CHAPTER IX
THE POTTAWATTAMIES
THIS tribe belonged to the Algonquin group and was first seen by French missionaries near the northern limits of the Michigan peninsula, extending east to Lake Erie and southward into northern Indiana. They were allies of the French in the war with England. They joined Pontiac in his war against the English colonies in 1763. At the council of 1789 they formed a part of the Pontiac Confederacy. During the Revolutionary War they were the allies of the British and in the War of 1812 they were a part of Tecumseh's Confederacy against the United States. They occupied Fort Dearborn after the United States troops left it and made no opposition to the massacre by the Winnebagoes which followed.
By a treaty made August 24, 1818, the United States ceded a portion of the lands acquired from the Sacs and Foxes, in 1804, to the Pottawattamies and other tribes, in exchange for lands lying on the west shore of Lake Michigan, including the site of Chicago. Afterward the ceded lands (the boundary line of which passed just north of Black Hawk's village on Rock River, near Rock Island) were repurchased from the Pottawattamies, Ottawas and Chippeways, in tow treaties dated September 20, 1828, and July 29, 1829. In the latter treaty the Indians were to be paid $16,000 a year forever, for a small portion of the lands originally purchased of the Sacs and Foxes in 1804 for $2,000 per annum. Black Hawk, who never recognized the treaty of 1804, well said: “If a small portion of our lands are worth $16,000 per annum, how was it that more
