Introduction
America is one of the most developed nations globally and has been considered to set standards in most aspects of social, political, and economic factors. The nation has existed for several decades, which has significantly contributed to its growth. The country’s history has also been associated with the need to preserve its nativity.
One of the oldest tribes in the United States of America is the Potawatomi, estimated to have been in the country for over four decades. The community’s subsistence, settlement patterns, and governance are some of the areas examined widely by scholars, especially in modern days. Still, the changes observed in most parts of the country have not changed the way the Potawatomi live and conduct their daily business.
Language and Migration History
The Potawatomi mainly speak the Algonkian language, even though the community has also fully incorporated other languages, which have resulted from intermarriages and immigration. The community has mainly lived in the Great Lakes parts of the country for the last 450 years (Oxford, 2019). However, it was recognized as an American citizen after the 1867 treaty with the United States (Oxford, 2019).
The years the Potawatomi have spent in America have mainly been characterized by instances of moving from one part of the country to another, with major areas being in Michigan’s lower peninsula. According to Stebbins (2013), the Potawatomi, together with Ojibwe and Ottawa, lived mainly in the Straits of Mackinac. However, they separated, leaving the Potawatomi as the Keepers of the Sacred Fire, a position which they continue to hold in the present time. The community holds special events to commemorate most of these traditional events, with dedicated museums.
Subsistence and Seasonal Practices
The Potawatomi have a rich approach to their ways of subsistence and seasonality, which they have used in different ways. The community is mainly associated with hunting, fishing, and gathering, in addition to maintaining their gardens for agricultural products. The women in the community primarily collected wild food such as roots, greens, and berries. Still, those living in the forested parts of the country continue this kind of life.
The males mainly engage in growing plants, especially tobacco, which is used to enhance the community’s economic activities. While hunting is less fierce in modern days, the activities are still conducted by individuals or groups for sports or leisure. According to Stebbins (2013), the fall was mostly comprised of different categories going to their camping sites in the valleys where they would shelter from the winter. However, the hunters return to their groups to hunt for buffalo or fish in streams that end in Lake Michigan.
Settlement Patterns and
The settlement patterns of the Potawatomi have also remained consistent over the years. However, this is uncommon in most built environments where the community does not have much to do in line with their cultural way of life. However, the people living in the forested environments continue their traditional way of life. For instance, most people build large summer camps along the forest edges and Lake Michigan (Stebbins, 2013).
In most cases, the Potawatomi would gather, hunt, or fish using specific resources that existed within the areas designated for the activities. It is common to find that some villages are dispersed in winter camps, where they live in dome-shaped wigwams covered with mats or bark sheets.
Social Structure, Leadership, and Governance
The community’s social structure is mainly observed in the way the people are organized into clans, with most of them led by clan heads or chiefs. Most importantly, the subsistence of the clans depends highly on the cooperation between the men and the women, who do their specific duties to meet the objectives of the family and the community at large.
Leadership and governance are some of the complex concepts that have mainly had central focal points in the community. The Potawatomi and other aboriginal tribes have organized villages led by senior individuals, who are accorded respect due to their area of influence, abilities, power to influence followers, and achievements in their clans (Stebbins, 2013). The traditional communities did not have chiefs but would choose one individual to represent their communities in solving the issues affecting them and their neighbors. Still, group decisions were also considered, but mainly involved long processes that involved discussing a series of advantages and disadvantages of elements that interested them or those that could affect their communal success.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Potawatomi have lived in the United States for almost five decades, making them one of the original tribes in the country. Even though several issues have changed over the years, the Potawatomi continue to maintain their way of life in modern times. The communities continue to participate in rich cultural events, most of which are documented in space areas in the country, such as museums.
In modern times, most of the Potawatomi live in towns and cities within the country, and some have also moved to other parts of the world. However, despite these developments associated with immigration and urbanization, some communities among the Potawatomi continue to preserve their cultural ways of life. Those living in the forested places mostly hunt, gather, or fish around Lake Michigan. Still, the communities have maintained their ways of leadership and governance, social and economic welfare, and healing and medicine.
References
Oxford, W. (2019). Fission in Algonquian and the status of morphological templates. In Proceedings of the 23rd Workshop on the Structure and Constituency of Languages of the Americas (pp. 78-92). D. K. E. Reisinger and Roger Yu-Hsiang Lo (eds.). Publisher – UBCWPL.
Stebbins, S. (2013). Native peoples of North America. Open SUNY Textbooks.