Pottawattomi Indians
Indians that were in Comstock when the settlers came to this area were the Pottawattomi. They are known as the Woodland Indians because they used to dwell in areas with a lot of trees.
The Pottawattomi lived peacefully near rivers or lakes. The women raised crops such as beans, tobacco, and corn. They also gathered berries, nuts, and wild rice while young Indian men hunted and fished for food. The men hunted with bows, arrows, and spears. With these they hunted for bears, beavers, and deer. Animals provided more than just food. Moccasins, clothes, and blankets were made out of the animal skins They fished with bone hooks.
Pottawattomi women also gathered sap from the trees and made maple sugar. In 1832, three settlers of Toland Prairie visited a Native American sugar bush. There they found busy workers. They were gathering sap from the trees and taking it back to the campsites. The sap was cooked in iron kettles. When the sap was done, the Indian women took cold sap in their mouths and spit it over ladles filled with hot sugar to cool it off.They then presented it to their white visitors to eat. But the settlers refused to eat it.
The Pottawattomi were the most advanced farmers of the Three Fires (consisting of the Pottawattomi, Ottawa and Chippewa tribes). This is not unusual, because they lived in the richest farming areas. Michigan Indians gathered shells which they made into beads, called wampum. They sent messages with wampum pictures because they did not write.
Eventually the Pottawattomi and other Indians died out. (See Correction) It would have been fun to live at the time of the Indians. I hope you enjoyed learning about the Pottawattomi as much as I did!
SOURCES
America The Beautiful. Michigan
Social Studies Third Grade Local History by Alice Weber
Michigan In Words And Pictures
By Amanda
Updated December, 1999
