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Potawatomi Indians and the University of Notre Dame: An Untold Story
Micky Magnuson
On December 4th, as a concluding activity to Native American Heritage Month celebrations, MSPS hosted a special dinner entitled “Potawatomi Indians and the University of Notre Dame: An Untold Story.” Notre Dame PhD student and Potawatomi historian, Ben Secunda, presented to an audience of 110 in the LaFortune Ballroom.
In his presentation, Secunda shared his research on the beginnings of the University as developing first with a relationship of mutual respect between Potawatomi leader Leopold Pokagon and Father Stephen Badin. |
 Special Presenter, Ben Secunda
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The story Secunda shared started with a concerned Pokagon looking for alliances to avoid forced removal of his village from traditional Potawatomi homelands to lands west of the Mississippi River as decreed in the Indian Removal Act of 1830. In July of 1830, Pokagon traveled to Fort Detroit and pleaded with the head of the Michigan diocese Father Gabriel Richard to send a “Black Robe” to mission to his people. Father Badin observed the meeting, was very much moved by the encounter, and volunteered for the job. Badin left Fort Detroit for northern Indiana where he spent the next 6 years converting the Potawatomi along the Saint Joseph River Valley to Catholicism and educating them on how to speak and read English. In fact, the original log chapel on campus was built by Pokagon for Badin’s use.
MSPS would like to thank Pokagon Potawatomi Chairman John Miller for giving the welcoming address, Tribal Council members John Warren, Marchell Wesaw, and Judy Winchester for their support and participation, Assistant Vice President Sister Sue Dunn for blessing the meal, and of course, Ben Secunda for sharing his fascinating research.
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