Celebrating Indigenous People of Southwest Michigan
For National Native American Heritage Month we are honored to share more information on the original inhabitants of our region. The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi are a tribe in Southwest Michigan. The Potawatomi originally held more than five million acres of land in the Great Lakes Region. Along with two other nations, the Ojibway and Odawa, the Potawatomi helped form the Neshnabeck, which stands for “the original or true people.” As part of the Neshnabeck these three nations created the Three Fires Confederacy with each group upholding their heritage through assigned roles:
Ojibway - Keepers of Tradition
Odawa - Keepers of the Trade
Potawatomi - Keepers of the Fire
As Keepers of the Fire, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi have carried on traditions, language, and culture through dance, arts, and education. This quote, from the Pokagon Band website, best represents their current success and goals ahead:
“Pokagon Band citizens take great pride in the enormous strides the Band has taken to further economic development, develop tribal infrastructure, and resources, and improve healthcare, housing, education, and Elder services to its citizens. In addition, the Pokagon Band has made it a priority to develop language and cultural programs for its citizens, through its Department of Language and Culture, in an effort to fully engage the Pokagon Band community in the cultural heritage and the traditional lifeways of the Pokagon people. They recognize their clan identity and remember their ancestors’ presence in modern-day gatherings like pow-wows.”
Commitments and actions like those of the Pokagon Band are truly inspiring. We encourage everyone to learn more about the indigenous peoples of their areas. Please visit the Pokagon Band website linked below to see every thing they are doing right there in our region.
Michigan Potawatomi villages occupied ca. 1820 to 1900. Shaded areas indicate the range of Potawatomi territory prior to early-nineteenth-century American settlement. a. Rush Lake; b. Paw Paw; c. Brush Creek; d. Silver Creek; e. Pokagon Reservation; f. Niles Nadowesippe Reservation and Athens.
