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THE RED MEN OF IOWA.

CHAPTER X.

THE POTTAWATTAMIES.

THE Indians known to us as the Pottawattamies were by the French called Pouks, and by this name they are designated in the early history of the tribes inhabiting the region about the great lakes. We have incidentally given something of their history in other parts of this work. They belonged to the Algonquin family, and were once a numerous and important branch of that race.

The word Pottawattamie means "makers of fire," and was to the tribe expressive of the fact that they had assumed separate sovereignty by building a council-fire of their own, or, in other words, that they were an independent people, and free from alliance with any other tribe. Still, we find bands of them united with other tribes against the whites. Some of them espoused the cause of Pontiac, in 1763, against the English of the American colonies, and, in 1812, we find them fighting with Tecumseh against the Americans. During the same year we