Potawatomi

Potawatomi, Native North American tribe of the Algonquian language family and of the Northeast culture area. The Potawatomi, or Fire Nation, were closely related to both the Ojibwa and the Ottawa peoples. The Potawatomi ancestral homeland was probably the lower peninsula of present-day Michigan. When they first became known to Europeans in the early 17th century, they were settled around what is now Green Bay, Wisconsin. Gradually they extended their territory until, by 1800, they dominated a large area from Wisconsin to Michigan and much of northern Indiana and Illinois. During the colonial period they fought with the French against the British, and in 1763 they took part in the uprising under the Ottawa chief Pontiac. They were allied with the British against the Americans in the American Revolution and in the War of 1812.

Between 1815 and 1841 the Potawatomi sold their lands to the U.S. government, and most of them moved west, eventually settling on a reservation in southern Kansas. By the mid-20th century about 2,000 Potawatomi lived in Kansas, with smaller bands in neighboring states. In the 2000 U.S. census about 16,000 people identified themselves as Potawatomi only; an additional 9,800 people reported being part Potawatomi.

See also Native Americans of North America: Northeast.