From the forgotten history of 1830s Indiana, John William Mc Mullen unearths the true story of Benjamin Petit, a French Attorney turned missionary priest, and his mission to the Potawatomi People in the Diocese of Vincennes, Indiana.
John William Mc Mullen resides in Evansville, Indiana with his wife and children".
We must fully disclose the past in order to deal with the many years and generations of unresolved grief and distrust." -Thomas Hamilton, member of Citizen Potawatomi Nation.
Those injustices have become ghosts in the cultural memory of a people crying out for justice. "Of all the names connected with this crime, there is one, Father Benjamin Petit, the Christian martyr, which stands like a star in the firmament, growing brighter and it will shine on through for ages to come." - Benjamin Stuart, Indiana journalist, early 20th century "For American Indians the scars of injustice inflicted upon them in the past are deep, painful, and, tragically, are inherited from one generation to the next.
The farther in time we get away from this event the clearer this will appear and the more interest will be attached to the route which is consecrated by the blood of that helpless people at the hands of a civilized and Christian state: The Potawatomi Trail. "The deportation of Chief Menominee and his tribe of Potawatomi Indians from their reservation at Twin Lakes in Marshall County, in September, 1838, is one of the darkest pages in the history of Indiana.
Mc Mullen retells the incredible journey of Petit who traveled with the Potawatomi People and became part of their history.
Under the urging of the saintly Bishop Simon Brute, Petit joined the northern Indiana Potawatomi tribes in 1837, a year before their forced removal west.
From the forgotten history of 1830s Indiana, John William Mc Mullen unearths the true story of Benjamin Petit, a French Attorney turned missionary priest, and his mission to the Potawatomi People in the Diocese of Vincennes, Indiana
