I was researching the Trail of Courage, aka Trail of Death, that was the forced march of Chief Menominee and his Potawatomie band that refused to move out of Indiana back in the 1800s.

Wikipedia is not considered a credible source for many things, but I found this paragraph truthful and there’s probably a lot more to the story:

One treaty that directly led to the forced removal of the Potawatomi from Twin Lakes was made at Yellow River on August 5, 1836. Under its terms, the Potawatomi ceded the Menominee Reserve, established under an 1832 treaty, to the federal government and agreed to remove west of the Mississippi River within two years. In exchange, the Potawatomi would receive $14,080 for the sale of their 14,080 acres of Indiana reservation lands, after payment of tribal debts were deducted from the proceeds.^[17][18][19] Chief Menominee and seventeen of the Yellow River band refused to take part in the negotiations and did not recognize the treaty’s authority over their land. In a petition dated November 4, 1837, Chief Menominee and other Potawatomi submitted a formal protest to General John Tipton. The chiefs claimed that their signatures on the August 5, 1836, treaty had been forged (Menominee’s had been omitted) and the names of other individuals who did not represent the tribe had been added. There is no record of a reply to their petition.^[20] They sent additional petitions to President Martin Van Buren and Secretary of War Lewis Cass in 1836 and 1837, but the federal government refused to change its position.^[21]

By 1837 some of the Potawatomi bands had peacefully removed to their new lands in Kansas. By August 5, 1838, the deadline for removal from Indiana, most of the Potawatomi had already left, but Chief Menominee and his band at Twin Lakes refused to move.^[21][22] The following day, August 6, 1838, Col. Pepper called a council at Menominee’s village at Twin Lakes, where he explained that the Potawatomi had ceded land in Indiana under the treaty, and they had to remove.^[23] Chief Menominee responded through an interpreter:

My brother, the President is just, but he listens to the word of young chiefs who have lied; and when he knows the truth, he will leave me to my own. I have not sold my lands. I will not sell them. I have not signed any treaty, and will not sign any. I am not going to leave my lands, and I do not want to hear anything more about it.^[23]

After the council meeting, tensions increased between the Potawatomi and the white settlers who wanted to occupy the reservation lands. Fear of violence caused some settlers to petition Indiana governor David Wallace for protection. Wallace authorized General John Tipton to mobilize a militia of one hundred volunteers to forcibly remove the Potawatomi from their Indiana reservation lands.^[23][24][25]

Reverend Louis Deseille, a Catholic missionary at Twin Lakes in the 1830s, denounced the Yellow River treaty (1836) as a fraud and argued, “this band of Indians believe that they have not sold their reservation and that it will remain theirs as long as they live and their children.”^[20] In response to his support of the Potawatomi’s resistance efforts, Col. Pepper ordered Father Deseille to leave the mission at Twin Lakes, or risk arrest for interfering in Indian affairs. Father Deseille went to South Bend, Indiana, although not without protest, and intended to return to Twin Lakes, but died at South Bend on September 26, 1837.

Chief Menominee considered the treaty a fraud because he did not sign it. This happened in the Black Hills of South Dakota, as well, as the Lakota did not give away that land, either.  They had a working democracy where three-fourths of them had to sign a treaty for it to become law.  They did not get a majority of Lakota to agree, therefore the treaty was null and void.  The United States finally recognized it was a fraud, but they want the Lakota to accept $$$ for the land.  To date, the Lakota have refused the money.  The Black Hills are sacred to them, and they would never consider money for them. **edited to add:  by these terms, that would mean that the land here in Indiana that was obtained by fraud still belongs to the Potawatomie. Hmmm….

In fact, the Native folk consider the land as Creation and therefore cannot be bought or sold.  They did not make the land, therefore, they cannot own it.  The Creator made it for all of us.

Anyway, back to Chief Menominee, they had Reverend Deseille stood up for the Native folk and was apparently a force to be reckoned with as he was going to be arrested if he didn’t get out of the way.

The mystery here is that I believe he was murdered for standing up for his beliefs.  He saw what was happening as very wrong, and paid for it with his life.  There is no mention of him being ill before leaving for South Bend.  In fact, if he were ill, I would presume that the evil ones would just let it play out so they would gain control of the situation and shove these poor folks off their land.

By the way, that area of the state has a natural spring with wonderful water.  The lake is also fed by a natural spring.  Best tasting water I have ever had.  It truly makes you appreciate how cleansing and satisfying a glass of clean pure water is. For that alone, I can see why Chief Menominee was reluctant to leave…

And folks here have no clue of the water wars about to take place.  I can guarantee that it is coming down the line…seeing how devastated California is, and how lush and green Indiana is, there is such a contrast people here don’t have any idea how good they have it and to conserve that precious gift of water.

By the way, one can make your own water filter…the way Mother Earth does it…by sand, stone, and carbon.  I found online that you can make your own carbon by burning coconot husk.  You add this to the sand and dirt, put it in a funnel-like container (I used a gallon jug with the bottom cut out), with some kind of cotton filter placed in the hole.  Fill from the top, and let it drip into the storage container.

Please don’t store your water in plastic containers…it leaches the harmful plastic xenoestrogens and carcinogens (hormone disruptors and cancer causing elements).  I bought some of the restaurant size pickle jars and emptied them out.  I use those glass containers for water.  Be sure not to use dirt that has been sprayed with chemicals.  If you have placed the cotton correctly, you should not be getting brown water from the dirt seeping through.  And I don’t warranty this, so use at your own discretion.