[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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