[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 30 (Thursday, February 13, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S1078]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 SENATE RESOLUTION 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''

  Mr. YOUNG (for himself, Ms. Stabenow, and Mr. Peters) submitted the 
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Indian 
Affairs:

                              S. Res. 499

       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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