Macon Reservation Unit

As part of westward expansion, the United States began occupying lands in southeast Michigan in 1796, where the Potawatomi lived along the River Raisin from Lake Erie westward. As the U.S. moved into its new Post of Detroit, it began removing Native Americans, and on November 17, 1807, the U.S. government created the Macon Reservation eight miles outside the Post of Detroit along the River Raisin. The reservation covered only three square miles around the confluence of the Macon River, the Saline River, and the River Raisin. Several Potawatomi were relocated there, though many chose to live elsewhere. As the United States claimed their lands, the Potawatomi and other Native nations resisted giving up their homelands and way of life. In the War of 1812, the Potawatomi fought against the U.S. alongside the Indian Confederation and Great Britain in hopes of retaining their villages in southeast Michigan, winning battles along the River Raisin and Detroit River with the help of Potawatomi war chiefs. After the war, Great Britain abandoned the Native tribes, and the United States quickly forced tribal nations farther out. In 1817, Michigan Territorial Governor Lewis Cass began forcing the Potawatomi off the Macon Reservation, which was lost piece by piece until it was completely taken from them in the 1830s.

Dundee, Michigan · United States