Simon Pokagon

(1830 - 1899)

The son of the spokesman for the Pokagon Band of Catholic Potawatomi in southern Michigan and northern Indiana, Simon Pokagon advocated on behalf of the Potawatomi and was elected chair of their business committee in 1869. He was invited to speak at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. “While you who are strangers and you who live here bring the handiwork of your own lands, and your hearts in admiration rejoice over the beauty and grandeur of this young republic,” he said in his address, “do not forget that this success has been at the sacrifice of our homes.”