In Memory of the Potawatomi Indian "Trail of Death"

In Memory of the Potawatomi Indian "Trail of Death". Indiana to Kansas, September 4 - November 4, 1838. , From October 8-10, 1838, more than 800 Potawatomi Indians were encamped here in Quincy, Illinois and directly across the Mississippi River in Missouri. They were being forced to march from Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana to Eastern Kansas by the United States government and Indiana officials, a result of the policy of forced removal of all Indiana to lands west of the Mississippi River, to provide more land for European settlers moving from the east. , Many of the Indians attended Mass here at St. Boniface Church, including a young girl, Equa-Ke-Sec (Wa-Sech-Ki-Mo-Kwe). She was one of the few children to survive the treacherous journey that took more than 40 lives. At the end of the trail at St. Mary's Mission on Sugar Creek in Linn County, Kansas, Equa-Ke-Sec was taught to pray and sew by an elderly religious sister, Mother Rose Philippine Duchesne, a member of the French Order of the Madames of the Sacred Heart. The Indians called this holy lady, "She who prays always." In 1988 Rose Philippine became the first woman west of the Mississippi River to be canonized a saint by Pope John Paul II in Rome. , After the Potawatomi were resettled in Northeastern Kansas, Equa-Ke-Sec was given the Christian name, Theresa Living. In 1861 Theresa married James Slavin of Ireland at the St. Mary's Mission on the Potawatomi reserve near the present day St. Marys Kansas. Many Potawatomi were later removed from Kansas to Oklahoma. , In honor of the courage and faith shown by the Potawatomi Indians on the forced march, and especially by our beloved grandmother, Theresa, we so dedicate this memorial.