POTAWATOMI

(Algonquian: "People of the Place of the Fire"), Algonquian-speaking tribe of North American Indians who were living in what is now northeastern Wisconsin when first observed by whites in the 17th century; they had been pushed there from what is now the lower peninsula of Michigan by the Iroquois. They later spread south back into lower Michigan as well as into lands that became Illinois and Indiana. The Potawatomi were semisedentary, living in agricultural villages in summer and separating into family groups in autumn to move to their winter hunting grounds. Men hunted and fished; women planted and harvested crops and collected vegetable foods. Village dwellings were large bark-covered houses or dome-shaped wigwams; the latter were also used at winter sites. The Potawatomi were divided into several politically independent, territorial bands that were, however, linked by kinship and language. Numerous exogamous clans whose members traced their descent from a common ancestor through the male line were distributed among the various bands. Crowded by settlers, the Potawatomi ceded their lands and moved west of the Mississippi River. Many in Indiana refused to leave until they were driven out by the U.S. military, and some of these escaped into Canada. In 1846 most Potawatomi were removed by soldiers to a Kansas reservation, where they became known as the Prairie band. Over the course of the westerly trek they borrowed such features as the communal bison hunts and associated camp organization from the Plains Indians. In the late 1860s many of the Kansas band moved to Oklahoma Indian Territory, where they were known as the Citizen Potawatomi. The Prairie band has preserved much of the aboriginal culture; the Citizens have largely accepted the dominant U.S. culture. Other Potawatomi groups currently reside in Wisconsin and Michigan.