POTHIER
321
POTHIER
claimed twelve hundred Catholic Indians, principal
among whom were the chiefs Pokagan and Bouransa,
with two nourishing schools, conducted jointly by the
Jesuits and tlie .'^isters of the Sacred Heart.
The otlicial Indian report for 1S55 contains an interesting account of this mission by Fr. J. B. Duerinck, then in charge. It was then the only mis- sion existing in the tribe, the Baptist work having been abandoned. Concerning Saint Mary's the agent in charge says (.hid. Kept, for 1855): "The missionar)' labors at Saint Mary's are divided into two establishments. The boys are under the charge of the 'fathers' of the institution, whilst the girls are under the kind care of the 'Ladies of the .Sacred Heart '. I caiuiot speak in terms too highly of the condition of the.'ie establishments. Besides the or- dinary literary course the girls are taught sewing, knitting, embroidery, and the various oilier branches of ho\isekeeping. In connexion with the institution is a manual labor school, where the boys are taught the jmictical and useful deijartments of fiirming, gardening, etc. Mr. Duerinck is a man of great energy and business habits, united with a devotion to the welfare of the Potawatomi Indians, to whom he has proved a father and friend, and by whom he is highly esteemed. I have no hesitancy in expressing my conviction that this institution is of great service to these Indians. This influence is seen in the neat cottages and little fields of the 'Mission Indians' and the air of comfort and good order apparent throughout the neighborhood."
Owing to friction between the progressive ele- ment and the conservative Prairie Band, the former were segregated in 1861 and took lands in severalty under the name of "Citizen Potawatomi". In 1868 they removed to Oklahoma, where they now reside. About three hundred are rated as Catholic, with two prosperous mission schools at Sacred Heart, St. Marjs (girls) in charge of the Sisters of Mercy, and St. Benedict's (boys) in charge of the Benedictines. The rest of the tribe, for whom no rehgious statistics are given, is still in Kansas or east of the Mississippi. The whole tribe originally may have numbered 5000 souls. In 1855 they were officially estimated at about 4000, of whom about 3700 were in Kansas. They number now in round numbers about 3500; Okla- homa (Citizen), 1660; Kansas (Prairie), 725; Wis- consin (no agent), 440; Michigan (including "Hu- ron" band), i.'jO; Walpole Lsland, Ontario, Canada (Methodist), 225. The linguistic material of Pota- watomi is meager, consisting chiefly of a few printed or manuscript vocabularies, the latter with the Bureau of American Ethnology, together with one or two small publications by the Baptist mission board, at Shawnee Mission, Kansas (about 1837). The Pota- watomi were organized upon the claii system, having, according to Morgan, 15 geiiles: Wolf, Bear, Beaver, Elk, Loon, Eagle, Sturgeon, Carp, Bald Eagle, Thunder, Rabbit, Crow, Fox, Turkey, Black Hawk. Like most of the Algonquin tribes of the central area they were semi-sedentary and semi-agricultural, but subsisted also largely by hunting and fishing, aa well as by the gathering of wild rice and the pre- paration of maple sugar. They built communal bark-covered lodges, and buried in the ground or in hollow logs, excepting the Rabbit gens, which prac- ticed cremation. They sacrificed chiefly to the sun, and each man had also his personal tutelar\'. which was cho.sen at their great "dream feast". 'Their or- dinarj' dress was of buckskin, but the men frequently went almost naked excepting for the breeeheloth. Their primitive weapons were the bow, tomahawk, and knife; they fought generally on foot. Polygamy was common, but the women were noted for their reser\'e. as were the men for their humane and re- fined disposition as compared with other tribes. They were also experts in the athletic game of la- XII.— 21
cros.se. The majority of the tribe are now fairly pros-
perous farmers.
Jesuit RrlaKons. cd. Thwaites (73 vols., Cleveland, 1896- 1901): Calholic Ind. Missions in Annual Repls. of Director (Wfishington) ; Comsner. of Ind. Affairs in Annuat Repts. (Wash- ington); Drpl. of Ind. Affairs (Canada) in .4nnua( Rcpts. (Ot- tawa); Duerinck Letters in Repts. Secretari/ of Interior (Wash- ington, 1852-7); DcNN, True Indian Stories (Indianapolis, laOS); Sbee, Catliolic Indian Missiotts (New York, 1854); DeSmet, Western Missions and Mtssionaries (New York, 1863); Hisconsin State Hist. Soc., colls. XI (Madison, 1888); Piluno. Bibliography of Algonquin Langs, in Bull, Bur. Am. Bthnvlonu (Washington, 1891); Bovce and Thomas, Indian Land Vessxons in tSth Kept. Bur. .Im. Ethnology, II (Washington. 1899); \ew York Colonial Documents (15 vols.. Albany, 1853-87); American Stale Papers: Ind. Affairs, I (Washington. 1832); Merort, D^coucertcs et itablissements des Fraugais (6 vols.. Paris, 1875-86).
Jaaies Mooney.
Pothier, Robert Joseph, a celebrated French lawyer, b. at Orleans, 9 January, KiiU); d. there, 2 March, 1772. His father was a judge of the petty court, a position later filled by the son (1750), who at the same time was professor of French law at the University of Orleans (17.50). His life, devoted to teaching and the administration of justice, was not marked by any important events; his considerable influence was exercised in his lectures and his works. Of an austere Ufe, modest, disinterested, and pro- foundly religious, he was a characteristic representa- tive of the legal profession under the old regime. His principal work w;is rather an arrangement of the texts of the Roman Law: "Pandecta> Justinianea- in novum ordinem digesta;", 3 vols. (Paris, 1748-52) several times re-edited, and published under the patronage of the Chancellor d'Aguesscau, who oflered him a professorship after the appearance of the first volume. Having written in collaboration with Pro- vost de la Jann^s and Jousse, a remarkable "Intro- duction a la coutume d'Orl<ans (Orlcf-ans, 1740), he published " Les Coutumes d'Orl(^'an.s" (1760). He is especially known for a series of treatises on duties, sales, constitution of rents, exchange, hiring, leases, leasing of cattle, contracts of beneficence, contracts aleatory, contracts of marriage, the community, dowrj', law of habitation, tenure of the estate, pos- session, and title; they were published between 1761 and 1772; all collected in his "Traites sur difl'<^rente3 matieresdu droit civil" (Orleans, 1781). Other essays left in manuscript, principally on fiefs, successions, donations, civil and criminal procedure, were pub- lished between 1776 and 1778. All these works, in plain clear compilation, perfectly planned, were in the hands of the jurists who edited the new French Civil Code (Code Napoleon). As the editors took into .account both the Roman and the common law, Pothier's writings were exceedingly useful for the purposes of the new codification which owed consid- erable to them, especially as regards questions of duties and contracts. Sec Thezard, "De I'influence des travaux de Pothier et du Chancelier d'.\gucsseau sur le droit civil moderne" (Paris, 1866). Pothier's most interesting work, from a religious point of view, is his "Traite du contrat de mariage", in which he ex-poses in .all their fullness the current Galilean doc- trines. .\ccording to French lawyers, not only is the marriage contract distinct from the sacrament, and becomes such onlv through the nuptial benediction, but it is subject to the .authority of princes, who can legis- lateon the marriages of their subjects, remove obstacles, and regulate the formalities ; thus marriages of minors contracted without the consent of their parents are declared null and void. Further, marriage matters, not alone of separation or divorce, but of nullification, pertain to the secular tribunals. In this way he was a forerunner of the secularization of marriage, and the establishment of civil marriage (Esmein, "Le mariage en droit canonique" Paris, 1.S91, I, 33 eq.).
DCPIN. nissrrtalion sur In lie el les nurraaes de PoMiVr (Paria, 1825); Fb^mont. Vit de Rob.- Joe. Pothier (Orleans. 1850).
A. BODDINHON.
