The Indian Removal Act was passed by Congress on May 28, 1830. This policy essentially stated that all American Indians would be moved to reservations west of the Mississippi River. Several bands of the Pottawatomi, including the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish, escaped removal. However, others were forcibly removed to present day Kansas and Oklahoma. This has been referred to by historians as the Pottawatomi Trail of Death.

 

Kalamazoo County was organized by an act of the territorial legislature and approved by the governor on July 3, 1830. The town of Bronson was officially designated as the county seat on May 1, 1831. Five years later, an influential group of men in town, dismayed by the apparent eccentricities of Titus Bronson (accused, tried, and convicted of stealing a cherry tree), had the name of the town changed to Kalamazoo.

 

The southwest corner marker for the 1821 Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Reservation will be located on the south side of Parkview Avenue, between Wood Street and Greenleaf Boulevard. The original southwest corner of the 1821 Reservation was located at the present-day junction of Kensington and Wellington streets. This is just across Parkview Road, about 35 yards to the northeast of the marker.

 

Tell us what you think of this new history and how we presented it - SURVEY.

 

Select the "+" in the red cirlce on this page and the camera option to view oral histories from Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Tribal Councillors and band elders.

 

This project is funded in part by the Michigan Humanities Council in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities.