Potawatomi

The Amish of Shipshewana

by

Peggy Langley

Nestled withing Lagrange County, Shipshewana, Indiana is Americas third largest Amish and Mennonite community.  The Amish are of Christian denomination that is characterized by simple dress and simple lifestyle.

Hundreds of years ago, the Potawatomi tribes lived in the same area.  They were hunters and fisherman and also farmers that cultivated the fertle lands and live comfortably by the simple lifestyle that came to an end around 1803, when Thomas Jefferson took over the lands through what is known as the Louisiana Purchase.

Militiamen soon came to the same lands as the Potawatomi and drove out more than eight hundred Potawatomi in what is now known as the "Trail of Death."  The Potawatomi Chief, known as "Shuw a wah no," or Shipshewana was among one of the Potawatomi force to relocate.

Settlers were attracted to the Potawatomi land because of the cheap price of the land, Amish settlers soon also took the land, building a small town on what was once the Potawatomi's land.

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