BULL. 30] 



POTANO I'OTAWATOMI 



289 



Potano. A tribe of Timucuau stock for- 

 merly occupying an inland territory in 

 N. Florida, about the upper water8 of Su- 

 wannee r. De Soto pasf^ed through their 

 territory in 1539, the French Huguenots 

 found them at war with the Timucua in 

 1564, and Pareja mentions them in 1612 

 as speaking a Timucuan dialect. They 

 were later Christianized and gathered 

 into mission villages, which, with those of 

 the Apalachee, were destroyed by the in- 

 cursions of the savages from the north- 

 ward in 1701-08. (j. M.) 

 Patanou. — Luudonni&re(1564)misquotedbyShipp, 

 De Soto and Fla., 518, 1881. Potano.— Gentl. of 

 Elvas (15.'S7) in Bourne, De Soto Narr., i, 38, 1904; 

 Ranjel (ca. l.WC), ibid., ii, 70, 1904; Pareja (1612) 

 as quoted by Gatschetin Proc. Am. Philos. Soc, 

 XVII, 479, 1880. Potanou. — Laudonniere (15G41 in 

 Frencli, Hist. Coll. La., n. s.,243, 1869. Potavou.— 

 Brinton, Fla. Penin., 119,1859 (misprint v for n). 



Potanumaquut. A former Nauset village 

 on Pleasant bay, nearHarwich, Barnstable 

 CO., Mass. In 1762 it still contained 64 

 Indians and was, next to Mashpee, the 

 largest Indian village in the county. 

 Ponanummakut. — Rawson and Danforth in Mass. 

 Hist. Soc. Coll., 1st s., X, 133, 1809. Potanumacut.— 

 Treaty of 1687, ibid., 4th s., v, 186, 1861. Potanu- 

 maquut— Freeman (1792) , ibid., 1st s., I, 230, 1806. 

 Potenumacut.— Writer {ca. 1767), ibid., 2d s., in, 

 14, 1815. Poterrommecut.— Stiles (1762), ibid., 1st 

 8., X, 112, 1809. 



Potaucao. A village of the Powhatan 

 confederacy in 1608, in New Kent co. , Va. , 

 between the Chickahominy and Pamun- 

 key rs. 



Potaucao.— Smith (1629), Va., I, map, repr. 1819. 

 Potavncak.— Pots, ibid., 219. 



Potawackati. A band, probably Mo- 

 quelumnan, so called from their chief, 

 formerly residing near the headwaters of 

 Mariposa, Merced, and Tuolumne rs., Cal. 

 Potawackaties. — Barbour et al. (1851) in Sen. Ex. 

 Doc. 4, 32d Cnng., spec, sess., 60, 1853. 



Potawatomi (J. B. Bottineau, speaking 

 Chippewa ami Cree fluently, gives I'ola- 

 waUnnlnk or Potairaganink, i. e. ' Peojjleof 

 the place of the fire,' as the primary form 

 of the name. This derivation is strongly 

 confirmed by the Huron name Axistague- 

 roiion (Champlain, 1616), for Otsista'ge- 

 'ronuon', likewise signifying 'People of 

 the place of fire,' which was ajtplied by 

 them to their enemies who dwelt in 1616 

 on the Av. shores of L. Luron. The Jes- 

 uit Relation for 1671 (42, 1858) has the 

 following passage: "Four nations make 

 their abode here, namely, those who 

 bear the name Puans (i. e., the Winne- 

 bago), who have always lived here as in 

 their own country, and who have been 

 reduced to nothing from being a very 

 flourishing and populous people, having 

 been exterminated by the Illinois, their 

 enemies; the Potawatomi, the Sauk, and 

 the Nation of the Fork (la Fourche) also 

 live here, but as strangers (or foreigners), 

 driven l)y the fear of Iroquois [The Neu- 

 ters and Ottawa] from their own lands 

 whicli are between the lake of the Hu- 



rons and that of the Illinois." The 

 Jesuit Relations employ the expression 

 "Nation of Fire,'.' until in the one for 

 1670 (p. 94) occurs the first use of 

 "Makskouteng," who are represented as 

 living then on Fox r. in what is now 

 Wisconsin. Hence, it seems clear that 

 the term "nation of fire" was originally 

 applied to the Potawatomi and their close 

 neighbors, tha Sauk and the "Nation of 

 the Fork," d\velling on the w. shore of 

 L. Huron. And since a part at least of 

 the Potaw:iomi tribe bears the name 

 MasJcotcjis, othcially known as the "Prai- 

 rie Band," and the tribe as a whole was 

 a part of those who were called "People 

 of the Fire," a natural confusion arose as 

 to the application of these two names, 



POTAWATOMI MAN 



and so the term "Fire Nation" at last 

 became i)ermanently affixed to a people 

 Avhose proper name was " People of the 

 Small Prairie," latterly known as the 

 Mascoutens. — Hewitt). An Algonquian 

 tribe, first encountered on the islands of 

 Green bay, Wis. , and at its head. Accord- 

 ing to the traditions of all three tribes, the 

 Potawatomi, Chippewa, and Ottawa were 

 originally one people, and seem to have 

 reached the region about the upper end 

 of L. Huron together. Here they sepa- 

 rated, but the three have sometimes 

 formed a loose confederacy, or have acted 

 in concert, and in 1846 those removed be- 

 yond the Mississippi, asserting their 

 former connection, asked to l)e again 

 united. Warren conjectured that it had 



3456— Bull. 30, pt. 2—07- 



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