In 1848 the Potawatomi moved from the Sugar Creek Mission south of Osawatomie, Kansas, further west to St Marys, Kansas. St Marys is on the northern bank of the Kansas River and is about 140 miles northwest of Sugar Creek. It was here in 1861 that a new treaty was offered by the U.S. government. Those who signed the treaty were made U.S. citizens and were given 160 acres per family in Indian Territory, which is now the state of Oklahoma. They became the Citizen Band of Potawatomi, with headquarters at Shawnee, Oklahoma. Those who chose to stay in Kansas are now the Prairie Band Potawatomi; their reservation is at Mayetta, Kansas.

St Marys, Kansas - Indian Pay Station. The treaty of 1861 was signed here. The first name on the treaty was Louis Vieux, ancestor of Susan Dansenburg Campbell, a member of the Trail of Death Commemorative Committee. (Photo by Bill Willard, 1998)