (Royce No. 190) was ceded to the United States by a treaty of September 27, 1833.
This area, bordering on the St. Joseph's River, from at least early in the eighteenth century has been a major center of Potawatomi population. The distribution of villages and their population is given in a sketch map prepared by Mr. E. Reed, a member of the staff of the Carey Mission on the St. Joseph, in 1828. The map is published as Plate XLVIII in Indian Villages of the Illinois Country.
The villages indicated in 1828 and their population are as follows: Pokagon's=55 , Matchkee's=20, New Village=30, Koassun's=5, Cheenauge's=10, Moccasin's=10, Big Wolf=20, Mary-Ann= ?, Le Clerc's=15, James Burnett's=10
Total =175 Indians
In his Accompanying note, Reed states:
"The estimate of the number of Indians living at each village is far too
low. I have put down the number estimated when I visited them. I am assured
that there are not less than four to five hundred on this tract. That is, who
raise their corn here, and call it their home."
Indians
The period from the opening of the historic era to the first land cession in which the Potawatomi participated (1809) saw many shifts in the Indian occupation of the region. Though the Miami were first encountered in Wisconsin, they nevertheless figure as the important tribal group in Indiana. It seems probable that the Miami encountered in Wisconsin were but part of the larger tribal group and that as early as the latter part of the seventeenth century the Miami and perhaps the Mascouten dominate the northern part of Indiana. Their occupation centered around the St. Joseph River (where the Wea were soon by Allouez in 1680) and the Wabash valley where the Miami were seen as early as 1694. The Wabash Valley remains Miami territory until the end of the contact period though on the St. Joseph the Miami were replaced by the Potawatomi after 1718. The middle eighteenth century also saw an eastward expansion with settlements on the Miami River in Ohio, a movement stimulated by the desire to trade with the English. Subsequent to the peace of 1763, they retired to Indiana and the abandoned country was largely occupied by the Shawnee.
This westward withdrawal parallels that of the Shawnee, Delaware and Wyandotte, who moved into southern Indiana at about the same time. This movement brought them in contact with one of the Miami tribes, the Piankashaw who had, around 1770, given them permission to occupy the eastern part of their territory. With the addition of the Kickapoo at the western edge of the state, this largely indicates the broad regional placement of the tribes in the eighteenth century. The role of the Potawatomi during this time was to gradually infiltrate and replace the Miami peoples in the north which they accomplished on the Kankakee River and on the northern branch of the Wabash.