POT'AWAT'AMI (properly Potewatmik, fire makers, in allusion to their traditional mak ing of a separate council fire for themselves). A prominent Algonquian tribe formerly holding the lower end of Lake Michigan, extending south ward to the Wabash River and westward into central Illinois. They were closely related to the Ojibwa and Ottawa (qq.v.). When first known the Potawatami were settled about the mouth of Green Bay, Wis,, and were early. brought under the influence of the Jesuit mission established at that point. They were then moving southward. and 30 years later had fixed them selves at Chicago and on the Saint Joseph River, on former Miami territory. After the conquest of the Illinois (q.v.) about 1765 they took pos session of a great part of Illinois as well as of Lower Michigan. At the Greenville treaty of 1795 they notified the Miami that they intended to move down the which they soon afterwards did, in spite of the protests of the Miami, who claimed the whole region. By the year 1800 they were in possession of the whole territory around Lake Michigan from Milwaukee River. Wis., to Grand River, Mich., with much of northern Indiana and Illinois.
They took part with the French in all the colonial wars and were also active in the rising under Pontiac. They sided with England in the Revolution and, with the other tribes, continued the struggle until the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. In the War of 1812 they again took up arms, under Tecumseh. on the English side, and later
joined in the final treaty of peace in 1815. Under the systematic plan of removal soon after inau gurated by the Government they sold their lands by successive treaties, so that by 1841 practically the whole tribe had been transported beyond the Mississippi. A large part of those residing in Indiana refused to leave their homes until driven out by military force. Some escaped to Canada and are now settled on Walpole Island, in Lake Saint Clair. Those who went west were settled, partly in Iowa and partly in Kansas, but in 1846 both bodies were united on a reservation in southern Kansas. In 1868 a part of these. known as Citizen Potawatand, were again re moved to Indian Territory. A considerable part of the tribe is still in Wisconsin and another small band known as Potawatami of Huron is in Lower Michigan, in addition to the small band on Walpole Island, Ontario. According to Morgan the Potawatami had 15 clans. The most reliable early estimates give them from 2500 to 3000 souls at their greatest strength. They now num ber about 2500 in all. viz. Citizen Potawatami, Oklahoma, 1690; Prairie band, Kansas, 570; Potawatami of Huron. Michigan, 80; scattering in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Indiana. etc., perhaps 200; Walpole Island and Aux Sables, Ontario, mixed Potawatami and Ojibwa, 200.