“Honoring Their Stories: Remembering the Potawatomi Trail of Death” is cosponsored by the Native American House at the University of Illinois and presented from 3 to 4 p.m. at the Urbana Free Library on Saturday, October 15th.
George Godfrey is a Potawatomi historian, storyteller, and educator, and will speak about the 1838 Potawatomi Trail of Death. The Trail of Death was the forced removal of the Potawatomi from Indiana to Kansas. It passed through Monticello. Spring 2022 Allerton Artists-in-Residence Nicole Anderson-Cobb and Latrelle Bright recently conducted research in and around Monticello, and discussed this very topic.
This will certainly be a moving and informative hour. The event is free and open to the public. Additional details from the event website are below.
George Godfrey – Potawatomi historian, storyteller and educator – is our guest for this special program. He will speak about the Potawatomi Trail of Death, when Potawatomi people were pushed from their land in Indiana to Kansas in 1838, on a tragic route that passed near our community. Godfrey has written and researched the “Potawatomi Removals”, including the experiences of his Potawatomi great-great grandmother, Josette Watchekee and her family, who lived this story. Come to learn more about the causes and impact of these events and to honor the memory of those whose lives were forever changed.
Our speaker will be introduced by Dr. Charlotte E. Davidson, the Director of the Native American House at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
George Godfrey is a Citizen Potawatomi and President of the Potawatomi Trail of Death Association. He was a professor and vice president at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas and also worked for the US Department of Agriculture assisting Tribal Colleges with their teaching and research programs. He received his PhD in Entomology at Cornell University. He has written many books set in the historical period of the Potawatomi Removals.
This event is cosponsored by the Native American House at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Honoring Their Stories: Remembering the Potawatomi Trail of Death
Urbana Free Library, Lewis Auditorium
Sa October 15th, 3 p.m.
Free
