Honoring Their Stories:

Remembering the Potawatomi Trail of Death

Potawatomi historian, scholar and storyteller George Godfrey.

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. 

We are pleased to announce that this event will be filmed for broadcast at a later date on our social media and on the Library's website.  Watch for more information.

This event is cosponsored by the Native American House at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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