The story of Potawatomi and other Neshnabe peoples stretches back to times that precede written histories, beginning on the East Coast of what is now North America. By the time Europeans arrived, a great migration was complete and the tribes were living around the Great Lakes, with a social structure that included a strong communal lifestyle and seasonal lifeways. The people were bound together through ties of kinship, custom and mutual necessity. Several removals devastated the Potawatomi people after Europeans moved to present-day America, but a resilient group, the Citizen Potawatomi refused to give up hope.
