Potawatomi Facts

Potawatomi Indian Facts

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• Potawatomi means keepers of the fire. They called them selves Neshback and Bodéwadomi.
• Potawatomi Indians had a government, police, laws, and services.
• They had a chief for different clans.
• Bozho means a nice greeting in Potawatomi.
• Iwgwieh means thank you in Potawatomi.
• Their transportation was canoes and walking.
• They spoke English and Potawatomi.
• They told stories that were important to their culture. The stories were legends and fairy tales.
• For fun they danced.
• Women did Bead work.
• Children played with dolls and toys just like they do now.
• The older boys and men hunted deer, buffalo, and beaver.
• The men and older boys fished.
• The older boys played lacrosse.
• Older girls played double shinny, which is the girl version of lacrosse but less violent.
• The Potawatomi Indians lived in South Michigan, Northern Wisconsin, Northern Indiana, Central Illinois, and Ontario Canada. The Indians were also forced to migrate west.
• The weather varied by what season it is or what region they are in just like now.
• Their religions were and are Catholicism, Methodism, and Midewiwin.
• The food that they ate was wild rice, summer squash, nuts, corn, beans, fish, berries, roots, wild greens, and they hunted animals such as deer, buffalo, elk, and beaver.  They also grew tobacco.
• The Potawatomi shelters are wigwams and Long Houses.

This is a picture of a wigwam.

           

This a picture of a Potawatomi Native American. 

Following The Potawatomi Tribe

I am the great buffalo named Tatanka. The Potawatomi tribe is very interesting and I love to watch them live their life. This my story of following them.

One day I was walking around with a buddy of mine. Then suddenly there were two boys playing one of their games that they play called hunt the animals. Well anyway the boys started shooting with their bows and arrows at my friend. As my friend and I were running, I started to wonder why they were shooting at him and not at me. Up ahead, I saw a big wall of trees side by side in the distance that I knew we could hide behind. I told my friend that we should hide behind the wall up there. He said, "that is a great idea." When we got to the wall, we jumped to the side and behind it. We stood there and watched the two boys keep running. "Do you think our parents are woried about us," I said. "I do not know,"  my friend said. Then we started to follow the two boys. They led us all the way up to where they had camp. We watched them and it was so interesting what they did, that we decided to spy on them. I started to scan the camp and my eyes stopped on these men who were cutting dear, elk, and what looked to be a beaver or what I thought was a buffalo. It might have been both. My friend said "is that a beaver and a buffalo?" That was when I knew, yes it was both. I was grossed out that they actually had or were going to eat someone that was related to me.
That night, when everybody went to sleep, we went to sleep behind the wall we had hidden behind yesterday. It was real early in the morning and a couple of men came out from their wigwams and started walking towards the river and then they jumped into a canoe. "Lets follow them" I said, to my friend, so we started following them. We plunged into the river, at first it was cold but got warmer once we had been in it for a while. The indians started rowing and stopped in this very special spot. We wondered what they were doing. Then they picked up this big fish with their hands. They turned around and headed back towards their campsite. When they returned to camp, it was 7:00 am and everybody was awake. For breakfast, they all had wild rice, summer squash, and fish. When they were eating breakfast, my friend and I decided to go have brekfast of our own. We went and found a big patch of grass. After brekfast, the women of the Potawatomi tribe went to make their bead work and baskets. I said that it looked very hard to do the bead work that the women were doing. While the women were making the bead work and baskets, the kids were off playing. Most of the the younger kids were playing with dolls and toys. Most of the older boys and men were playing lacrosse and most of the older girls and women were playing double shinny. I said to my friend "what is the difference between double shinny and lacrosse, they look the exactly same." My friend said "double shinny is a less violent version of lacrosse."
A little while later, all of the indians had stopped what they were doing and started doing something that was something that I had never seen. My friend said, "what do you think they are doing." I said, "they are practicing their religion." "What is their religion?" my friend said. I said, "I think they are Midewiwin." Then the chief came out from behind a tree and said bozoh. "What does that mean," I said to my friend. "I think it means hello or a nice greeting or something like that."
Meanwhile our parents were out looking for us. Our parents looked near and far, high and low, and side to side but could not find us. Suddenly, they saw two buffalo in the distanance right behind the Potawtomi's camp. "What are they doing " my parents said.
The chief at the camp was still going on and on about something that my friend and I could  not understand because the chief was speaking in Potawatomi. Then he said goodbye in english and then another word in Potawatomi. I know what iwgwieh mean. It means thankyou in Potawatomi.
By then our parents had reached us and were taking us home to all of the other buffalo.
Finally we are safe I said in my head. The whole time I could not wait till I got home because I was freaked out.



This is a picture of Tatanka



Journal Entry

The deer that Beshkno had for dinner.

     Dear journal,
              Long ago when I was walking to our camp site after taking a walk in the woods, my stomach was aching. Then suddenly I saw a big deer. I was so hungry; I had not eaten in days. I wanted to eat so badly, so I ran home and told my father that there was a big deer that we could have for dinner. My father said, "get your bow and arrow, we are going to eat tonight and for a lot more nights." Off we went to shoot the deer. It was a hard deer to shoot. First my dad shot and hit him in the foot. Then I shot and hit the deer in the stomach and down the deer went. Finally, we had food for dinner. “I love you Beshkno” my father said to me. "I love you too dad."
      That night we had a big plate of deer, squash, corn, wild rice, berries, and fish that we shared with all of the other starving people in our village. I was stuffed with all of the delicous food that we feasted on that night. It felt so good to finally be able to eat.