The ancestors of the Potawatomi lived on the east coast of the United States, but according to their traditions, after receiving a message from the spirit world, they migrated westward. census showed that 16,164 Potawatomi lived in the United States. The tribe was grouped with the other two members of the “Three Fires Confederacy,“the Ottawa and Ojibway (see entry). Beginning with the 2001 census, Canada no longer provided separate population statistics for the Potawatomi. Census, 16,719 people identified themselves as Potawatomi. In the early 1800s there were an estimated 9,000 to 10,000 Potawatomi. (Reserve is the Canadian term for reservation.) Population They also resided on several reserves in Canada. In the mid-2000s, they lived on scattered reservations and communities in southern Michigan and the upper peninsula of Michigan, in northern Indiana, northeastern Wisconsin, northeastern Kansas, and central Oklahoma. The Potawatomi originally lived on the east coast of the United States. The name Potawatomi (pronounced pot-uh-WOT-uh-mee) comes from the Ojibway “potawatomink,” which means “people of the place of fire.” The Potawatomi call themselves Nishnabek, meaning “true or original people.” Location
