Marshall County has the dubious distinction of being the starting point of the Trail of Death in 1838. The Trail of Death was the forced removal of 859 Potawatomi Indians from Indiana to Kansas. The Trail of Death is not the same as the Trail of Tears, which was the removal of the Cherokee Indians in the southeast United States. Both removals took place the same year in response to the passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which provided legal authority to exchange Indian lands for lands west of the Mississippi River.

A series of three treaties were negotiated with the Potawatomi at the Tippecanoe River on October 26, 1832. Potawatomi land in Illinois, part of Michigan and most of their remaining lands in northwestern and north central Indiana were relinquished to the federal government. In exchange, the bands received small reservation lands for tribal use. This included a joint grant of 22 sections (14,080 acres) of reservation land in the Yellow River area in Marshall County. 

The land was given to four Indian chiefs, No-taw-kah, Pep-i-na-wah, Mac-ka-tah-moah, and Menominee. In the spring of 1836, a treaty was negotiated with the first three chiefs for the sale of their land, but Menominee refused to sell. He said the treaty was fraudulent since the reservation land had originally been awarded to all four chiefs.

The land prior to the organization of the county belonged to the Potawatomi Indians. In 1832 there was a Menominee reservation near Twin Lakes. There were also several other reservations in this part of the country. During that year, the government began offering some of the land they had obtained from the Indians. White settlers began coming in and buying these lands. It was not long until these settlers insisted that the Indians be taken out of the county.

The Treaty of Yellow River was made on August 5, 1836 and ultimately led to the forced removal of Menominee’s band from Twin Lakes. Under its terms the Potawatomi ceded all the reservation land that was granted to them under the Treaty of Tippecanoe to the federal government. The Potawatomi who signed the Yellow River treaty also agreed to remove west of the Mississippi River within two years. Menominee and 17 of the Yellow River band did not take part in the negotiations and refused to recognize the treaty’s authority over their land.

On February 11, 1837, the signers reconfirmed the Potawatomi land cessions in Indiana from the treaties of August and September of 1836. They agreed to remove to reservation land on the Osage River, southwest of the Missouri River in present-day Kansas. Again, Menominee refused to sign.

When the August 5, 1838 deadline arrived for the removal of Menominee and his band from Indiana, most of the Potawatomi had already left. Menominee’s group still refused to leave their village. On August 6, the day after the deadline for removal, the Potawatomi were told that they had relinquished their land in Indiana under treaties previously signed and ratified by the United States Senate. The Potawatomi were given no option. The land now belonged to the federal government and the Potawatomi had to remove.

Indiana governor David Wallace authorized General John Tipton to mobilize a local militia of 100 volunteers to forcibly remove the Potawatomi from their reservation lands. On August 29, 1838 General Tipton and his militia surrounded the village at Twin Lakes. A meeting was called at the village chapel, where the militia took Menominee and the other Potawatomi chiefs into custody. Between August 30 and September 3, Tipton and his men gathered the Potawatomi still living on reservation lands and began preparations for their removal from Indiana.

Huts and wigwams were destroyed. Indians were brought to the village from northern Indiana and southern Michigan to be removed. Soldiers burned crops and destroyed approximately 100 structures to discourage the Potawatomi from returning. The last thing they were permitted to do was to visit the graves of their people, a short distance north of the village.

On September 4, 1838, soldiers started moving the entire band south along the Michigan Road and then west. The forced march became known as the Potawatomi Trail of Death, the single largest Indian removal in the state.  A few people were placed in wagons and those who had ponies were allowed to ride, but most walked, often hustled along by the soldiers. Menominee’s Yellow River band were among those who were force marched from Twin Lakes to Osawatomie, Kansas. Six chiefs, including Menominee, were treated as prisoners and forced to ride in a wagon under armed guard.

The Trail of Death ran from Marshall County near through Rochester, down the Wabash River, and out of the state south of Covington.

The difficult journey covered 665 miles over 61 days in unseasonably hot weather. The caravan included 286 horses and 26 wagons. Water was scarce along much of the trail. The quality of the food supplied was so poor that the volunteer militia refused to eat it and demanded funds to buy their own rations. Of the 859 who began the journey, 756 Potawatomi survived (including Menominee); 42 were recorded as having died, 28 of them children, and the remainder escaped. The Indians were left on a barren plain west of the Mississippi. 

Not all the Potawatomi from Indiana removed to the western United States. Many Potawatomi found ways to remain, primarily those in Michigan. Some remained in the east, while others fled to Michigan, where they became part of the Huron and Pokagon Potawatomi bands. A small group joined an estimated 2,500 Potawatomi in Canada. Others fled to their Odawa neighbors. Anthony Nigo was allowed to stay in Marshall County because his mother was a Miami Indian.  By tribal custom a child belonged to his mother’s tribe, and so, even though his father was a Potawatomi, Anthony did not have to go on the Trail of Death. He became known as the “last Indian in Marshall County.” He lived the rest of his life here and is buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery.

In 1861 the Potawatomi of the Woods Mission Band were offered a new treaty which gave them land in Oklahoma. Those who signed the treaty became the Citizen Band Potawatomi because they were given U.S. citizenship. Their headquarters today are in Shawnee, Oklahoma. After the Civil War, the Potawatomi scattered; many moved to other reservations in Kansas and Oklahoma. A reservation for the Prairie Band Potawatomi is located in Mayetta, Kansas.

A state historical marker was erected on 12th Road at the intersection of State Road 17. It is located a couple of miles away from Twin Lakes where the Indians were assembled for the Trail of Death march. The marker was erected by the Indiana Historical Society in 1949. The marker is metal, mounted on a metal pole, and reads:

“Trail of Death. Two miles east, on north bank of Twin Lakes, some 800 Potawatomi Indians were collected in August 1838 and forced to begin their long march to new homes in the west. Many perished on the way. 1949.”

In May 1973 it was discovered that the marker had been stolen. The following April it was found in a vacant apartment in Chicago. It was returned through the efforts of Bertha Stalbaum, curator of the Porter County Museum. Her uncle, John Wohlenberg, had found the plaque as he was cleaning the apartment. It was thought that tenants had moved out, leaving behind evidence of some vandalism sprees, including the marker. The marker was returned to its spot and rededicated on September 16, 1974. Both John Wohlenberg and Bertha Stalbaum were present at that rededication ceremony, along with Paul Hamilton, great-great grandson of Chief Leopold Pokagan.

The marker, as well as the statue of Chief Menominee, can be seen today south of Plymouth. To learn more, you can visit the Museum and see our Historic Crossroads Center.