2022 Fall Newsletter

Episcopal Bishop walks the Potawatomi Trail of Death by Barbara Proffitt Lynn County News

On March 20 Indiana Bishop Doug Sparks set out on a walk that would take him through four states over the course of the next 43 days before finally arriving at his destination on May 1. As part of his posting with the diocese in Indiana, Spark was given a three month sabbatical after his first five years in his new position as Bishop; but when the time came he could take it, the country was embroiled in the Covid-19 pandemic so he opted to stay and wait on his sabbatical. “1 was driving to a service one day near Plymouth, Ind., when I saw a bent sign about the Menominee Memorial,” explained Sparks, “I had never heard of him so I googled it and decided to visit the memorial and when I got back to my office I began researching the Potawatomi and the Trail of Death.” The sign he saw that day marked the site of the vil lage from which Menominee and the tribe of 859 Potawatomi were expelled. “I wanted to do something for my sabbatical that encompassed something from the area, something that connected to it,” said Sparks. So he began mak ing plans to walk the original Trail of Death that the Potawatomi followed from Indiana into Illinois down into Missouri and on into Kansas. When the 859 Potawatomi and Chief Menominee em barked on their walk in 1838, it took them 61 days through horrid heat and drought ridden conditions to make that walk 40 of them died along the way. This was just one of many expulsions of Native Amer icans that took place during that time frame through the Indian Removal Act. Through a series of failed treaties, Menominee was eventually forced off his land by state militiamen who placed him in a jail cart as the rest of the Potawatomi walked. This is not the first time Sparks has undertaken such a walk, as he walked a portion of the Camino de Santia go in Spain in 2019.As He entered the town of Osawat omie, he was joined by several riders on horseback

and others who had decided to join in for the final leg. They made their way south to Parker and were met by townsfolk who invited them to partake of a commu nity dinner following the ceremonies at St. Philippine Duchesne on Sunday, May 1. As they reached the site where the Potawatomi were cared for and tended to by members of the Catholic Church, they were greeted by local caretaker of the park, Larry Lemon, and Jon Boursaw of the Citizen Pot tawatomi Nation and Boursaw’s brother Lyman, both of whom are direct descendants of the Potawatomi who were brought to the mission. Boursaw gave a history of the memorial and the mis sion and spoke of how the Pottawatomi lived in niches above the water that runs through the area. The mission (St. Mary’s) was the true end of the Trail of Death, where the Potawatomi lived for the next eight years according to John Boursaw. Mother Rose Philippine Duchesne came in 1841 to teach the Potawatomi. She established the first Indian school for girls west of the Mississippi River. At age 72 and in failing health, she was not able to work. She dedicated herself to contemplative prayer. Noticing that she was praying at night and still pray ing in the same position the next morning, the Indian children placed pebbles around her long black robe. Discovering the pebbles undisturbed, they realized she was praying all night. The Indians thus named her “Woman Who Prays Always.” She was canonized in 1988, the first female saint west of the Mississippi River. Eventually the tribe transitioned from owning land communally to individually, a previously unexplored way of life for the Potawatomi. Two-thirds agreed to own a divided portion for their individual families and became the Citizen Potawatomi. The remaining third kept a communal parcel and became the Prairie Band Potawatomi. “This has been an amazing and challenging time,” said Bishop Sparks, “I was so glad to be met along the way by so many loving and generous people who opened their hearts to me.”

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