[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 499 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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116th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. RES. 499
Acknowledging the reprehensible policy of the United States regarding
the forced relocation of the Potawatomi people from their homeland east
of the Mississippi River to Kansas and Oklahoma and the devastating
hardships the Potawatomi people endured during the march west, known as
the ``Potawatomi Trail of Death''.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 13, 2020
Mr. Young (for himself, Ms. Stabenow, and Mr. Peters) submitted the
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Indian
Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Acknowledging the reprehensible policy of the United States regarding
the forced relocation of the Potawatomi people from their homeland east
of the Mississippi River to Kansas and Oklahoma and the devastating
hardships the Potawatomi people endured during the march west, known as
the ``Potawatomi Trail of Death''.
Whereas the Potawatomi people, collectively known as the ``Potawatomi Nation'',
are comprised of members of the many villages, communities, and bands
that resided for millennia in their homeland in the southern Great Lakes
region of the present day States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois,
and Wisconsin;
Whereas the advanced farming techniques, extensive trade and commerce networks,
and well-established transportation routes of the Potawatomi Nation had
a significant influence on the early history of North America;
Whereas Potawatomi leaders entered into 44 treaties with the United States,
including a series of treaties the Potawatomi people were pressured to
sign between 1818 and 1828, under which the Potawatomi people ceded vast
areas of the homeland of the Potawatomi people in exchange for
annuities, small reservations in the States of Indiana and Illinois, and
scattered individual allotments;
Whereas, in 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Act of May 28, 1830 (4
Stat. 411, chapter 148) (commonly known as the ``Indian Removal Act''),
into law, which authorized the President to provide land in the so-
called Indian territory in the western United States ``for the reception
of such tribes or nations of Indians as may choose to exchange the lands
where they now reside, and remove there . . .'';
Whereas 3 treaties signed by Potawatomi leaders in October 1832 further reduced
the remaining homeland of the Potawatomi people in the States of Indiana
and Illinois to several small reservations and individual allotments,
including a reservation at a village on the Yellow River in Twin Lakes,
Indiana (referred to in this preamble as the ``Twin Lakes
Reservation''), under a Potawatomi leader named Menominee;
Whereas pressure from United States negotiators resulted in Potawatomi leaders
signing a number of treaties between 1834 and 1837, known as the
``Whiskey Treaties'', which ceded the remaining Potawatomi land in the
State of Indiana and included a commitment to move to reservations in
the West within 2 years;
Whereas Menominee and a number of other Potawatomi leaders--
(1) refused to participate in the negotiations that produced the Treaty
of August 5, 1836 (7 Stat. 505) (commonly known as the ``Yellow River
Treaty''), which purported to relinquish the rights of the Yellow River
Band of the Potawatomi people (referred to in this preamble as the ``Yellow
River Band'') to the Twin Lakes Reservation; and
(2) later submitted a petition to United States General John Tipton
that challenged the validity of the Yellow River Treaty;
Whereas, after the 2-year period for the Yellow River Band to move west expired,
White settlers who wanted to occupy the lands of the Twin Lakes
Reservation petitioned Indiana Governor David Wallace for protection,
and, in response, Governor Wallace authorized General Tipton to mobilize
a militia of 100 volunteers to forcibly remove the Yellow River Band
from the reservation;
Whereas, on August 30, 1838, General Tipton and a volunteer militia surprised
the Yellow River Band at the Twin Lakes Reservation, and, over the next
several days, the soldiers burned the crops and destroyed the village of
the Yellow River Band to discourage anyone from trying to return;
Whereas, on September 4, 1838, the forced relocation of 859 members of the
Yellow River Band proceeded from Twin Lakes, Indiana, under the armed
escort of the militia, including the Potawatomi leaders Menominee,
Makkatahmoway, and Pepinawa, who were treated as prisoners of war and
rode along in a wagon under armed guard;
Whereas, over the course of 61 days, through deprivation and often brutal heat
along the march west, known as the ``Trail of Death'', that extended
from Twin Lakes, Indiana, through the States of Illinois and Missouri to
the eventual destination of the Yellow River Band some 660 miles away in
Osawatomie, Kansas, some 42 Potawatomi individuals died, including 28
children; and
Whereas some of the Potawatomi Nation, including the Pokagon Band, the
Nottawaseppi Huron Band, the Gun Lake Band, and the Hannahville Indian
Community, evaded forced relocation and the devastating consequences of
the Trail of Death by fleeing to other locations in the Great Lakes
region, including to Canada, and elsewhere in the United States: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved,
SECTION 1. ACKNOWLEDGMENT.
The Senate--
(1) recognizes--
(A) the special legal and political relationship
Indian Tribes have with the United States; and
(B) the solemn covenant that the Potawatomi people
of the United States share with the land; and
(2) acknowledges the extreme hardship, violence, and
maltreatment inflicted on the Potawatomi people by the United
States through the cruel and ill-conceived policy of forcible
removal of the Potawatomi people from their homeland east of
the Mississippi River.
SEC. 2. DISCLAIMER.
Nothing in this resolution--
(1) authorizes or supports any claim against the United
States; or
(2) serves as a settlement of any claim against the United
States.
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