The Potawatomi are a wonderful tribe of Native Americans, and are considered to be one of the Anishinaabe Tribes, along with the Chippewa, the Ottawa, and the Algonquin. They were especially fond of their women, and a man would starve in order to allow enough food, if necessary, for his wife and daughters! Talk about chivalry…wow! The Potawatomi were also very passionate about food and health, along with their high valuation of women.

They lived in rectangular dwellings near their fields of corn and beans, and their agriculture, while primitive, was very advanced compared to other tribes. They were also very keen with hunting and fishing. They made baskets and bags, and were fascinated with beads. For Good Luck they made a Medicine Bag, which would contain tiny items to bestow Good Luck and Good Fortune, particularly when some of the men were going off to hunt, fish, fight, or on a journey. They were not extremely religious, and their beliefs were more in line with “being nice” to Mother Earth, and respecting her and her inhabitants, just as many Indian cultures were.

They had unusually large farms, and used a lot of birch bark to make tools and untensils. In 1847, a Jesuit missionary, Christian Hoecken, spent time with the Potawatomi and reported some of his findings. He noted that their beliefs seemed to be similar to the Hebrews, almost as though they were following the Laws of Moses, although their religion did not contain a “God” but rather a “Great Spirit” that they called Gichi Manito. This was a Great Spirit without a human form or persona, and had no gender.

There were two different distinctions of the Potawatomi; the Prairie Potawatomi, and the Forest Potawatomi. They lived in or near what is now Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. They had a medicine lodge, which was similar to a hospital, where people could go and see the medicine man or woman for whatever was troubling them. The medicine people were very secretive about their crafts, and it is believed that they eventually began experimenting with peyote and mind altering substances.

The Potawatomi were a hard-working and peaceful people, with a love of life, and a zest for living, and they even got into some serious partying and even some wild sexuality with some men having several wifes or partners. They were also superstitious people and the legend of their Medicine Bag Good Luck Amulet is particularly fascinating stuff, as are some of their mythological creatures. They had this one creature, which they only saw in dreams, and it was called Missibizi, and brought them good luck with sturgeon fishing.