Trail of Courage

33rd Annual
Trail of Courage Living History Festival

Step back into Fulton County's Frontier past with a visit to this historic living history festival of pre-1840. Visit historic encampments representing the French and Indian War, Seven Years War, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Plains Indians, Woodland Indians - Miami and Potawatomi life ways, and voyaguers with canoes. Enjoy period music and dance, bagpipes and Scottish dancers, marching fife and drum corps, a frontier fashion show and Indian lore. See demonstrations of early American and Indian skills and wares such as broom making, spinning, candle dipping, flintknapping, Indian beadwork and more. Savor a variety of foods cooked over wood fires: buffalo burgers, Indian fry bread, venison stew, apple sausage, barbecue, homemade fudge, apple dumplings, popcorn and potato chips and fish fried in big iron kettles. Also, ice cream, George Washington’s favorite treat! You'll be sure to find something you'll like! Make your way to the Chippeway Village portraying frontier Northern Indiana of 1832 with its pioneer and Indian crafts, post office, storytellers, Frontier Blab School and 18th century puppet show. Observe muzzleloading shooting and tomahawk contests, blanket trading as well as a canoe landing and fur trading skit. See the Log Trading Post. Canoe rides available. Be sure to visit Chief White Eagle and Bobbie Bear before leaving - they are just outside the Admissions gate. FREE tram rides from FREE parking field to festival! The grounds are handicapped accessible. The museum and Living History Village at the north end of the grounds are open with costumed hosts, admission free.

Click here to view photo album. View the Trail of Courage Schedule here.

Want to participate? Send for an application!

What I love about Trail of Courage
By Marsha Glassburn, Rochester, Indiana - 8/5/06

It's Trail of Courage time once again.
People gather catching up with old friends.
Families prepare for the long day,
Dressing, and primping in the traditional way.

The drums get ready for heartbeat to begin,
Dancers all ready, waiting to walk in,
The MC at the mike ready to speak,
Soon it will be time to dance to the beat.

Fry bread cooking, the smell is in the air.
It's Trail of Courage time the best time of the year!
Crafts everywhere made by traditional hands -
No better place to be in this Native land.

The Circle starts filling with dancers galore:
Elders and youth and tiny tots by the score.
Hats removed and etiquette shown
For the first peoples in this land that we call home.

Veterans walk in carrying their flags -
Eyes getting misty for the respect they had.
The sky so bright blue, it takes your breath away.
An Eagle flying overhead just makes the day!

Soon it will end - everyone will leave.
There will be hugs and handshakes and smiles I believe.
For the Trail of Courage never ends, it always comes back.
This is Indian country, as a matter of fact.

No matter how far, no matter how long,
The first peoples will be there alive and strong.
There is no better place to be
Then going to Trail of Courage, believe you me!

History walks the streets at Trail of Courage Sept. 15-16, 2007
Special Guest Presentation of Eagle Feather Saturday

You can step back in time to an entirely different life, when history walked the streets, at the 32nd annual Trail of Courage Living History Festival Sept. 15-16 at Rochester. The Potawatomi Indians were marched single file down Rochester's Main Street September 5, 1838, on the forced removal known as the Trail of Death. Since 1976 this festival has honored the American Indians and shown life before the removal when this was still Potawatomi Territory.

Frontier Indiana comes alive with foods cooked over wood fires, period music and dance, traditional crafts, historic camps and trading, canoe rides on the river, and much more. It is produced by the Fulton County Historical Society, Rochester, Indiana. This event combines genealogy of the Potawatomi Indians and the settlers who lived in Fulton County and northern Indiana in the early 1800s with the rendezvous events and stage programs and the historic canoe landing and fur trade skit on the Tippecanoe River. The Trail of Courage will be held at the FCHS grounds four miles north of Rochester on US 31. Admission is $6 for adults, $2 for children (6 through 11), and free age 5 and under. Hours are Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sun. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A unique presentation of an eagle feather to the Potawatomi Trail of Death Association will take place at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Indian dance arena to thank all who helped commemorate the 1838 Trail of Death removal from Indiana to Kansas. The feather is from Gary Wiskigeamatyuk, Cypress, California, member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi, whose ancestor Chief Abram Burnett was on the Trail of Death - see his web site www.wiskigeamatyuk.com. A branch of FCHS, the Potawatomi Trail of Death Assn. has a web site www.potawatomi-tda.org and operates the Indian Awareness booth at the Trail of Courage.

This year's honored Potawatomi family will be Smokey McKinney, Haskell Indian Nations University, Lawrence, Kansas, a member of the Prairie Band, who teaches Potawatomi language and history at http://www.kansasheritage.org/pbp/talk/home.html. He will tell their story at 10:30 a.m. on the Chippeway Village stage both days.

New this year will be Sarah Miller, Kewanna, playing guitar and violin, and her church class will perform a Hebrew dance. Three authors will sell and autograph their new books and give talks on the stage. John McMullen, Evansville, will tell about The Last Blackrobe of Indiana and the Potawatomi Trail of Death. Keith Drury, professor of religion at Indiana Wesleyan University, Marion, will tell about Walking the Trail of Death. Mike Floyd, chief of the Eel River Tribe, will tell about their Welsh ancestry and famous Chief Little Turtle.

The public is invited to join in the Indian dances at 2 p.m., which are held in an arena encircled by teepees. The drum will be All Nations Drum led by John Helton, Kenton, Ohio. Head dancers will be Zanzia Russell, Westminister, Colorado, a descendant of Chief Keesis, who was on the 1838 Trail of Death from Indiana to Kansas. She is a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi. The Head Man will be Tim Jordan, Peru, first chief of the Hawk Band of the American Metis Aboriginal Assn. George Godfrey, Athens, Illinois, member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, will act as emcee. He is president of the Potawatomi Trail of Death Association, and has been dancing at the Trail of Courage since 1988. Godfrey had an ancestor on the 1838 Trail of Death.

The Trail of Courage includes historic encampments representing the French & Indian War, Voyageurs, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Western Fur Trade, Plains Indians teepees, and Woodland Indian wigwam village. A special re-creation of a Miami Village includes wigwams and lifeways demonstrations, such as making cattail mats. There is also a re-creation of Chippeway, the first trading post, post office and village in Fulton County in 1832. Food purveyors and traditional craftsmen set up in wooden booths to demonstrate and sell their wares. Craftsmen also sell pre-1840 trade goods from blankets and in historic merchant tents, offering a variety of items from clothing and jewelry to knives and candles, everything needed to live in frontier days. Canoe rides, muzzle loading shooting and tomahawk throwing contests, and a frontier blab school add to the frontier activities.

Two stages with frontier music and dance present programs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Since the early 1980s FCHS has received grants from the Indiana Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts to help pay for musicians and dancers: 42nd Royal Highlanders, Aztec dancers, Johnny Appleseed, Shakin' Hammers String Band, Mark and Liza Woolever, Susan and Gary Brown, Beverly Vanderpool - Frontier Blab School, Chief White Eagle, Indian dancers and drum. Many volunteers provide programs such as Frontier Frolic dance called by Shirley Willard, Nan Edwards' dogs pulling travois, Dr. John Haste - frontier animals, Schultz family - goats and kids, Phyllis Whitmore - Woodland Indian storytelling, and Riddle School 4th grade dancers, Hannah Jones - fiddle, Dan and Dale Lybarger - Native American flute music. Both Catholic and Protestant worship services are held at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday.

A grant of $2,631 from the Northern Indiana Partnership for the Arts, Indiana Arts Commission and the National Endowment of the Arts will help pay for music programs. Donations to match the grant are welcome as it is necessary to match the grant dollar for dollar in order to claim the money.

Pioneer foods are cooked over wood fires. Visitors can feast on buffalo burgers, chicken and noodles, barbecue, ham and beans, venison chili, Indian fry bread and tacos, fish and chips cooked in big iron kettles, apple dumplings, corn on the cob, apple sausage, and more, including ice cream, one of George Washington's favorite treats. Local clubs cook and serve these historic foods to fund their projects: Rotary, Kappa Delta Phi, Swingin' Dudes Square Dancers, Grass Creek Lions Club, and Fulton County Historical Society. A Navajo family, Anthony and Mary Ann Yazzie, Merrillan, Wisconsin, make fry bread and Navajo tacos. A Black family, Harvey and Beverly Jackson, Rochester, do the barbecue and sweet potato pie, and also exhibit a frontier African-American house. Many people come to the festival just for the delicious food!

The grounds are handicapped accessible. Free tram rides are available to bring people from the museum, round barn and Living History Village at the north end of the grounds. The museum and village are open with costumed hosts and free admission.

Volunteers can earn free admission to the Trail of Courage by working half a day. To volunteer or for more information, call the museum at 574-223-4436. Free parking is provided on FCHS grounds. Plenty of free benches are available to sit and rest.

Potawatomi Trail of Death Regional Historic Trail
1838 Indiana to Kansas
Erected 2006 by Manitou Chapter DAR, Rochester IN

Five new historic highway signs were dedicated Sept. 15, 2006. See Trail of Death in this web site for story - click here

Potawatomi Trail of Death Regional Historic Trail highway signs will be erected in Marshall County. Come to the dedication Friday Sept. 14 at 4 p.m. at the Chief Menominee Monument. Go six miles west of US 31 and turn north on Peach Road. Menomonee's statue is about a half mile and is on the east (right) side of Peach Road.

These signs are sponsored by Marshall County Tourism.

See www.potawatomi-tda.org for pictures of Trail of Death markers.