Potawatomi

Potawatomi

Bodéwadmi
Potawatomi at a rain dance in 1920
Total population
28,000
Regions with significant populations
United States (Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Illinois)  Canada (Ontario)
Languages
English, formerly Potawatomi
Religion
Catholicism, Methodism, Midewiwin

The Potawatomi /pɒtəˈwɒtəmi/,^[1][2] also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the Great Plains, upper Mississippi River, and western Great Lakes region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a member of the Algonquin family. The Potawatomi call themselves Neshnabé, a cognate of the word Anishinaabe. The Potawatomi are part of a long-term alliance, called the Council of Three Fires, with the Ojibway and Odawa (Ottawa). In the Council of Three Fires, the Potawatomi are considered the "youngest brother". Their people are referred to in this context as Bodéwadmi, a name that means "keepers of the fire" and refers to the council fire of three peoples.^[3]

In the 19th century, some bands of Potawatomi were pushed to the west by European/American encroachment. In the 1830s the federal government removed most from their lands east of the Mississippi River to Indian Territory - first in Kansas, Nebraska, and last to Oklahoma. Some bands survived in the Great Lakes region and today are federally recognized as tribes, in addition to the Potawatomi in Oklahoma.