Trail of Death

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Trail of Death

A Pilgrimage of Remembrance, Lament and Transformation

HTE564: Three credit hours聽
Summer Intensive Course: June 10鈥�20, 2024

What is the role of remembrance in work for justice and peacemaking? How do communities find healing from historical trauma? What are the responsibilities of those whose faith or biological ancestors were complicit in violence against Indigenous communities? These are some of the questions that emerge on this pilgrimage of lament, remembrance and transformation.

Markers along the Trail of Death tell the story of each day鈥檚 journey during the forced removal, including how many miles the people traveled, the conditions they faced and the number of people who died. Throughout the pilgrimage, participants recite a litany of remembrance at various stops.
(Credit: Jeff Geary)

This Trail of Death pilgrimage remembers the traumatic history of the 1838 forced removal of about 850 Potawatomi people from their ancestral homelands in northern Indiana by state and federal militias. Participants will enter into a journey of deep lament over the violence caused by white settler colonization, ultimately seeking what new paths God opens for repair today. We will prayerfully walk between 1鈥�4 miles of the route each day as we travel by car caravan to Kansas and Oklahoma, and will pause to observe trail markers, read journals and letters from the removal, and hear directly from Potawatomi descendants of those who survived the Trail of Death.

This pilgrimage is open to students and non-students. Participants may earn three credit hours of graduate study, take the course as auditors or join the pilgrimage for no credit. We will be tent camping along the way, with camping supplies available to those who need them and options for hotel stays at one鈥檚 own expense.

During the course, students can expect to:

Enter into the ancient mode of pilgrimage as a paradigm for engaging with the sacred, seeking Divine guidance and healing, following Jesus into an encounter with suffering, engaging in contrition, and depending upon the hospitality of strangers
Learn from guest speakers, such as historians, Potawatomi teachers, and storytellers
Build community with other pilgrimage participants and offer mutual support to one another on the journey
Engage head, heart and hands through prayer, ritual, reading, reflection and movement
Connect histories of white supremacy and Christian nationalism with current socio-political realities

Pilgrimage leaders:

Katerina Gea, MDiv, Adjunct Faculty; George Godfrey, PhD (Citizen Potawatomi Nation), President of the Potawatomi Trail of Death Association; and Rich Meyer, trip navigator

Questions? Please contact Katerina Gea (formerly Friesen), Adjunct Faculty.

Katerina Gea, Adjunct Instructor, is the pastor of Pasadena Mennonite Church on Tongva land in the Los Angeles basin. She is an organizer of white settler descent who co-founded the , a model for Christian faith communities and institutions to practice reparative justice and solidarity with Indigenous Peoples. She has been shaped by Indigenous Peoples鈥� cosmologies and their struggles for sovereignty and land rights through her work with the . Katerina first traveled on the Trail of Death Pilgrimage as a student at bg真人, and graduated in 2016 with an M.Div. in Theology and Peace Studies. Read more about Katerina on her Sessional Faculty page.

Pilgrimage participant feedback

Each day participants walk several miles of the Trail of Death to show solidarity with those who walked the entire route. (Credit: David Stoeger)

“At the beginning of the pilgrimage, I was compelled to feel sympathy for the Potawatomi people. But the more reading we did, the more we heard from Native peoples, the more I realized that they are survivors, a strong and courageous community. Rather than seeing them as victims, I saw them as my teachers.” 鈥� Amy Kratzer, Associate Pastor, Sunnyside Mennonite Church, 2015 participant

“The Trail of Death pilgrimage was an incredibly relevant, informative and life-transforming experience. Through this experiential learning journey, we developed a lens into the ways in which United States citizens, political representatives, and churches participated in the past, present and future exploitation of American Indian people. We also developed ways in which we can, and must, be an active part of ending these oppressive systems and structures of exploitation.” 鈥� Grant Swanson, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary student, 2017 participant

Course information

Dates

June 10鈥�12: Pilgrimage Orientation on bg真人 Campus
June 13鈥�20: Pilgrimage Journey Days (travel in car caravan with optional daily walks along the Trail of Death route)
June 21鈥�24: Students鈥� final project completion from home

Registration

Registration deadline: May 1, 2024

Limited to 15 participants

Registrants will be asked to complete a 30-60 minute interview before the course begins to ensure that the pilgrimage is a good fit for them and to answer any questions.

Costs

Course for credit: $2,488
Course for audit: $1,153
Trip only: $700

Includes tent camping, meals and transportation on the pilgrimage route.

Credit or audit

Participants may earn three credit hours of graduate study or take the course as auditors. Credit also may be transferred to other ATS schools.

What is the Trail of Death?

The Potawatomi Trail of Death was the forced removal of the Potawatomi Indians from north central Indiana to eastern Kansas in the fall of 1838. . See also the created by Shirley Willard, Eric and Susan Campbell, and George Godfrey, with help from Rich Meyer.