Potawatomi tribal members were forced at gunpoint in 1838 to leave their homes in Indiana and walk a 660-mile route known as the Trail of Death, Jon Boursaw said Thursday.
They then lived in what is now Linn County in east-central Kansas, where 600 members died of cholera and were buried in unmarked graves before the Potawatomi were relocated in the late 1840s to the Topeka area, Boursaw said.
A native Topekan and a Potawatomi tribal legislator, Boursaw was among those who spoke at a ceremony in southwest Topeka to dedicate an exhibit focusing on Potawatomi tribal history.
He stressed that the Potawatomi have been here since before Topeka became a city in 1854 and Kansas became a state in 1861.
Officials of the Citizens Potawatomi Nation during a public ceremony April 29 will dedicate a historical exhibit in southwest Topeka focusing on that tribe s history.
The event will begin at 3 p.m. at the site of the exhibit. It is located at the entrance to Skyline Park at Burnett s Mound, which is the site of Topeka s highest point.
Those taking part will include Citizens Potawatomi Nation Chairman John Rocky Barrett, Shawnee County Commissioner Kevin Cook and county parks and recreation director Tim Laurent, the county s Parks For All Foundation said in a news release.
The exhibit can be reached by going to S.W. 35th and Gage Boulevard, then traveling about five blocks west and one block north.