Burnett's Post

William Burnett, a fur trader from New Jersey, arrived in Michigan between 1775 and 1782. He established a trading post just east of here. From there he sent Potawatomi corn and deer, raccoon, fox, mink, beaver, and other animal pelts to traders at Mackinac Island and in Montreal. The vast, remote fur trade forced merchants to trade on credit. Burnett did not see profits on pelts sold in Europe for at least a year. He relied upon those uncertain returns to repay debts incurred each season. Though the 1783 Treaty of Paris placed Michigan in the United States, the British retained control of this region. In 1785 Burnett refused to renew an agreement that granted British traders a monopoly in St. Joseph. The British arrested Burnett on Mackinac Island for "exciting sedition" among the local tribes and sent him to Montreal. He was later released without trial. In 1782 American fur trader William Burnett entered a union with Kakima, a Potawatomi woman who was the daughter of Chief Aniquiba and the sister of Chief Topenebee. The pair had seven children. Burnett served as justice of the peace of Knox County, Indiana, from 1801 to 1803. He resigned from the position upon learning that licenses to trade along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan and on the Illinois River were being sold indiscriminately. He previously had held the exclusive right to trade in these regions. Burnett disappeared from the written record during the War of 1812. William and Kakima’s son James managed the post until he died in 1833. On September 11, 1815, a Potawatomi council that met in Detroit granted land in Berrien County and northern Indiana to Kakima and several of her children. The U.S. government did not ratify the grant.