George Godfrey is a descendant of the Potawatomi Indian Tribe. He actually grew up in Watseka, a city named after his great-great grandmother. But while working in Champaign years ago, he read in his tribal newspaper about the 1838 Trail of Death, and realized that every day driving to work, he crossed the very Trail of Death that his descendants, and most likely his grandmother, were forced to travel 185 years ago, when the Potawatomi were forced from Northern Indiana, into Eastern Kansas. He organized a committee to help research the exact trail that was taken across Illinois.
Eventually, Godfrey became president of the Potawatomi Trail of Death Association. The trail is traveled every five years, by whomever shows up and wishes to join the descendants. Godfrey says it is documented that 41 died during the journey, but he believes it to be much more.
AUDIO: We do know that there were over 800 people who were enrolled. And when they took another enrollment when the Potawatomi got to Kansas, there were only 600-plus people.
Trail of Death Monument in Danville’s Ellsworth Park.
Godfrey says some of the Potawatomi made the whole trip on foot, and those were the more fortunate.
AUDIO: And some people were removed in little wagons. The people who were removed in the little wagons largely were the elderly and the very sick. And what’s unfortunate is that in some cases people died in the wagon.
This year’s journey along the Trail of Death is scheduled for all this week, starting Monday the 18th, and wrapping up on Saturday the 23rd. The caravan is scheduled to arrive in Danville, at Turtle Run, around 11 AM Tuesday morning the 19th.
In addition to the 1838 Trail of Death; it was during that same time period that the Trail of Tears occurred, when the Cherokee were removed from their home, over a 20 year period, into what is now Oklahoma.
