(pg. 62-72)
Political Organization (pg. 68-69)
Population (pg. 69-72)
The Potawatomi first enter recorded history early in the seventeenth century when tribes of more easterly location, such as the Ottawa, report their presence to the French in areas that appear to be the upper portion of the lower peninsula of Michigan. Soon more specific information on their location is to be found in the Jesuit Relations. Vimont in 1640 states that the Potawatomi, Massauaketon, and Sauk live near the Winnebago on the shores of the second Fresh-water Sea (Green Bay, Wisconsin , Barhelemy Vimont, Relation....1640, J.R., 18: 231). This was based on information provided by Nicolet who had visited the region around 1634. Further reports dating around this period (1642 and 1653) place some of the Potawatomi even farther north around Saulte Ste. Marie and in the region between this point and Green Bay. (Jerome Lalemant, Relation...1642, J.R., 23: 225; Rageuneau, Journal.)
Bacqueville de la Potherie in his Histoire de l'Amerique Septentrionale gives us further information in regard to the Green Bay region in the period 1665-66, probably derived from writings of Nicolas Perrot not now available or from oral information obtained from this trader and interpreter. Of particular value is the insight into economic activities before they were markedly shifted by the requirements of the fur trade. During the winter the Potawatomi are indicated as occupying the southern part of Green Bay and the Sauk the northern part, presumably to exploit the fish of the area. The Winnebago, whom we should expect to find settled there in the winter too, are said to have gone into the woods to live on deer and bear as they could not fish. All of the tribes at the Bay went to their villages after the winter, to sow their grain (maize). We further find that some tribes, at least, after planting their fields in the spring left their villages to hunt "cattle" (buffalo). (Wisconsin Historical Collections, XVI, 30, 41.)
The account of Jean Claude Allouez in the Jesuit Relation of 1666-67 says of the Potawatomi:
"Their country lies along the Lake of the Illimouek--a large Lake which had not before come to our knowledge, adjoining the Lake of the Hurons, and that of the Stinkards, in a Southeasterly direction. These people are warlike and they engage in Hunting and Fishing. Their country is excellently adapted to raising Indian corn, and they have Fields covered with it, to which they are glad to have recourse, to avoid the famine that is only too common in these regions. (Ibid., 55.)
It is tempting to see in this an expansion of the Potawatomi southward from the territory occupied by the Winnebago into the more southern part of Lake Michigan around this time. While it is probable that this did take place not too long prior to this date, the first mention of this more southerly location at this time might be due solely to the new increase in knowledge about the nature of the occupants of the region. In the Jesuit Relation of 1671, the situation of the Potawatomi in this region is clarified--they are not, like Winnebago of Green Bay, living in their own country but were driven through fear of the Iroquois (more likely the Neurals who were designated by the same term) from their own country in what is today Michigan. (Claude Dablon, Relation...1671, J.R., 55: 183). This evidence would of course confirm the indication that their earlier habitat had been farther east.
The pattern of occupation established at this time is one which clearly persists into later times. The Potawatomi do not occupy a given territory to the exclusion of all other tribes. In fact, many of their villages are not pure Potawatomi villages but contain a mixture of various tribes. Jean Claude Allouez in his report for the year 1670 concerning his activities around Green Bay states,
"As the Savages had gone into winter quarter, I found here only one Village of different Nations-Ousaki, Pouteouatami, Outagami, Ovenibigouts (Winnebago)--about six hundred souls. A league and a half away was another, of a hundred and fifty souls; four leagues distant, one of a hundred souls; and eight leagues from here, on the other side of the Bay, one of about three hundred souls." (Jean Claude Allouez, from the Jesuit Relations of 1669-70, LIV, 12-16, 127-237; Wis. Hist. Collections, XVI, 1902, 67.)
Similarly the French historian, Bacqueville de la Potherie, who visited America in 1697 as Royal Commissioner, reports of the Indian inhabitants of the Green Bay area in the period from 1640-1660,
"The Pouteouatemis, Sakis, and Malhominis dwell there; and there are four Cabins, the remains of the Nadouaichs, a tribe which has been entirely destroyed by the Iroquois. In former time, the Puans were the masters of this Bay, and of a great extent of adjoining the country." (Bacqueville de la Potherie, from Histoire de l'Amerique Septentionals, 1722; Wis. Hist. Collections, XVI, 1902, 3.)
Subsequent reports on the Potawatomi indicate a gradual southward movement of the group. A manuscript source cited by Kinietz states that "by 1695 the Potawatomi to the number of two hundred warriors had moved south into the Miami territory about the St. Joseph." (AC, C11 A, 13. (Archives des Colonies, Paris. Cited by W. V. Kinietz, The Indians of the Western Great Lakes, 1615-1760, 309.) That this is an intrusion into Miami territory is made clear by the fact that for some time subsequent to this, the Miami are still indicated as the dominant tribe in the area. A letter of Antoine Denis Raudot dated 1710 says of this area,
"The Miamis if all assembled together would number more than eight hundred warriors, included under the names Ouyatonons, Mingkakoia, Pesnigichia, Chachakingoya, Kiration, and Pepepikoia. The first live on the St. Joseph River where it flows into Lake Michigan. The second live at Chicago, at the mouth of the Illinois River on Lake Michigan. The third live on the Malamee River or the Barbue River which flows into the Mississipy, and the three others live partly on the banks of the Mississipy and partly on the Wabash." (Antoine Denis Raudot, Memoir Concerning the Different Indian Nations of Northern America, in Kiniets, op. cit., p. 383).
The Miami proper or related tribes, are therefore shown not only on the St. Joseph River but in other regions such as the Chicago area subsequently occupied by the Potawatomi. A similar statement may be found in the Relation of the Sieur de Lamothe Cadillac in which under that date of 1718 we find,
"Then comes the river St. Joseph. there was a fort with a French garrison; and there is a village of Miamis of the same nation."(Wis. Historical Collections, XVI: 362)
Lest this appear to indicate that the presence of the Potawatomi on the St. Joseph at this early date appear to be an erroneous report, we find in an account furnished by Monsieur de Sabrevois in 1718,
"The St. Josephs is a river on which Lived formerly the miamis and the poutouatamis, who had missionaries among them; and it is not so very long since they were there...I believe they [the Miamis] have departed from it on account of the wars waged by the Renards, the Saquis, the outaouacs, and all the other nations in that country...The ouyatanons were also at chicgou, but they feared the canoe people, and consequently left the place." (Ibid., 372-73)
By 1699 some Potawatomi were also established at Milwaukee. a letter of J.F. Buisson St. Cosme who passed by this village in this year describes the village as a considerable one,
"inhabited by the Motarctins Mascoutins and Foxes, and even some Poux." (Shea, John G., Early Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi,"Albany, 1861, p. 50.)
During this period it would appear that the Potawatomi are definitely in the minority in a town which is subsequently spoken of as a Potawatomi village.
With the establishment of Detroit, large numbers of Potawatomi settled in that region, a village being reported in 1718 (Jacques Sabrevois, Memoir, Wis. Hist. Coll., XVI: 366). The movement of the Potawatomi to the Detroit area is indicative of another factor which was highly important in determining the area occupied and settled by the Indians. With the onset of the fur trade, it became highly desirable to establish villages within easy access of trading posts. This factor further meant that villages of different tribes could be located within relatively close distance of each other, or again that villages composed of mixed tribes could be maintained. The proximity to the French posts clearly served to cut down inter-tribal strife. Specific evidence in regard to the pursuit of this policy is to be found in a letter from Father Marest to Governor de Vaudreuil dated June 21, 1712. The letter is concerned with the effects of the raids of Sauk, Fox and Mascoutins on the other Indians of the region, causing them to move northward to the protection that could be provided at Michilimackinac. It goes on to state:
"The savages told me that all the Outawas at Detroit would have come here, but for the recent arrival of fifty or sixty Frenchmen, who said they were soon to be followed by hundreds of others. This news, though probably not entirely true has changed the purpose of many who wish to leave Detroit, and they have now invited the Outawas and Pottawatomies to come and establish themselves there" (The letter is translated and reproduced in Wis. Hist. Coll., XVI: 288-90).
This objective of diverse occupancy was, of course, achieved and the villages of different tribes placed in close proximity to each other. A contemporary chart of Fort Detroit and environs in 1768 (A reproduction of the map appears in The John Askin Papers,Volume I: 1747-1795, edited by Milo M. Quaife and published at Detroit in 1928) shows a Potawatomi village immediately adjacent and south of the fort extending from it to the river Rouge. Opposite this in what would now be Windsor is indicated an Ottawa village and adjacent to it a Huron village.
The possibility of the existence of one additional Potawatomi village located on the Calumet River (near the present Chicago) at a slightly later time period than the Miami settlement previously mentioned is indicated by the Charlevoix-Bellin map, drawn in Paris in 1744. A village of the Potawatomi is shown at the foot of Lake Michigan near the Calumet River (The Calumet Region Historical Guide, p. 7, 1939).
Little information appears in the early accounts on the type of political organization. Certainly there is no suggestion of a tribal organization or of any permanent alliance between tribes. There are suggestions that the strongest organization at this early period was the clan organization, actually consisting simply of a group of individuals who considered themselves blood relatives. For example, in 1666 when a French trader became involved in a dispute with an Indian in a Potawatomi village, was injured and believed killed it immediately precipitated a dispute. The parties clearly aligned themselves along clan lines and we find references to the "families" involved "Red Carp", "Black Carp", and "Bear" (Wisconsin HIstorical Collections, XVI: 40). We see no reference to a village organization, or even a band organization, which would mediate this quarrel.
Some indication of the size of the Potawatomi Villages or bands during this early period can be given. It must be realized, however, that the population statements are only estimates and that they may be estimates on the one hand of only part of the tribe and hence low, or alternatively represent a combination of peoples of diverse tribal affiliation living in the same villages and thus give the impression of a tribal group of abnormally large size. The available and most recent summaries of Potawatomi population are both inadequate and misleading. Kinitz summarizes the population figures for this early period as follows:
"Ragueneau reported 400 men in 1653; Druillettes 700 men and a total of 30000 persons in 1658; Allouez said there were 300 souls in one village on Green Bay in 1670; about 1695 there were 280 to 300 warriors at St. Joseph and the Isle of Poues; the census of 1736 listed 230 men on the Isle of Poues; at St. Joseph, and at Detroit; and 400 men traded at St. Joseph, according to Bougainville in 1757. The total number of persons designated as Potawatomi probably did not exceed the three thousand reported by Druillettes and may have been less. The figures for the end of the contact period indicate a total of between two thousand twenty-five hundred" (Kinietz, op. cit., 310-311).
In all instances where early population figures are used, the circumstances surrounding the count must be made clear. Further every attempt should be made to determine which portion, or which village of a tribe, is indicated. It is true that Ragueneau does report a group of "Ondatonateni" Nubering 400 in 1653 (Jesuit Relations, 38: 181) and that the Ondatonateni may well refer to the Potawatoomi. But this figure is given in reference to various "nations" that are uniting against the Iroquois. It would seem unlikely that this could represent the entire adult male population of the Potawatomi. Druillettes' figures of 700 men, or a total of 3000 persons is presented in terms of the population of a single village and seems excessively large for a single town (Gabriel Druillettes, J. R., 44: 245-47). However, this narrative does provide the general information that there are to one man at least three four other person, i.e. women and children. By a rather loose mathematical computation, then, we obtain a population of 3000 from a base of 700 men. Where the population is given in terms of "warriors" or "men", this number has been multiplied in the following section by 3.5 to obtain the total population of the village. To return to Kinietz, he then proceeds to quote Allouez to the effect that there were 300 souls in one village on Green Bay in 1670. Again, this is misleading since it is obvious from the account of Allouez that the Potawatomi population in the vicinity of Green Bay is considerably larger. Actually Allouez provides the best information on a given locality that may be used as a point of departure in the analysis of population at this time period and therefore will be considered in detail.
We may quote again the account of Allouez describing his arrival a the Mission of Saint Francois Xavier on Green Bay:
"As the Savages had gone into winter quarters, I found here only one Village of different nations- Qusaki, Pouteouatami, Outagemi, Ovenibigouts- about six hundred souls. A league and a half away was another , of a hundred and fifty souls; four leagues distant, one of a hundred souls; and eight leagues from here, on the other side of the Bay, on of about three hundred souls" (Jean Claude Allouez, J.H., 54: 205)
It is evident from this that the large village near the mission, containing a population of 600, is at least partly of Potawatomi composition. The statement further states that many of the Indians had gone into winter quarters, presumably they had dispersed throughout the region perhaps for hunting activities. Actually on the 25th of November, on the trip to the Mission, Allouez was fortunate enough
"to chance upon a Cabin of Pouteouatamis, who were engaged in fishing and hunting at the edge of the wood" (Ibid., 205).
Some Potawatomi, at least, are living in isolated cabins, hunting and fishing, and would thus not be included in the village population given. Subsequently, on February 17th, Allouez states that he visited the Potawatomi village which is eight leagues from the Mission, on the other side of the lake (Ibid., 211). This is the last village enumerated in the introductory statement for which a population of about three hundred souls is recorded and it represents the single village cited by Kinietz. Subsequently he states that he regrets not having been able to visit all of the villages but he would "try at least of establish Christianity in a neighboring Village, composed for the most part of Pouteouatamis" (Ibid., 213). Perhaps this is the village of a hundred and fifty souls located a league and a half away. Combining these various references, it does not seem unreasonable to postulate a population of about 700 Potawatomi for the Green Bay area in 1670.
Using Allouez as a point of departure we may tabulate the population statistics given for particular villages and areas. The results of this enumeration is given in Table 3. No census in a given year covers all of the regions occupied by the Potawatomi at this time. In view of the restricted area occupied by them during this early period, probably nearly all were occupied up until 1760. An estimate of the total population as approximately 3,000 seems not at all unreasonable, particularly since some villages such as Milwaukee are not tabulated.