1441 – The Council of Three Fires Splits into Separate Groups

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Figure 3. The Northeast Culture Area, showing the approximate locations of Indian tribes circa 1500, before displacement by non-Indians (with modern boundaries). Reprinted from “Northeast Woodlands Culture,” n.d., Retrieved from www.ya-native.com/Culture_NortheastWoodlands/index.html.

In the early 1500s, the Council of Three Fires split off into three separate groups:

    • – Chippewa (“Keepers of the Faith”)
    • – Ottawa (“Keepers of the Trade”)
    • – Potawatomi (“Keepers of the Sacred Fire”)

 

The Potawatomi migrated south to Michigan’s Lower Peninsula and lived there until the 1640s and 1650s (Potawatomi History | Milwaukee Public Museum, n.d.).

Around 1665, the League of the Iroquois, from upstate New York, drove the Potawatomi to what would become Door County, Wisconsin, in an attempt to dominate the Great Lakes fur trade (Potawatomi History | Milwaukee Public Museum, n.d.).

References:

Milwaukee Public Museum. (n.d.). Potawatomi History. Retrieved from Potawatomi History website: http://www.mpm.edu/content/wirp/ICW-152

Northeast Woodlands Culture. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.ya-native.com/Culture_NortheastWoodlands/index.html